16And so here is the longest chapter of them all, also the finale. This is different in that it is set in Hinata's mind, rather than how the first two were from Gaara's perspective. This chapter takes place somewhere within the two years between the end of Naruto and the beginning of Naruto Shippuuden. Once more, enjoy~
A Second Chance?
"Hinata? I wish to speak with you!" Hinata Hyuuga lifted her head from one of the numerous books spread in front of her. Gently holding back a front lock of midnight hair from her eyes, she saw Neji enter her office room. Hinata gave a faint smile that became secretly cautious as she noticed the stiffness of her cousin's features –which generally meant he was suppressing emotions that were not particularly in Hinata's favor.
"Y-yes?" Neji inclined his head in a polite, yet taut nod to her before he answered.
"Lady, I wish to affirm something with you, and I hope I will only have to once: I am not your mailman. I also do not enjoy being tailed by mail carriers, only to discover that it is your letter they are delivering, and that they are too incompetent to find you themselves. They then ask me to do so, for obviously my life is the one that has no higher purpose than to give my superiors their mail."
Hinata's smile weakened for remorse. "I'm sorry, cousin. C-can I... make it up to you?" She suggested, but Neji merely ignored the comment and moved swiftly towards her, so to drop a piece of paper onto her main open book. Seeing he sought to close the issue, Hinata appeased his pride and bought her eyes to the letter. A glint of curiosity flitted through her and so she lifted the message, unfolded it, and read the few quickly-sketched lines.
"I did not read it. However-" Neji was speaking, but Hinata could no longer hear him. As her eyes widened and her grip on the paper intensified, her breath seemed to stop in her mouth, and her body quivered as if with electricity. Neji lifted his eyebrow at the sight.
"Hinata-?" Before he could properly ask, the female Hyuuga stood suddenly, her hand clutching the paper tightly enough that it was on the edge of tearing. A pause more, and then Hinata nodded a bow in thanks to Neji –before jerking her feet into motion, bolting through the door and speeding out of the Hyuuga Compound. Left behind in the wake of her tornado velocity were Neji and the piece of paper, now dropped to the ground.
The Branch Hyuuga family member stared blankly at the door, actually unnerved under his show of composure. His next thought of it being his duty to be aware of his cousin's destination, for her safety, was the motivation to edge towards that piece of paper. It was certainly not curiosity that led him to intrusively read the two sentences of that message; that would be disgraceful, Neji nodded to himself, as he scanned the paper.
A frown line marked his forehead as he finished and he looked again to the door though which Hinata had so dramatically disappeared, and then back to the paper. He shook his head, dismissing this oddness that he could not understand. Laying the letter onto the desk, he walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.
For a moment, the message was immobile and undefined amongst the other papers, as per usual. Only, very soon the tip of the top left corner began to fleck away, becoming specks of apparent-dust. This spread through the rest of the paper in a wave and soon it was entirely eaten away. Left behind was a pile of many grains of sand.
It no longer mattered: the message had been read, understood and reacted to as fully as the sender could have wished, a message that read in messy, handwritten script that had obviously been speedily scrawled:
To the girl forsaken…
Wish to try a new beginning?
The biting night air ripped at the bared parts of Hinata's skin as she jumped through Konoha, her breath ragged from running and from desperation. Her eyes began to sting for being open against the wind and she was almost stumbling, but she merely increased her speed. This mad haste was driven by one thought alone, one aspect that so utterly stole all of Hinata's attention: it was the memory of a person whom she had forced herself to forget.
It was nigh unbelievable that he had contacted her, especially for how it had ended... No, not ended, but how everything else began, just as he had said... Along with saying other matters that caused Hinata's insides to wrench when she even considered their remembrance. She dragged her concentration from that subject just before it enveloped her.
Her destination neared, and it became more difficult to breathe the closer she got. The anticipation tightened her muscles, but concurrently Hinata realised that she didn't know why she was running so desperately to this place. She didn't know how she would feel when –if— she saw him again, and... in all honesty... she was afraid to think about it. Everything was happening too quickly for her to comprehend; any thoughts she had were carried away by the gust of wind tearing by her as she ran. Abandoning the quest to imagine what to do, what to say, what to think when she finally saw him again Hinata cleared her mind, attentive to nothing but increasing her speed.
She made a violently quick stop upon arrival, before she stood still and the silence took hold of the night once more. She was here again, on the tip of the Hokage's mansion where they had first met, the full moon peering down at her. For a moment she closed her eyes as she enjoyed the feeling of slight nostalgia, and then opened them again to look around... Only for her eyes to widen in surprise: She was alone.
