-Hina-

After we dropped off the captured Eight tail’s Jinchuriki we headed to a small town and got a hotel room. We’ve been here for a couple of days now, still trying to recover from the fight we had with Killer Bee. Juugo and Karin tended to our wounds and confined Sasuke and I to bed. They told us get some rest and recover our strength. Suigetsu regained his form a few hours after we got here but he was unconscious for a whole day. He woke up just this morning and now he’s arguing with Karin as if he did not just get blasted by a tailed beast two days ago.

Sasuke has been asleep since the day before after our wounds were treated. I frowned as I saw all the bandages around his body. He got hurt again, Juugo and Karin were with us and they were able to help him so I’m glad; but if it was just us two, there would have been no way to help him at all. I couldn’t help but be disappointed in myself for not being able to keep up with Killer Bee, for not being able to stop those attacks, and especially for not being strong enough. These feelings were strange to me, I’m not really sure why it’s bothering me so much right now. Before when we would go on missions together, Sasuke would get hurt but it wouldn’t be that big of a deal to me. Now seeing him wrapped up in bandages and unconscious like this, it made my heart clench.

I turned my head towards the door as I sensed a familiar presence. A white haired popped his head out from behind the door, “Oh Hina. You came to check on Sasuke too?” He smirked at me. I nodded my head, “Yeah, I was about to leave”. I walked out and Suigetsu closed the door behind me and fell into step with me.

“What are you going to do right now?” I asked him making small talk to take my thoughts away from the Uchiha that seem to be constantly plaguing my mind lately.

“I was just gonna go the garden and clean my sword. We can’t do anything ‘till Sasuke is better anyways”.

“Do you mind if I join you?”

“Of course not Miss Hina. I would never mind having a pretty girl keeping me company”, he smirked, giving me a small wink.

“I'm not”. I deadpanned. My appearance was always a touchy subject for me, this look was the result of the experiments I went through, I’m not proud of it.
“You may not think so hut I know Sasuke would say otherwise”, his smirked grew even bigger.

I only looked at him with confusion on my face. What does Sasuke have to do with this? He’s never mentioned my appearance because he knows I don’t like it. Besides it wouldn’t matter to him anyways, why would it?

We went outside to the garden and sat down on the porch. I took a seat next Suigetsu, looking at the small fountain that was placed in middle of the patio while Suigetsu began to take out his sword to start cleaning it. The silence was comfortable between us, then I remembered something I’ve been wanting to ask him for a while now.

“Suigetsu why are you following Sasuke?”

He stopped moving, furrowing his eyebrows before answering me, “Well I figured that by following him I’ll be able to reach my own goal. I want to gather all the Seven Ninja Swordsmen blades and create a new set of Ninja Swordsmen. That and although I hate to admit it. If it weren’t for Sasuke, I’d probably still be stuck in that tank.” He sighed, rubbing the back of his head.

I had forgotten that Suigetsu was also a victim of Orochimaru’s experiments. I was pulled out of my thoughts when I heard footsteps come up from behind us. Suigetsu and I turned to the sound and saw Karin leaning on the doorframe. She was looking down at us with a scowl on her face.

“Do you need anything Karin?”

Suigetsu frown at her as he took a sip from his bottle.
“Yeah. You need to come with me. We need to get some stuff from the markets”. She pointed at me, not giving me a chance to answer and walked away.

I said bye to Suigetsu and hurried after Karin who was already out the hotel. I pulled on my hood over my head and walked after the redhead. She didn’t speak a word to me while we were shopping for essentials, only giving me orders on what to get. When we got back to the hotel I put all the bags aside and took out an apple. I grabbed a knife and began peeling it and cutting it into slices. I walked to the room where Sasuke was sleeping in, hoping he’d be awake already but he wasn’t. I frowned and at the corner of my eye I saw Juugo.

He was sitting on the porch, watching a bird that was perched up on his finger.
“Hello Juugo”. I smiled as I sat down next to him.

“Hello Hina”, he replied, taking an apple slice that I offered to him. “Sasuke is still resting. He used up a lot of chakra. Not to mention that he got seriously injured twice”.

“Yes I know. Thank you for taking care of him”.

“He’s Kimimaro’s reincarnation, I won’t let him die”. He turned to me, giving me a small smile.

“Juugo after completing Taka’s goal, what do you plan on doing?” I asked him, looking down at my hands that were folded in my lap.

He stayed quiet for a moment, looking at the birds that were flying by. “I would like to stay by Sasuke’s side. He helps me keep my impulses in check, I like being in this calm state where I don’t have the urge to rip people apart. You help me too you know”.

“I do?”

“Yes. Everything about you is calming and kind. Not only that when we first met, you didn’t seem scared of me at all, it was the opposite, you looked at me with such kind eyes. Something I haven’t seen since Kimimaro. I’m going to stay with Sasuke, but are you?”

