Bonds

Jump, bend, push off and repeat.

Mindlessly Hinata went through the motions of tree jumping. After just finishing her first solo mission, which had lasted for almost two whole weeks, she was finally coming home. She couldn't wait to come home. How she wanted to slip into a hot bath before slipping into bed and sleep for a thousand years but most importantly, she couldn't wait to see her friends and family. Speaking of which, would have been worried at the fact that she was a couple of days late due to some issues with her Konoha citizenship at the gates. Once that was all sorted out, she was free to go and she practically sprung from tree to tree.

Her mission was to deliver a treaty scroll from Kirigakure that would strengthen its business dealings and exchange with Konoha. She had been the only free Jounin available when the mission became available and since it was relatively safe, she had gone alone. With this scroll arrives new and better opportunities for travel, business, market and relations with the Hidden Mist village which Hinata grew quite fond of in her visit. Maybe it was her affinity to water that made her settle comfortably into that village, or the friendly and beautiful Mizukage that made her feel welcome during their short time of interaction. One day, she would like to go back there on a leisurely visit maybe with her family.

Which reminded her the small satchel sealed into her forearm. A small storage seal she proudly developed from the average storage seal. Inside were gifts and souvenirs she picked up from the market to bring home. Among them were pearl combs for Hanabi, a meticulously cut kunai with its handle delicately carved with spiral patterns for Tenten and Lee, calligraphy scrolls for her father, luxurious silk tops for Neji, light weaved patterned ponchos for Kiba and Akamaru and a green and blue shell strung into a necklace for Shino. All she found to be quite exotic compared to the items found from Konoha and could not wait to show it to them.

That wasn't all that was contained in the satchel however. There was a small bubbling of anticipation and she stifled the urge to blush at the item that was on top of them all. Neatly folded was a round green wallet adorned with googly eyes and red cheeks. Where the wallet opened was stitched with white blocks to show teeth and from its body sprouted four plushie green legs. On the back was the Kiri logo stitched on. A Kiri gama-chan for Naruto's collection of toad wallets. It wasn't really a collection considering Naruto only had one tatty wallet, but Naruto had told her sometime of his wish to start a collection and she felt elated that she would help him start his collection.

Jumping off a branch, she couldn't contain her excitement at the fact that there was only a bit more to cross until she was in fire territory.

So close, Hinata thought to herself. Almost there.

Crunch. The sound bounced of wood and reached her ears. A pale echo of a leaf crunching. Usually she would have attributed it to woodland creatures but her gut told her it wasn't. Her instincts flared. Snapping into attention, she activated her blood line, turned around, bent sideways and felt kunai swoosh an inch from her cheek. Her heart started beating madly and her hands immediately drew out the kunai strapped to her leg.

Scanning through the forest, she felt the back of her neck jumped when she saw a small flash of dark red, blue and purple in her viewpoint before it disappeared. Now her heart thumped in her ears. What was that? It definitely wasn't a woodland creature. The way it evaded out of her vision field was not normal. Nothing within ten kilometres can escape her all seeing eyes, not even a genjutsu could fool this. Which made her worry heavily.

Then her senses jumped. Behind her. The flurry of chakra chucked senbons at her and rapidly, her kunai hand began deflecting them, stepping backwards to get a better footing. Immediately, she shoulder twisted and a blast of air pushed out vigorously from her palms at the direction of the senbons. That was when the flurry of chakra vanished again and she let out a breath of frustration.

"Who's there?" she demanded, her soft voice clear and stern.

The trees rustled her an answer but she couldn't understand. Silence was all she heard before she saw red, blue and purple separate itself and the blur of chakra take form as it slowly walked up towards her. The slap of the sandal on earth became increasingly menacing and her grip on the kunai tightened and she crouched a little lower and gathered chakra for her next move.

"I warn you," she continued, her small white pupils focusing on the mass of chakra, "attacking a Konoha nin is a heavily punishable offence. Show yourself!"

Hinata saw the form of a man appear, blue chakra coursing inside him, dripping some type of chilling purple aura through his very pore. What was chilling were his eyes. Her breath clogged at her throat. Blood froze in her system as she registered the form that stood in front of her. His spiky black hair, his crisp cut sword that almost blinded her.

His red sharingan eyes.