"What?" She breathed out in a murmur and took another look around, but again there was no one. About rushing to come here, about the message, about all those thoughts... She had been wrong. Hinata abruptly realised how cold it was. She wrapped her arms around her and closed her eyes, finally protecting them. They burned, simmering under the shielding.
It was foolish to have come; even worse was to have believed that he would. Had she truly expected him to be there? Someone else could have sent her the letter. It was a coincidence. The letter had shocked her, that's all. It had confused her, distorted her judgement and now she was paying for it. ...—But she had been so sure-
"Hinata?"
The Hyuuga opened her eyelids and spun on her heel. There stood a boy of just above her age, at a distance of a few metres from her. He was dressed in a thin crimson trench coat, black trousers, black sandals and a professionally-cut, strapped leather body piece that held a gourd to his back. His skin was pale, his hair was blood red and there was a tattoo immediately above his left azure eye, just as Hinata remembered.
He was here. Although something was... different, somehow... Hinata shrugged off that thought so to merely stare to the boy before her. When Hinata felt her lips slowly form the faintest wisp of a smile, the moonlight glimmered across the pearl of her eyes in a glacier-like shine. Beginnings of memories were consuming her.
"You came." The boy's words, however, shattered Hinata's faint trance and reality was abruptly restored to her. Her smile disappeared, maybe not having even existed in the first place, and although no hostility replaced it... something sent an icy spear of warning up Gaara's spine.
"Yes. W-why wouldn't I have?" By this single answer it came to him: her voice. It was... wrong. It was empty. He couldn't sense her emotion: anger, happiness, any such tone, and although politeness coated her words, Gaara noticeably flinched as if the formality was like acid to his ears. Hinata didn't show a response to his reaction, even though she could not have missed it.
Gaara made a false start for his next words, but he regained himself and after a pause tried again, "I know that most people wouldn't have come after having, having seen..." He trailed off, but the meaning behind his unspoken words hung grimly in the air, and Hinata shuddered as a bitter sickness filled her stomach at the memory. She understood why he hadn't finished his sentence: it was difficult to... to speak about killing someone so viciously, and in cold blood. Well, it was difficult for her, but why-
"But you are different than others, Hinata. You always have been. Yet, I still doubted-"
"Doubted me?"
Gaara looked up, but Hinata had turned her back to him to apparently look into the sheet of blackish blue, midnight sky. She continued on, the moon reflecting off her ivory skin, "It's okay: that's not your fault. I even should have expected it, r-really. Everyone, even I myself, think of me like that. So, so why wouldn't y-you?"
"No, I-" Gaara tried, but Hinata continued on as really speaking to herself now, almost silently, while Gaara simply overheard her. Her voice was as hollow as dead wood for still holding to that empty politeness that churned Gaara's insides with every syllable.
"I'll have t-to accept it sometime, don't I? In everything I try, I'm never good enough. No matter how much I want it. It's r-ridiculous of me, to continue to believe that there is someone who would actually lie to themselves and think me of use to them. Why do I-"
"Stop it!"
Hinata froze in mid-speech, her voice taken from her by Gaara's sudden growl. She turned to face him, but instantly breathed a small, sharp gasp: he was suddenly so close to her. She hadn't noticed until now that he was standing barely inches away, even though his scent filled every breath she took. Now that she did know however, the notice of him caused flashes of memories to flitter through her mind. Her senses acted in reactions for what she remembered of back then and so the past began to override all true reality...
Hinata took swift steps back away from him, away from everything that his presence induced within her. The moonlight was thus free again to reflect against her marble-white skin, and to highlight the expression of tension –and pain—that strained her face. She looked up for the slightest moment and Gaara saw her.
"No. No, I shouldn't be..." She lowered her head and bit her lips to awaken herself from this shade of sadness. Gaara moved towards her. Hinata tried to speak, to excuse her current state, but her voice wouldn't come. She clasped her hands together to quit their shaking. It was then that a second set of hands appeared in Hinata's view, the fingers slender and of a paleness similar to her skin. They had reached out towards hers, hesitating as if unsure of the movement. For a moment was the fleeting idea that they would encase and heat her own hands, especially upon a fingertip tracing her thumb with a skimming touch, but then they were pulled back away.
Hinata finally looked up to meet the sight of two azure orbs. She swallowed, nervousness clogging her throat. He was so near to her again. What was she doing? What should she do?
