Forced Paths

Home

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A doctor came. He cleaned the wound, uncaring for the pain he caused her. Yet he did his job, under Neji's unmoving gaze.
"I don't promise you anything under this conditions." He said after he finished and pointed at the cell.
"Not that you care." He added.
"Not that I care." Neji echoed.
The doctor left, before her cousin.
"Do you know..." Hinata asked.
"No-one is dead, that I am aware of." Neji replied. "I will speak to Hanabi about this." He made a gesture at her direction.
"Neji..."
"Enough for now." He said and he left again.
No-one is dead. Hinata thought. No-one is dead. That eased the pain in her freshly cleaned wound.
When Hanabi came again, she was alone.
"Are you sorry?" She asked and her white eyes were aflame.
"Yes. No." Hinata answered.
Hanabi let out a frustrated breath.
"Which is it?" She asked again.
"Both." Hinata replied.
"You killed my father." It was a statement, a realisation, a threat.
"I'm sorry." Hinata said quietly. "It was the only way I could think of."
Her sister touched the bars.
"I thought..." She breathed frantically. "When I read your letters, I thought you were coming back to us, to me. I said so to father."
"But he was the one that replied anyway." Hinata said calmly.
Hanabi hit the bars.
"And what of it? He would have taken you back. I would have taken the leadership and we would have reigned as we should."
"Under a pile of bodies." Hinata smiled sadly.
"You never understood what father had envisioned." Hanabi said dismissively.
"You, sold to a man old enough to be your father, me with a baby as a leverage, him killing anyone opposed. I think I understand enough."
"He wasn't selling me." Hanabi defended. "He trusted me to.."
"Why wasn't you the one that replied to the letters then?" Hinata stopped her.
Hanabi let a cruel smile.
"He was right, not letting me. When I saw you on the yard, I thought that you finally made it. You know, before you spilled his blood to the ground."
"Hana..."
"No." She hit the bars one last time. "No." She said again and left.

____

"There is movement from the west." Neji said. "Your husband is coming."
"He is not my...No, Neji sent him a letter..."
"I already did. That is why he is coming." He stopped her.
She looked at him.
"Do you think that I would let you here rot in this cell?" He asked with with stern voice, with anger.
"But another fight will.."
"It will not. I made Hanabi agree to listen. To negotiate. I told her that was for the best for now."
"It is." Hinata told him.
"We will see." He said.
Then he sighed.
"It was a stupid plan." He said quietly.
"I told you." She said with a small smile.
"You didn't." He put his hands in his stomach.
"Neji..." She looked at him. "I don't want to see anymore people dying."
"Let's hope that your husband will come with the same intentions. He had no claim for you after all. You made it clear enough."
"Because otherwise, I will be used as an asset. The Hyugas would think that they..."
"The Hyugas." Neji echoed. There was hurt in his tone.
"What I mean..."
"I will marry Hanabi." He said then and everything stilled for a moment.
"If the negotiations go well enough." He added.
"Why?" Hinata asked and her voice was low.
"It is the best way to ensure the safety of her position, to strengthen her claim without any other part to intervene." He answered logically.
"But you don't...You don't love her."
He turned his gaze on her.
"I don't." He said. "Not in the way you are implying. But I will respect her. Keep her safe."
He looked at the wall.
"And I have a promise to keep. Make this place better." He untangled his hands from his stomach and let them fall on each side.
"Maybe you will visit it one day." He said and he walked away.