"I want the scroll," said Sasuke, his voice cold as steel, barely hiding the strong bitter contempt she knew he held at anything associated with Konoha as he sneered at headband. Gripping the handle of his sword, he lifted it and admired its edges. Tasting the feeling of it cutting into her flesh, she was pretty sure, and to make her feel threatened. It was a common tactic between shinobi used to scare or intimidate their opponents and put them on the edge. With Sasuke, however, she felt an intoxicating dose of fear flowing in her systems.

Sasuke eyed her lazily over the edge of his sword. "Give me the scroll and I'll let you live."

Hinata forced herself to push air into her system as she considered her chances. By Konoha law she had to make an attempt to incarcerate a missing nin should she come across them but she knew that she had no chance against someone as powerful as Sasuke. She was still in the middle of delivering the scroll back to the Hokage which she is obligated to complete first so her only choice was to run. And she was already a couple of days late so Tsunade would try to send someone to check with her situation. To stall and run until someone could find her. Or, she thought, compressing shivers down her spine, until Sasuke catches up to her and kills her.

Her hand itched as she ran through the number of jutsus that worked against dojutsus. Untacking her dry tongue from the top of her mouth, she stalled. "Why should I give the scroll to you?"

Ignoring her, he didn't answer. He felt no need to answer. The tic in the corner of his mouth was her only sign that he heard her and was, as she deduced, annoyed by her show of rebellion.

"Give me the scroll," Sasuke tried again, "and maybe I'll let you live."

She didn't mean to make her situation worse but it seemed like she did which meant that it was time to leave. As quick as she could, she deactivated her bloodline, closed her eyes, prayed that latter act didn't kill her and made two hand gestures and said, "I apologise Sasuke-kun, but I cannot let you do that."

At once, a blinding light appeared out of nowhere and was powerful enough to make Sasuke flinch slightly and cover his eyes with his forearm. She took her chance. Channeling chakra into her feet, she jerked herself onto the trees and sprinted as fast she could.

Jump Hinata, Jump!

Blood pounding in her ears, she pushed her body to its limits, pushed her muscles into moving as fast as she could and veins pulsed around her eyes. Frustration threatened to weigh her down. It wasn't fast enough, he was catching up to her at an alarming rate and-

She felt the fire before she heard it. The heat that almost blazed her skin and seared the leaves behind her. Letting herself fall between the thick branches she dodged it but felt the heavy heat of his flames. Grabbing a handful of senbons, she threw it in a straight horizontal line of the area that Sasuke was running for her and continued sprinting towards her destination as his voice rang through the forest.

"You're becoming quite annoying to deal with."

Willing herself to keep on sprinting, despite the threatening ball of chakra gaining on her, she took this precious time to think. There was no way she was dying today, she sure as hell did not want to die especially since she had just been promoted to Jounin and she and Naruto were in a relationship and Hanabi's chunin exams were coming up and Neji and Tenten's wedding was coming soon. There were too many reason's to live for and thus she considered one of her experimental long ranged, wide area jutsu. This would be her first time attempting her own creation, and maybe her last, so she only had one shot.

Decision made, she kept tracking him with her pupils. Hand signs after hand signs were made and a heavy mist began rising from below them. Hinata ran through the hand signs which resulted in mist growing damper, wetter and colder, close to the point of condensation. It had no effect in slowing Sasuke down, the blur of blue closing the distance between until they were only a couple of trees apart.

This is it, she thought to herself. Jumping, she turned around mid air and threw her handful of shuriken laced with her chakra. She saw Sasuke move to dodge them and she used drain a hefty amount of chakra as she took a deep breath and blasted cold air from her mouth which froze the mist around them into sharp icicles. Her sight became partially obscured at the density of the chakra laced icicles but she remembered where he was. Feeling energy withdraw from her, she made one last hand sign and watched as the platoon of icicles launched itself behind the shurikens.

Sasuke's eyes flashed as black fire consumed the ice and his arm moved to deflect some that still came at him.

Hinata didn't allow herself to rest. Muscles strained as she kept on sprinting, knowing that with each second she was closer to Konoha and to being saved.

So close, Hinata desperately told herself. Almost there. Just keep going.

Suddenly steel slashed at her, cutting into her flash as she moved to block him with her kunai. Cringing at the sting, she promptly fell into a fighting rhythm with him, aiming her jyuken at his throat, chest and pressure points. Sasuke dodged with the speed and grace that mocked hers and landed a solid kick into her stomach that threw her whole body backwards. Hinata struck the tree with her back and slid down roughly. In an instant, Sasuke was there to bury the cold steel into her shoulder pinning her onto the tree, using his foot to keep her opposite arm still. Hinata wrenched out a rough cry of pain.