"Don't say that." Gaara had acted first by speaking, "To follow what other people say about you, is giving up. Prove them wrong. It means less destruction for the world in the long run. I know that, firsthand."
Hinata flushed as these words took effect upon her to break her spat of pessimism. Now she thought how self-pitying she must have sounded only moments ago. She was not that kind of person thus was ashamed she had slipped to that, and in front of him. "I-I... I'm sorry..." She muttered and dropped her stare to her feet.
"It's alright." She heard his voice whisper in reply, but it was then that unexpectedness ruled reality: Gaara breathed out an almost-laugh in amusement. The sound of it, no matter how slight or short, reversed the situation. The moment's intensity shattered, smothered was Hinata's guilt and a faint smile formed on the Hyuuga's face. She looked up at Gaara, a crease of mild confusion lining her forehead.
"What?" She spoke, surprisingly, somewhat light-heartedly. He looked down at her and so she saw it: the very slightest corner of his mouth. It was lifted into a shadow of a smirk.
He was... smiling...
"Every time we speak, you apologize to me." His puzzled pleasure caused Hinata's smile to grow a little more. A laugh, however, became an 'irk' noise in her throat, when finally she thought how she was still so close to him. Unnerved by her own lack of blushing, Hinata couldn't hold Gaara's stare. The Sand shinobi must have also realized, for they both took a step backwards strangely simultaneously.
"Do you want to sit?" Hinata eventually heard, and she saw him wave to the edge of the roof. After she nodded she went to seat herself with her arms around her legs and her chin supported on her knees. Beside her, Gaara's form appeared. As he moved, his leg gently grazed her arm and Hinata inadvertently shivered. Once down, the teenager stretched his legs languidly out in front of him and lay back slightly, supporting himself on his hands.
Her Byakugan holding a great sight range even when not activated, Hinata could see Gaara close his eyes and raise his head slightly to take a breath of night-chilled air, and also his chest then sink again when he gently released it. Her sight caught how the wind played with the ends of his somewhat tousled, spiky crimson hair. She noticed finally, just before realizing that she was absentmindedly watching him, how peaceful his face seemed, free of lines of stress or the shadow of past grievances. Even the dark rings round his eyes depleted in the opal moonlight glow. Shocked and appalled for near spying on this shinobi, however, she blinked to break her stare.
"Hinata?" And was apparently caught before she could guise the evidence. She looked away now, too late, but unable to take the boy's questioning glance. With the feeling that his eyes were still on her as a moment of silence passed -even though for Hinata it seemed an agonizing eternity- she battled with herself. Reluctance clashed with determination to see if he was still looking.
Finally, Hinata timidly dragged her stare to Gaara... for her eyes to widen a little at the sight. His head was, thankfully, turned back to the midnight black sky again, but it wasn't that which so surprised her. His mouth. Had he been... smiling at catching her?-
"Hinata." At that second sudden sound of his voice Hinata almost jumped, but stopped herself and, swallowing her stress, answered him.
"Y-yes?" She stuttered, looking to him properly as he turned his head back to her.
"I want to show you something... If you'll let me?" The sudden soft solemnity to his voice stole her attention from her embarrassment. Hinata kept looking to Gaara, and she tensed when he held her gaze. After a pause of only slight perplexity, she nodded.
Sabaku no Gaara straightened up in his sit and took in a sigh of night air as if preparing himself. Slowly, then, and with Hinata's eyes intent upon him, he stretched his hand out in front of him and began to move the very tips of his fingers in short, delicate movements.
For a slight moment nothing seemed to happen, but it was after a blink that sand grains started to swirl before Hinata's stare. Slowly was formed a magnificent, life-sized, unique flower hovering in mid-air. Four blossoms were dotted down the stem, fashioned into the shape of bells with quivered edges, and the leaves were ribbons curling from the bottom tip to entwine loosely about the stem. All aspects swayed gently in a non-existent breeze. Its flawless form was coloured by both the dark blue sky and the moon's white light.
"I wanted to show you that my sand can do more than what you may think. I believed, you might like to know that." Gaara said quietly, and Hinata looked to him for a moment, but his eyes were on his creation. Putting her attention to the flower, Hinata stared at such beauty and thought of the implications of having the ability to shape such an image... When the intuition came to her to reach out, to stroke the collection of apparently luscious sand petals, she obeyed. She touched it softly, like she had the sand that had caught her the first time she met Gaara.
It was then that a harsh breeze came, cut across their roof and shattered the flower into countless pieces. The desert grains first swirled in the air in a dance of constellations before drifting back to Gaara's gourd.
