I'll Be Right Here with You

Chapter 24: A Nightmare Come to Life

Hanako's pov

I'm all alone now.

Juugo and Suigetsu were left behind in the Iron Country and Karin was taken by Konoha.

And Sasuke... He is driven by his rage towards Konoha.

I know that I can't trust Madara or Zetsu.

I'm alone.

There is nothing left to do except wait.

All I ever do is sit in my room in the hideout unless Madara tells me to eat.

But today, I can't just sit anymore.

"I'm going for a walk," I tell Madara as I pass him on my way out.

He seems to have acquired a new mask and he also has a Rinnegan now.

Once I'm out of the hideout, I stop and take in a deep breath of air.

Sasuke had just gotten his eyes replaced with Itachi's.

Now, he was resting, under Madara's orders.

I jumped across a great open space between the cliff that the hideout was in and the one across.

There was a forest there so I walked through it.

In the middle, Zetsu suddenly appeared.

"Hanako-san, I have a message from Tobi. He says for you to go to the nearest village from here and that you'll find a great surprise there," he said, smiling wickedly at me.

"Tell him I'm on it then," I replied.

He melted back underground.

I continued to walk through the forest even after night had fallen.

'The nearest village from here? I hope it won't be too far.' I thought.

What if this was a trap set up by Madara?

No. It's not.
He did not trust me but he wouldn't kill me. He knew that deep down, Sasuke did care for me and that killing me would make Sasuke stop trusting him.

Two days later, I finally found the outskirts of a small village.

I entered it, expecting to see ninjas jumping out at me.

All I saw was some women hanging up their laundry.

"Hello dear," one said to me.

I looked at her, startled.

"Are you lost?" Another asked.

"N-no," I said, uncertainly. "At least I don't think so."

"Well come on then, I'll show you to the inn," the first woman said. "By the way, my name is Kiku."

"I'm Hanako," I replied. "Thanks by the way."

"Oh no problem dear. No problem at all," she said walking very quickly.

"What's the name of this village?" I asked her.

"Oh it's the Village of Water," she replied. "Hurry now, we're almost there."

The Village of Water?

That was a bit odd. It also seemed like she wasn't leading me toward an inn at all.

"Here we are, now," she said, stopping in what seemed to be the middle of the village.

"What?"

I looked around and saw that all of the other villagers were gathering around us.

They were murmuring amongst each other.

I heard little bits of what they were saying but none of it made any sense at all to me.

"Is that really her?"

"The one that leader always talks about?"

"She looks like how he has described her."

Then I heard a loud, familiar voice.

One that I hear in all my nightmares.

Including the real life ones.

I turned to see Jikken Hitoshi smirking at me.

The man who murdered my parents.