Uchiha x Hyuga: Poison

Chapter One: Black, the Color of My Heart
Chapter Two: White, the Color of Her Eyes
Chapter Three: Red, the Color of Our Blood

He watched them silently as they left. He listened to the soft crush of the leaves beneath their feet until the whisper was lost to his ears, stolen away by the breath of the wind. The sun had turned the sky into a washed out painting of gold and ruby red. He wanted to smear it black, to erase the sun altogether and pluck every last little star from above and crush it.

He hated her laughter. He hated his smile.

His fists were trembling at his sides, the knuckles white. His skin was crawling with the feeling of disgust and bitter betrayal. There hadn't been a warning. They had deliberately let him fall.

They had selfishly left him alone.

Sasuke closed his eyes. Flashes of pink and cerulean, red streaked cheeks and alarming blue eyes. He couldn't escape them there, either, in the depths of the back of his mind. They were his closest friends; they were his only. And he hated them.

Despite himself, Sasuke shivered. The cold autumn wind swept over him, burrowed down deep inside and nestled itself against his bones. The glow of the fading sunlight behind his eyelids made him think of blood. His only comfort now lay in the slowly setting shadows around him, in the stillness of the night.

The brush of falling leaves made his eyes slowly flicker open again. He frowned up at the red tinted clouds, at the bleak silhouette of the trees overhead. He wanted to forget about Naruto and Sakura for just a moment, but that had become next to impossible since he had heard the news.

"Sasuke," Sakura had murmured, her usual term of endearment either forgotten or deliberately left out, "I have something important to tell you." He hadn't thought anything of it at the time, not until he seen how she had smiled as Naruto had found them and held her in his arms. He would never forget the glimmer of love that shone through Sakura at that moment. He would never forget how the Fox had once again stolen away the attentions of someone that had meant something to him.

Sighing heavily, Sasuke turned away from the side street that Naruto and Sakura had disappeared down and started in the opposite direction. He wasn't too far from his home, but he had no intention of going there now. He knew very well that the only way to escape his wandering thoughts would be to lose himself in his training. The night was young, and he had all the time in the world to forget the painful wounds his friends had left upon his blackened heart.

…

With Akamaru in her arms, Hinata felt safe and warm. Kiba's small dog had followed her as she had fled from her home in tears, and she knew Kiba himself wouldn't be too far behind. She hadn't thought to ask Akamaru why Kiba had been at her home in the first place; she couldn't understand the little puppy's yaps the same way Kiba could.

Her father's words rang in her ears still. They were words she should have been used to, should no longer have feared for her new courage, but that was not the case. She couldn't have acted any other way when she had heard the news about Naruto and Sakura. In those few moments, her father had nearly crippled her in their training because of her swaying attention. Perhaps it had been a test, one that she had miserably failed.

"I don't know what to do," she whispered, the tears already swelling in her pale lavender eyes. Akamaru nuzzled her chin affectionately, and she scratched the puppy's ears a moment as she tried to push those horrible words out of her head.

Weak. Pathetic. Worthless. You were a mistake.

"I know what you're thinking," she heard Kiba call, and she looked up from the dog in her lap as he approached her, his canine-human smile somewhat sympathetic. "You should stop thinking that way. Just stop."

His short russet hair was in tangles around his tanned oval face, his clothing dusty. She assumed he had been training before he had come to visit her and found her running away like a coward.

She wanted to smile, but could not force the false happiness onto her face. "I… I heard about…"

"I think everyone has by now. Word travels in Konoha, y'know?" he replied with a shrug of his shoulders. "Don't let it bother you. Sooner or later Naruto is bound to see how much you mean to him. If he doesn't, than he's more of an idiot than I thought!" He barked a little laugh and scuffed his heel against the ground, face flush suddenly, narrow wolfish eyes averted away.

She wanted to believe in Kiba's words, to have his confidence, but she couldn't lie to him and say she wouldn't let the news bother her. No matter what she did, she knew she would be thinking of Naruto. After all, he had been the one who had given her the courage to stand and try again, time after time. It was his bravery, his determination that moved her, made her love him. And no matter what she did, he was blind to that love like her father was blind to her worth.

"Hinata…" Kiba muttered, and she blinked, surprised to see him standing just above her now. "You're covered in bruises! What the hell happened?"

"I was distracted…" she murmured softly, "… during training." Kiba's snarl shocked her.

"Your father did this to you? What the hell is wrong with him?"

She didn't respond.

Akamaru barked, agreeing openly with Kiba's feelings she assumed. The pale haired puppy wagged his tail, climbed out of her lap, and went over to his master.

"I should go home…" Hinata began, but Kiba wouldn't have it.