My head shot up, “What do you mean?”

“I can’t help but feel that everything that Sasuke is doing, isn’t what you want or more like this life isn’t for you. Like I said before, you are kind, too kind. You hesitate when you fight enemies, as if you are afraid of hurting them, you sympathize with your enemies”.

I look away from him, biting my lip. He’s right, although I don’t want to admit it, ever since Sasuke revealed his plan to us I have been feeling uneasy about it. I just don’t like the idea of slaughtering a clan, his clan. I know I told him I would go along with his plan but the thought of killing people makes me feel uneasy. I know I probably shouldn’t feel like that since that is the life of a shinobi, at some point we will have to take a life but knowing that it’s Sasuke’s family is what makes me so afraid.

“Have you wondered who you were before you lost your memories?”

Of course I have but I forced myself to stop wondering because Sasuke doesn’t like it. Sometimes I feel like he knows something about my past because he refuses to talk about himself and before when I mentioned he seemed familiar, he threatened me and put up a barrier, one I couldn’t break for a while. I felt Juugo getting up from the porch and walking to the door of the room.

“Don’t worry too much about it right now. Do what you feel is right and later when the time comes make a decision on what is best for you. You’re more than just a tool to him, keep that in mind.” He said before walking out.

Why is everybody talking like that? In ways I can’t understand. First it was Suigetsu and now Juugo; do they know something I don’t. All these little talks are making think of things I didn’t want to think of. I went to sit down next to Sasuke, watching his chest move up and down. There are a lot of thoughts swimming through my head right now it’s a little overwhelming. I closed my eyes for a moment, making myself relax.

~~*~~

-Sasuke-

“So you’re finally awake, sleepyhead”. A sweet voice called out to me. I kept blinking as my eyes adjusted to the sunlight. I was met with a sight of a beautiful smile looking down at me. Hina was bending down, offering her hand while holding a bundle in her other arm. “It’s getting late. Let’s go home”.

I looked around and noticed that I was sitting against a tree in the middle of what looked like a field. I grabbed her hand and she pulled me up. I loosened my hand but she didn’t let go, she just kept walking with my hand in hers, leading me somewhere while talking and smiling at the little bundle in her arm. I raised an eyebrow, confused at what she was doing talking to a blanket?

Hina noticed me looking at her in confusion, “Don’t be jealous Sasuke that she doesn’t smile with you” she gave a small laugh. I furrowed my eyebrows what was she talking about? Who is she?

“Do you want to hold her?” she asked as she passed the bundle to me. I gave a silent gasp as I saw what was inside the blanket; a child who was giggling and gurgling.

“Isn’t she beautiful?” Hina commented as she looked over my shoulder. I nodded while still looking at the baby, our baby.

“It’s too bad though”.

I turned to look at her. “What is?”

“That you chose differently”. Suddenly everything flashed red, and everything around me began dripping, the red background looked like blood, dripping over Hina and the baby, staining them and washing them away. I looked around not sure what to do, a moment later, a black hole appeared under me and I fell through it.

I jolted awake, sitting up and breathing heavily. What the hell just happened? I felt a stirring next to me. Hina rubbed her eyes and sat up, not noticing me awake yet. She yawned and finally saw me. “Oh Sasuke you’re awake”, then she flinched as if she just got shocked, her cheeks flushed and she jumped back.

“Sasuke you’re awake! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to fall asleep next to you! Actually I didn’t even notice when I fell asleep…” she stopped her rambling and blinked in surprise. She moved closer to me and raised her hand to my face. Her thumb ran under my face, “Are you okay? What happened?” she asked as she rubbed something wet from my face. I touched the other side of my face and felt that side also wet, it took me a second to realize they were tears.

“Sasuke why are you crying? Did you have a bad dream or something?”

I was a having a dream but I couldn’t remember what it was about. I tried to think about it but nothing came up. No matter how hard I tried to remember what it was about, the dream just wouldn’t come up.

“Nothing. I’m fine Hina. Don’t worry about it.” She didn’t seem convinced that it was nothing, I’m not convinced that it was nothing either, I couldn’t figure out what the dream was about that made me shed tears.

She frowned once more before picking up a plate with a knife and apple on it. “You must be hungry. I’ll cut this up for you so you can eat”. Silence fell on us and I watched her peel the apple. As she peeled the apple, I noticed her biting her lip and kept glancing at me.
She wanted to say something, but she won’t say anything unless I ask her about it?

“What’s on your mind Hina?” I asked her with a soft voice.

“N-nothing. It’s just something that was brought up just recently.”

“Then it is something. What is it?”

she bit her lip one more time before she took a breath, “Sasuke, why did you save me?”