____

The swift of the battle had happened so absurdly that Sasuke could only defend. Keep himself alive, keep the person beside him alive. It had happened so unexpectedly that there wasn't much they could do. They were been crushed between two foes. They would lose, it was inevitable. But as they still kept their ground, Sasuke thought that some could escape. A soldier could arrive home, they should just defend a little more. An irrational thought, anything to keep them steady.
He could no longer spot Itachi, he didn't have the privilege to search for his brother. Itachi was alive. If anything the silver haired man wouldn't let him die. He had managed to save Sasuke and he didn't even like him. What a stupid thought to have.
They were shrinking. He understood that eventually. They were shrinking under the weapons of their different opponents. How much time had passed. What would be written about this? Someone cried. Surely not this.
They were shrinking until they weren't. They didn't expand, but they remained at their spot. A fresh air at his lungs. Another army.
Two against two.
He didn't know who it was, he couldn't see. It was an ally, that was all he needed to know. Yet they were tied. Nobody was gaining the upper hand, his men were tired, exhausted, all they could was to stand their ground.
Then another swift. Another breath. Bigger this time. Expansion. The Hyugas were retreating. Why? How? Should they follow?
Something had happened, something he didn't know, perhaps there was a trap. That was what stopped him. Or he would have stumbled on someone she held dear.
He later learnt that Hiashi Hyuga was dead. Nobody knew then, who killed him or how it happened.
He later learnt that Tsunade had come to his aid. That Choji Akimichi had told her to leave him the minimum amount of help and come here. Hinata had kept his wife alive, he had said, he owned her just the same.
Sasuke thought about the seize of fire, about the men that he lost, about the ones that would return back with him. He only thought about his father, upon returning. When he passed the first border, when the gate was guarded with men and women.
He thought about him as he walked to his mother's house, thinking of a way to say that perhaps, maybe...
Itachi was better when it came to this. Yet in this particular occasion, he wouldn't be helpful.
He had been with one foot inside, a half hug away, when all his other thoughts stopped.
Hinata was gone. Details came and flooded, about Neji Hyuga, about Hinata's instructions, about things that didn't matter.
Hinata was gone.
He was ready to turn around, call the soldiers back, to tell them to survive another battle, to die in one, when Itachi had stopped him.
He had punched him he thought, surely pushed him. He had screamed.
Everything was a blur afterwards. He had collapsed at some point, exhaustion had finally hit. Despair.
The next clarity came with his father's arrival. An arm less. A token.
Still he was alive. Still he was here. He would survive.
Then the letter came. A Hyuga stamp. Grand even in their failures.
Hinata was there, the letter had said. He should come and take her. Then an insurance of safety, of negotiation, of seize fire continuance.
Hinata had said that she wasn't an Uchiha, the letter informed. Hinata had killed her father, it added.
Sasuke had stilled, enough for Itachi to read it, enough for his father to get up from his bed. Enough to try and send Itachi away.
And his mother had slapped him. Hard and focused. Threatening and cursing.
And then Mikoto had said, that he wasn't the one that won that battle, that his sons' had did. That Hinata had did.
And Sasuke started moving again.
Perhaps he would remember the events of those moments eventually. Perhaps when he saw her, he would recall what had happened, how he had responded, how he behaved.
Maybe when he saw her, it would stop been a blur.
Itachi had come with him. And Kakashi had followed. Sasuke would have argued, that it was a matter that didn't involve him, but the bandages on the man's eye had stopped him.
Sasuke was boiling when the gates of the house he hated came to view. Itachi had said, that he would do the talking. Probably he had agreed. Probably, because Itachi was speaking.
At least they had kept their promise. No-one attacked him or his men.
They entered a room he was familiar. This was where he had met Hiashi Hyuga.
It seemed that his daughter wasn't as patient, as calculating. She didn't let them wait for long.
Discussions began, insurances for the future, penalties. Hanabi Hyuga was talking at first and Itachi responded. Until the conversation turned and the Hyuga leader was pressed into the wall. She was no match for his brother.
Sasuke would have smiled in any other time.
Perhaps when he remembered it again. Perhaps when he would leave with who he came to take.
"Where is Hinata?" He asked, louder than he should if the look Itachi gave him meant anyway.
"That is none of your business." Hanabi replied.
"Listen to me you little..." He said and he got up. Itachi put his hand on Sasuke's arm. Hanabi crooked an eyebrow. Neji Hyuga touched his sword.
"Hinata had made perfectly clear that you are nothing to each other. That is why we are talking right now. Is that incorrect?" She asked.
Sasuke punch the table. The tea that no-one had drunk spilled.
"Animals." Hanabi said. "My father was right about you."
She was trying to seem composed, fearless.
"I will kill every man in this house. I promise you. Where is Hinata?"
"Sasuke, perhaps..." Itachi tried and failed to contain him.
"My sister will not leave her cell."
Sasuke made a move at her. Neji Hyuga stopped him.
"She isn't your wife Uchiha-san." Hanabi said after a breath. "She is the killer of my father. A traitor. And she will be punished as such."
"I will end all your bloodline. Do you understand?" Sasuke yelled.
"Try." Hanabi answered.
Sasuke was ready to fight. The stare of Neji was at him, but he didn't care. He would kill them both and then he would ask Hinata for forgiveness.
"Perhaps we should rephrase it." Itachi spoke. "I don't think you are in any position to make such statements Hanabi-san." A misuse of her name. A demeaning addressing.
"You had the upper hand when you surprised us. We aren't surprised anymore."
"We still are..."
"No, no. You don't understand." Itachi waved at her. "We are here, because we want to make peace above all. We are here so no more blood will spilled. Yet peace is the end goal. One way or another."
"Are you threatening me in my house?"
"No, my brother has that covered." Itachi smiled. "And be sure, he is barely holding it. He will kill you on the spot." Itachi spoke casually, calmly almost pleasantly.
Hanabi looked at him. Then at his brother again.
"So, what I am really asking is if you are ready for peace?"
Hanabi was ready to answer. A foolish one.
"The only reason you are standing there is your sister." Sasuke said. "The only reason you are alive right now is also her. What an ungrateful little thing you are."
Itachi pressed his arm. He thought, he shouldn't have spoken. But Hanabi remained silent after that.
Neji Hyuga had spoken, then Itachi some more.
It didn't matter, not right now, not after they were asked to wait outside, they were asked to wait for her.
It would be a blow to her reputation, to her leadership that the woman who killed their leader was walking away. It would shake the Hyugas, perhaps made them into an easy prey. But Hanabi Hyuga and mostly her cousin understood, that Sasuke's threats were real, present, that he would come to their door and end them all, if he didn't get what he wanted.
It served its purpose, the first of many yieldings that would come.
It didn't matter right now because she was coming down the stairs. Neji Hyuga was holding her.
She was wrapped in a cloth, her hair dull, from blood or dirt, her hands still in confinement.
Sasuke regretted it in that moment, the peace, the negotiations. He should have chosen death.
But she saw him. And she smiled. Unsure as if he wasn't there, unsure if she was supposed to go. She stumbled on her feet, her cousin caught her.
And Sasuke moved. He didn't care if it was interpreted as a threat, as a disrespect.
The cuffs on her hands were removed, when Sasuke hugged her away.
"I'm sorry." She said weakly and breathed.
"Not now." He answered. "Not here. At home."
"Home." She said and he took her away.