"Forget that! You're not going home. You can't!" He said quickly, but it wasn't in anger towards her, she knew that. "You can stay at my place, or we can find Kurenai-sensei and see if she will let you stay with her. I'll be damned if I let you go back home tonight, even if it means sitting out here with you the whole time and just talking." Kiba yawned loudly then, as if in contradiction to his last words, and she smiled a little, thankful she had such a caring friend.

"I'll be okay…" she started to say, and then shook her head. "Thank you, Kiba-kun."

He blinked. "It's nothing, really. I mean it's not like you could stay with Shino. I'd rather put up with fleas than those spiders of his, or whatever they are. Not that I have fleas! I don't…"

Hinata giggled softly, her hand covering her mouth in that modest way of hers. She knew Kiba was trying to cheer her up like he usually did, and although at first it hadn't worked, she was not feigning her better mood now.

With a gentle sigh, Hinata pushed herself up off the ground and dusted the loose grass from her clothing. The little side street she had stumbled into was dark, but it was certainly cleaner than some of the other back routes through Konoha. There were a few loose papers on the ground, torn and covered in footprints, but little else remained in the way of garbage and litter. However, the reason she had chosen it was not because of its' cover of shadows or its' cleanliness. This place was where she had watched Naruto from when she was younger. This alley was very near to his home.

"You want to go for a walk? I need to exercise the last bit of stiffness from my limbs, and I'm sure it could do you some good to get away from here." Kiba said as if reading her mind. She gave a little nod and he grinned at her.

They started toward the mouth of the alley in a comfortable silence. For Hinata, the first few steps were the hardest. It felt as though she were taking the first steps to leaving Naruto behind, to forgetting him. But once they were out into the streetlights, under the open glow of the rising moon and the scattered stars, the other steps became easier. One step at a time, one foot after the other, and she didn't have to do it alone.

Thank you, Kiba-kun…

They walked for hours all around Konoha. Kiba had bought her a warm chocolate drink from an open shop, had shared a few bean jelly candies with her, and had shown her some new tricks that he had taught Akamaru. They had raced down the length of short roads, and she was sure he let her win a couple times. But most of the time they just walked and talked, occasionally breaking their conversation to say hello to people they knew as they passed them on the darkening streets. When they came to a sudden stop she realized they were standing before the road that led away from the village.

"Kiba?" she questioned, but he hushed her quickly and stared into the shadows. She followed his gaze and let her eyes search the black depths ahead of them.

"Don't strain your eyes. It's just a bad smell." He whispered. Akamaru growled next to him, little tail pointed straight, shoulders hunched and tiny fangs bared. Kiba swallowed a deep breath and his nose wrinkled slightly.

"I see him. Sasuke-san… What's he doing here?" Hinata asked. Kiba blinked, and she assumed he had forgotten how good her eyes were.

"Like I know!" Kiba muttered sourly. "Let's just go, Hinata. Hinata?"

Dressed all in black, hardly visible in the night, Uchiha Sasuke stood with his back to them, coarse midnight hair gently blowing in the breeze. He was silently staring, as if hypnotized, into the darkness that had swept itself outside of the village. She knew him by the red and white Uchiha crest on the back of his clothes; by the cool way in which he stood.

Kiba tugged on her sleeve, dragging her attention away from the other boy. "Are you alright? Didn't you hear me?"

"Sorry…" she apologized, "I was just wondering… why he might be here."

"Forget him. He's probably just brooding as usual. No doubt he heard about Naruto and Sakura getting together and now he's just jealous." Kiba chuckled, and then looked taken aback by his own words and the careless selection of things to say. "Sorry, I… I didn't mean to, it's just that…"

"He might understand…" she whispered softly, not really listening to Kiba. Sasuke had been close to Sakura and Naruto both, and she imagined how he might feel suddenly being second in Sakura's eyes, even though it would have never matter to him before. Losing the love of someone hurt, whether you loved that person back or not. For people like him, and like herself as well, losing any admiration and praise was painful, and even scarring. If anyone could ever understand her loneliness, it would be him.

It would be Sasuke.

…

He ignored the familiar faces and the unfamiliar both. He ignored the world as he walked along the emptying streets of Konoha, no longer needing to pretend he was lost in thought so people would leave him alone. A simple murderous glare had chased away Ino and some other girls. A few wicked words had chased away those boys who thought they could fight him and gain recognition, or whatever else it was the idiots thought they could achieve.

He was tired of everyone suddenly. Looking at them disgusted him. Being near them disgusted him. Everything about them made him shake in anger. It was almost laughable, their weaknesses so visible to him, their worthlessness apparent as day. Their fakeness, their lies, he seen them all for what they truly were, just poison in the world, ruthless and selfish.

And he was one of them.