I looked at her in surprise for a moment. Is that really what’s making her so hesitant to ask me. Now that I think about it, we have never talked about it in the first place.

“I don’t know why I saved you. It was more on a whim. I initially thought of leaving you there”.

Her reaction was one that I expected, she deflated and looked upset about it. I was being honest with her, i don't want to lie to her but seeing that reaction didn’t sit well with me. “However, I don’t regret saving you. You have stayed by my side and even though what we’re trying to accomplish isn’t your goal, you’re still willing to follow me. I feel an attachment towards you and I hope that you will stay by my side and continue to help me in reaching my goal”.

“This goal is very important to you isn’t it?”

I nodded and looked out the window. My lips twitched upwards when I felt a pair of small arms wrap around me and a head nuzzle into my shoulder. Hina and I didn’t say anything but I know that both of us felt content with each other at this moment.

However, even with this moment I felt a light uneasiness when I continued to think about my plan. Hina has not once, since she found out about it, disagreed with my plan. All she did was agree and gave the same response she always did. Why is it that now in this moment, I’m starting to feel the tiniest bit of doubt in my objective.

I couldn’t continue to think about it because the door slid open and Hina unlatched herself from me, moving a good distance away. “Sasuke so you’re finally awake!” Suigetsu yelled. Juugo and Karin followed him inside a second after. She was looking away from me but I could see her blushing.

Suigetsu leaned close to me and talked lowly, “Did we interrupt something?”
It was my turn to look away, trying to keep my face from heating up.

“No you didn’t. Has there been any word form the Akatuski?” I asked Juugo, steering the conversation into another direction.

“No there hasn’t been any word, but it has been a few days since we left the Jinchuriki”.

“We need to make sure that they are true on their word about giving us the power of the tailed beast”.

Karin’s head shot up, her eyes shifting from side to side, a concerned expression on her face.

“What’s wrong Karin?”

“Several strong chakras have converged in this village. A total of three chakras and two non human chakras.”

“Non human? As in like animals?” Hina questioned, cocking her head to the side.

“They’re getting close to this hotel”, Karin said she focused on pinpointing the chakras.

“We should leave this place. It’s better not to take any chances.” Suigetsu said.

“But Sasuke is still recovering!” Hina turned to glare at the shark boy.

“Hina I’m fine. Let’s go” I got up, placing my sword on my back we walked out of the hotel, going the direction that Karin pointed to. We made it out of the village and continued up on the trees, trying to get as much distance as we can from whoever was in the village. Karin was leading the way, she clicked her tongue, “They’re still following us. Just who are these people?”

I have an idea of who it might be, if they are still following us. It has to be “him” because only he would be so persistent.

“Sasuke hold on!” Hina yelled from behind me. We stopped on a tree branch and I turned to her. “What’s wrong?”

“Let me have a piece of your clothes, we can use them to throw them off the scent. They have ninja hounds, that’s how they’re keeping track of us”. She had her byakugan activated, she must have looked to see who was behind us. I tore off a piece of my clothing and passed it to her. She cut up the cloth in smaller pieces and walked up to Juugo.

“Juugo can you call on some birds please?” The orange haired boy nodded and did what she asked. She tied the cloth to the birds legs and they flew off.

“Alright let’s get going”, I said as Hina tied the last piece of cloth on the bird. We continued gaining distance, jumping from tree branch to tree branch. We continued forward in silence, “It looks like they lost track of us. They’re not following us anymore”.

I nodded and move in front to start leading again. We need to find another village where we can stay until we get contacted by the Akatsuki. We kept going for another while before a figure showed up on a tree branch farther up.

As we got closer, I recognized the familiar spiky orange hair and black robe. We stopped on a branch across from Pain.

“Sasuke Uchiha, where is the Eight Tails?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Do you think you can make fools out of the Akatsuki. Did you really think we wouldn’t have noticed that you only gave us a fraction of the tailed beast and you gave us a mere tentacle?” He asked, anger very clear in his voice.

The only thing running through head what the hell he was talking about. We gave him the eight tails like he wanted and now it’s his turn to keep up with his end of the deal.

“What are you even talking about? We gave you the jinchuriki, dropped him right in front of your face. Are you you’re not just making stuff up so you won’t have to keep up your end with us?” Hina questioned, voicing the thoughts that were going through my head. I couldn’t understand how they ended up just a tentacle when I literally carried him, then the thought clicked in my head.

“He must have used a substitution jutsu and switched himself out when the waves were blocking him from our view”.

“Then you better go find the real one or the deal will not stand. You will not have another chance if you don’t complete this mission”. Pain said before he disappeared into thin air.

I sighed in frustration, just when I thought I’d be able to continue on with my plan. “Well then let’s go get the Jinchuriki. Again”