"Last time," Sasuke warned while holding his sword, his spinning eyes threatening to burn her. "Give me the scroll."

Protocol states that the mission must come above herself, that was what being a ninja was all about. She stopped herself from looking at her eye from where the seal was, knowing that Sasuke would pick up on it and find it. Instead she tried to dab out the pulsing, sharp pain of her shoulder and the blood that trickled out.

"Why do you want the scroll?" Hinata gritted out between clenched teeth.

Sasuke raised his brow, as if asking why she would futilely attempt conversing with him when she was about to be killed. "It's good and quick money. If I plant evidence complicating Kiri nin then it cripples Konoha's relationship with Kiri. It benefits me on all levels."

"The Hyuga clan with not stand for my death," she puffed out.

Sasuke paused as if he was considering something inside his mind. Recognition flashed in his eyes. "You're Neji's cousin."

"They will find the root of it and eventually they will come for your head. My family will hunt you down for the rest of your life."

Sasuke scoffed with disdain. "As if they would. Last time I checked your elders are still the same cold hearted, deceitful bastards that are common breed to Konoha. You can only expect betrayal from people like them."

"You speak as if you're above them," she whispered harshly. "When you are no better than them, pulling a sword to Kakashi-sensei, Sakura-san and Naruto-kun. You have betrayed your own kin."

"My own kin!" Sasuke sneered. "They are not my kin. My own kin was slaughtered by my brother under the orders of their beloved village! There is no possible way you can comprehend what I have lost."

Spending time with Naruto meant that it was inevitable until they discussed about Sasuke. Naruto had been forthcoming, telling her about his struggles, his unhappiness, his drive and his bond with Sasuke. With it came the story of the massacre and the madness that the sharingan carried for its user. It was one of the most complicated thing to understand, their bond and she knew it to be invaluable to him and now she could see why. Where there should have been hate at the man that had caused so much pain in Naruto's life, she felt sympathetic. Underneath his cold exterior, she saw a deeply broken, almost shattered, man.

"You're right, I can't," she answered him, "but Naruto-kun does. He lost everything too, like you. He had nobody but himself, he harboured hatred at the village for hating him and he could have gone the wrong way hadn't it been for his bond with you."

Sasuke's eyes became ice cold. "Naruto's a fool for clinging on to a bond that was broken years ago."

"But he can't let go," she emphasised to him. "It's not just because that's who he is but it's also because you are his brother, Sasuke-kun. Ever since you and Naruto-kun fought in that cage of mirrors. Naruto-kun understands because he too lost his brother when you left the village-"

"Enough!," he roared. "We went out of hand and since you don't carry a pack with you, you probably sealed the scroll into you."

Channelling chakra into his sword, the steel glinted bright blue and Hinata felt the hot bite of pain as tears pricked into her eyes. The blood that dribbled from her shoulder traveled down her arm and slowly, the characters for her seal highlighted itself in dark ink. Hinata gave another cry of pain as the sword was slid out of her shoulder and Sasuke ran through the hand seals to undo her storage seal. Her mind screamed at her to do something, to take a kunai and stab him with, or attempt to stab him with it. No matter how loud her mind was, her body did not want to take action, only focusing on the aching pain of her bleeding shoulder.

Sasuke shoved his hand into her storage seal and jerked her satchel out but stopped when a single item fell out of her bag. Googly eyes and red cheeks stared back at him and his scowl deepened as he muttered, "Gama-chan."

She saw it. His hesitation to take his eyes off the toad wallet. The scroll was at the bottom of her satchel but Sasuke seemed to be lost in some sort of thought. Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm herself down knowing that once Sasuke does find the scroll, all that was left was to kill her. Watching him stare at the wallet sparked a realisation inside of her.

"He told everyone about you, did you know that?" Hinata told him. "How the sharingan influenced your madness, how Itachi was a hero, how everyone should give you a chance. All because he plans for you to come back. You are one of his precious people Sasuke-kun, he treasures his bond with you."

"So what?" Sasuke asked. "Why should I care?"

Hinata swallowed heavily. "Because I think you treasure your bond with him too."

There was a small pause between them. As if pain melted her bones into liquid, Hinata felt herself becoming weaker, her remaining energy concentrating on reducing the blood flow from her shoulder. Sasuke completely ignored the scroll, instead gripping the blade in his hands, which she noticed were slightly shaking. When she felt the tip of his of his blade against her throat, she couldn't muster enough energy to be scared. Her time had run out. She closed her eyes.