The crush of the dirt and leaves beneath his sandals soon became the only sound he heard as he walked along. The voices died away behind him, and the streetlights were soon few and very far between. The cool breeze didn't bother him, or the last sliver of the sunlight as it faded away and gave birth to darkness.

As he left the world behind, left the pollution behind, he had hoped the hate inside would lessen. He had hoped, but in vain. His hate was a poison in his veins, like his blood and inability to love. It was something he could never escape. It was something that would one day kill him, eat him alive. The corrupted black heart living inside him was his prison, and he was a slave in the chain to it for the rest of his days.

Naruto…

He wondered how he could show the Fox just how much this betrayal had hurt. He wondered what kind of pain he should inflict on the other boy to even the score. He had never thought Naruto would have been the one to deal the first blow to their friendship. He had always been sure his lack of trust in people would have long ago destroyed any chance of that.

Sakura…

He wondered if she still felt any love at all for him. It had seemed to vanish utterly when she had fully realized that he was not as strong as Naruto, that he wouldn't protect her if he didn't have to. He wondered how he could hurt her in turn, worse than he ever had before. He wondered how he could crush her. After all, it was she who had come between Naruto and himself. She was nothing but in the way, nothing but useless. For all of the pain she had caused, her suffering had to be deeper than Naruto's. For stealing any hope away from him that he might learn to love, she needed to be completely broken.

The whisper of voices behind him suddenly caught his ears as he came to a stop along the road that led away from Konoha. He found himself briefly hoping that it might be Naruto and Sakura, briefly hoping that he might have the chance to turn on them now, but as he glanced over his shoulder towards the sounds, that hope faded. He watched the dark haired Kiba and the blushing Hinata approach, lost in their conversation, laughing happily, just two more poisons in this world that he loathed.

Forget them…

He turned his head and looked up at the sky. The moon was full, a pale white hole in cloudless pitch black above. He could make out all the pinpricked stars overhead, white scars upon the night. He wanted to laugh at the world, but he had forgotten how.

I'm just a scar now as well.

He closed his eyes and let the pain sleeping inside him surface through his skin. What would he give to have someone believe in him? What would he give to be pure and strong, and loved? What was he but a hollow shell of a human being, trying to find reason to live when there was none?

I am an avenger. That is all the reason I need… he reminded himself. Yes, all the reason he needed to live, and all the reason he needed to kill those who tried to force him to disappear.

Itachi. Naruto. Sakura.

They would all suffer when he became stronger.

"Sasuke?" He didn't jump at the voice beside him; letting eyes slide open with a ghostly slowness, he seen her looking up at him with hopeful white eyes. He didn't turn his head to look at the girl next to him, simply gazed at her from the side as if she weren't even worth a moment of his time.

Hinata was barely a year younger than him, her dark hair lighter than his, softer and better kept. Her shy eyes were white where his were bold and black, her skin like cream and his like white stone. In every way she was his opposite, every way but one. They were both weak. They had both relied upon Naruto for strength.

"I was wondering… if you had heard about…"

"Naruto and Sakura. Maybe," he muttered. She swallowed quietly, her fingers dancing together nervously in front of her.

"I… I haven't been able to stop… stop thinking about them." She told him. He figured that was how everyone else was as well.

"Ironic the one who they hated before they love and applaud now, hn? And what does the dog over there think?"

"Akamaru…?" Hinata questioned, a little startled. Sasuke barked a cruel laugh.

"That wasn't who I meant," he sneered, "It doesn't matter anyways, though. Foxes, dogs, they are all the same. Pesky animals that just get in the way." The sneer grew when he heard behind him both Akamaru and Kiba growling.

Hinata averted her eyes, and he wondered why she was even talking to him. Hyuuga Hinata was the girl who had watched Naruto from the shadows for as long as anyone could remember. If love was real, she loved Naruto with her whole heart and more. Even though Sasuke had been Naruto's friend, he and Hinata had never really so much as looked at each other before, let alone said two words.

"I'm not speaking to them," Sasuke said dryly, his grin fading as he forgot Kiba and his mutt, "so any message you have for them, you can deliver yourself. I'm not going out of my way for you."

"Oh… I… it wasn't a message… not for them," Hinata stammered quietly. She looked confused and helpless, the vision of weakness he despised. He was about to tell her as much, tell her to get lost when he felt a hand grab him from behind and spin him around.

"Listen, you dick!" Kiba snarled, his white canine fangs fully bared as he hauled Sasuke up on his toes by the collar of his shirt. "She just wanted to talk to you! You both lost something tonight, and she sees that, so why can't you? Why do you have to go around acting so damn tough all the time? Huh? You think you're fucking God or something? You think you're better than everyone else? Is that it?"

"Kiba-kun…!" Hinata wailed, brows furrowed, white eyes glistening in the moonlight, but he didn't hear her. Sasuke stared at the other boy, and all he could see was Naruto. The same determined eyes, the same red marked cheeks, and even something along the lines of the same words.

"Answer me!" Kiba howled, and even Akamaru was barking loudly, pulling on Kiba's pants' leg, trying to stop him from going on. Kiba gave Sasuke a wicked shake, and suddenly the world was all in a blur as he tumbled to the ground, his head pounding viscously. He watched the red blood spray the ground. My blood. He hadn't even seen the punch coming.

"K-Kiba-kun…" Hinata gasped quietly, the shock of his actions turning her face into a vision of disappointment and worry. Kiba grunted and shrugged his shoulders.

"Guys like him, they make me so mad!" he muttered. "He had it coming to him for a long time, Hinata. He had no right acting that way!"

Sasuke's eyes were wide, alarmed and appalled that he had taken the hit and taken the abuse and had done nothing. He sat there, the blood trailing down his chin, staining the sidewalk and staining his shirt, and he didn't even notice Hinata as she dropped to her knees and looked at him with a timid concern.

"Sasuke-san… a-are you okay…?" she asked him shyly.

"Forget him, Hinata!" Kiba barked. "Let's just go already… Um, Hinata?"

The pale-eyed girl shook her head and looked at Kiba. "I'll be alright… on my own. Sasuke-san is hurt. I'm not going anywhere…" Slowly, she turned her attention back to Sasuke, and as she rested her hands on his shoulders, he snapped out of his daze and looked at her with surprise.

"I don't believe this!" Kiba shouted. "You're kidding right? Well, fine! You stay with him and see if I care! Let's go Akamaru." Turning his back on the both of them, his voice full more of hurt than anger, Kiba started away and didn't look back. Akamaru hesitated a moment, whimpered at Hinata, and when she didn't look at him, the puppy lowered his head and turned to join his master, tail between his legs.

They sat motionless for a long time, until Kiba was out of sight, until the silence had returned and washed over them. After what seemed forever, Hinata began to quietly dig around in her pockets, her cheeks a pale rose and eyes moist. Sasuke watched her quietly, wonderingly, not knowing what to say, or if he should say anything at all.

She tried to stand up for me… What the hell does she want?

Hinata produced a small round container from one of her pockets, and from the other a small square piece of cloth that she folded in four and set on her lap. She unscrewed the lid of the tiny jar and the scent of a strong herbal ointment flooded his nose, almost made him gag. It wasn't a bad smell, but overpowering nonetheless. Setting the jar down beside her, she picked up the cloth again in her delicate white hands, and touched it to his split lip gently, dabbing away the blood and inspecting the wound in withdrawn silence.

"Get your hands off of me," Sasuke muttered without thinking. She recoiled in shock, a tiny gasp floating past her lips. When her hands didn't fully fall, when she sat looking at him with searching eyes, he grabbed her wrists in both his hands and pushed her back. "I don't need your sympathy." He turned his gaze away from her, wiped his mouth again with his hand and pushed himself slowly to his feet.

"S-Sasuke-san…" she started, and his coolness didn't discourage her. "The ointment… it will help protect against infection… and… and it will help it heal better…"

"I'm already infected." Sasuke whispered darkly. "Your ointments can't cure the poison in my heart."

She fell silent, and as he started away he heard her muffled sobs disappear behind him. He was a little surprised at the stab of guilt he felt, but like any flicker of emotion within him, it was momentary and was there and gone before he could really think it had mattered at all.

Let her cry, he thought. She didn't matter to him. Her feelings were of no concern to him. What did it matter that she had wanted to talk to him? What did it matter if she had wanted to become friends? Why should he give her the chance when he had just learned the pain that friendship inevitably brings?

What did it matter if she had cared…?

He stopped for a moment, eyes widening. She cared. How on earth had that come about? Maybe he was imagining things. Hinata was a nice girl after all, friendly to everyone. But… it had made him feel warm for a moment. It had made him remember the times Sakura had been there and tried to look after him. Only, when he looked at Hinata, he didn't see Sakura. Did that mean something? Or maybe it meant nothing at all…

One thing was for certain. Whether or not there had been anything between Hinata and himself, she had given him the very answer he had been looking for. He wanted to make Sakura and Naruto both suffer for the pain they had caused him, and Hinata was the answer. She would help him destroy them, even if she didn't want to. Sakura would see that he hated her truly when he chose another over her. Naruto would see the wondrous thing in which he had been blind to, the pureness of Hinata's heart that he would force her to give to him so his revenge could be exacted. And they would see two lives destroyed for their selfishness, and he would make sure that the destruction of his life, and of Hinata's, would break Naruto and destroy Sakura forever.

The pieces of the puzzle were slowly coming together.