Her whole body froze as she felt the slightest pressure in the sword. Inside her mind, she wanted to scream in frustration. No, no no! she did not want to die! There were so many things she had yet to do, so much more to see. Most of all, she wanted to tell the boy with the brightest blue eyes how much she loved him once more. Just once more.

But the blade did not move. Sasuke lowered it instead.

Sasuke shoved his hand into her satchel, took the scroll, stuffed Gama-chan in the bag and tossed it beside her. Silently she watched as he disarmed his sword and wordlessly jumped out the way he came from. Leaving no trace of himself at the scene except from his aura. It took her a couple of minutes to reassure herself that he was gone. Again and again she replayed the scene in her mind until she finally registered it. Hinata was still alive.

And the floodgates of relief were immediately opened inside of her. Washing through her was the feeling of almost delirious happiness that although her shoulder were pulsing with hurt, her legs felt dead, blood ran down her arm and torso, she was still alive. She will live to see Kiba's nurse his pups or Shino lead his clan. She has survived to live another day and she can't help this feeling of laughing maniacally at what just happened. This feeling of elation tripled when she heard that sweet rough yell that was music to her ears.

"Hinata?! Hinata!"

Turning her head sideways she saw him through her veil of tears. Naruto was sprinting towards her, his face pale, his team mates a good distance behind him. Bright, he was so bright to her. How she had missed his touch. Her heart began slowed down into a comfortable rate, tension draining out of her body. She wanted to fall into him and never let go.

"Naruto-kun..." she whispered, offering him a small smile.

"Hinata," he almost cried out as he landed in front of her and ripped a bit of fabric to press agaisnt her shoulder wound. "What happened? Hold on, Sakura's coming!"

She could do nothing else but mumble his name in joy especially when he ran his hands through her hair and her face leaving a searing trail of warmth which comforted her. Cupping her cheeks in his palms, he kissed her pale lips vigorously, trying his hardest to hide his fears but at the same time transfer some of his life force into her before resting his forehead against hers and breathing her in heavily.

"Thank kami," he said raggedly, "Thank kami that you are alive and well."

"Naruto, you have to give her some space for me to check up on her," scolded Sakura as she carried her medical equipments beside her. "Right now the most important thing we need to do is to stop the blood flow."

"Naruto-kun." Normally she would blush at the amount of kisses that she was receiving but she didn't think she had enough blood for that so instead she lifted her hand to press them against his own cheeks. "I couldn't stop him from taking the scroll but if you go now you might be able to catch him."

"Who cares about the scroll," Naruto said as he took his time pressing soft kisses on her eyelids and cheeks. He needed to make sure that she was really here with him, not just a fantasy. "We need to get you home safe."

"But who is 'he' that you are talking about?" Kakashi asked.

"Sasuke-kun," she answered. Beside her, she felt Sakura stiffen.

"Sasuke-kun... did this to you?" Sakura asked tightly.

Naruto's mouth was compressed grimly as he contemplated the new-found information. So was Kakashi by the worried crease in his lazy eye.

"I'll deal with Sasuke later," Naruto decided. "Sakura is she okay now?"

Sakura nodded. "She's better now but you have to be careful when you're carrying her okay?"

Naruto pointed around his neck and immediately she weaved her arms around him and buried her face with his scent. She had been without him for almost two weeks and she acutely missed him. When he stood up she told him not to forget her satchel that contained her gifts as well and he gave her that bright, beautiful signature smile.

"Let's get you home, Hinata. My poor heart can't handle not having you home."

Perched on a high branch further into the forest, Sasuke watched Naruto carry the woman home. His fingers tightened the grip on his sword as if to punish his fingers, disgusted with himself, for his mercy and his weakness. Now, alone with his thoughts, he couldn't escape the reality. As the blade almost pierced her porcelain neck, there was only one thought in his mind.

Kill her and you destroy that bond forever.

At once he smashed his fist against the wood, relished the blood that began dripping from his hand.

Next time, he thought. Next time I will kill them all.

A/N: Very AUish where Naruto and Hinata are older but Sasuke is still hung up on destroying the village. Deep inside I do think that Sasuke still cares about Naruto but just very very very deep inside. I'm thinking of expanding this sometime, tell me if you think it has potential. Feedback is absolutely appreciated.

Slightly edited on 17.03.14 with thoughts to OGAFazer89AC's review.