Drawing a small gasp, Hinata looked to Gaara, worried for negativity to cross his features. However, what she saw in his face was not remorse or resentment. For the relief of that, she smiled softly. She centered her focus upon his face to his eyes -and, simultaneously, Gaara met and held her stare. They paused in such a position.
Something broke within Hinata, however, and the idea of whatever had-or perhaps had not—just transpired, fizzled into naught. She turned her head quickly away from the boy of the Sand and blanked her expression. She wondered: did he know why she looked away? In the edges of her sight Hinata saw Gaara's eyes leave her and she bit her lip as a silence, the uneasiness smothering, came between them.
Hinata knew why that brokenness occurred: She still remembered it was once wrong for him and her to... to...
Distracting herself, Hinata looked up to put her attention to the full moon. A smile melted onto her face. She had always felt a secret affinity with the moon. When she had been younger she would have spoken her secrets and held her sadness and thoughts under its always accepting light. No human knew her as did that celestial orb. She trusted the moon as if it was a living being loyal to her, even though beyond her comprehension.
The boy beside her she noticed to be looking to the moon too. However, he did so with a different look in his eyes. Before Hinata could decide what it was, a sudden thought occurred to her, thus somehow she finally knew what she could say to overcome the silence.
"You've changed... a little, at least." There was no response for such a length of time that she considered either repeating herself or shying away, but a quiet voice stole her thoughts.
"That is, in no small part, related to you." For his answer Hinata turned her head to Gaara, but then quickly moved back to stare into the sky, seeing he had looked to her too. Did she believe that? Or, if she did not, then did that mean that she did not trust him? Deciding she had only imagined his words, she elaborated her original point.
"You seem calmer, happier now," She paused to find bravery, "I'm glad for you."
"Thanks." She heard it: he had genuine gratitude in his tone. A smile came for this proof of his elevated happiness, but soon her lips lost the expression as an idea came to her.
"I wish, that I too-"
"You have changed, Hinata; more than you realize." His words had the kunoichi struck dumb for a moment.
"T-t-thank y-you?" She knew the words sounded bewildered and that she also looked it for her sudden flush, but the Sand shinobi beside her... for the ease in his pose, Hinata would almost suspect he was amused. A gentler quiet almost began to spread between them, then, but a thud in Hinata's mind knocked an epiphany into her: she could not let a silence appear just yet. There was an issue, which both teenagers were avoiding mentioning.
He said she was different, now. She had run from this potency before. ...She was different. She would not run away again. Determination flowing, filling her body, Hinata brought her to speak.
"You know," She started with her voice in a whisper, only just above squeaking, despite that determination. It would have to do, "I, I didn't know what I would feel... When I saw you again, I mean. I- I was worried that maybe all I would know would be anger, or sadness, maybe even enough to regret coming at all.
I knew it was likely to be like that and p-probably logical, too... but... I guess I just didn't want to feel those about you. Ever. Even if what I had instead was harder to deal with. It was when I did see you that I realized, in that split second, that I wasn't... angry or sad... but actually happy: because you came, because you were there. I r-realized... that I had missed you," She chuckled partly in joy and partly in bemusement, "I had missed you even though I hardly knew you." However, the frivolity was protection for against her next words. It quickly died.
"I had felt afraid of you more than once. I c-can't deny that. It had been awful seeing you like, like that, while in the forest. But-"
"Hinata." She looked up at the sudden sound of Gaara's voice and turned her vision to him... and her eyes widened, for the look that he had. In the next second, she knew that she would not reject that look this time.
As frozen as the appearance of her skin, Hinata watched as Gaara lifted his hand and ran the back of his fingertips down her cheek before two of his fingers and his thumb curved to grab her chin, his touch soft, light. He used those to slowly, cautiously, lift her head towards his. Anticipation for the coming touch near overwhelmed.
Still he managed to pause before impact. Hinata held Sabaku no Gaara's stare and she quaked a little. How far had they both come, to be back here like this? Was it different now? Was it different enough, that they could-?
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I made you afraid, that you saw me kill, that I made you cry, that I... I hurt you," Gaara muttered these words, obviously suffering much difficulty in stopping himself from averting his gaze from her eyes, "I ask... if you forgive me?"
Hinata, her breath stolen from her, had to force out a few words. She needed to finish what she had begun to say before. He must know.
"But... I knew it wasn't the real you. Now, there's n-nothing... to forgive." Their lips met.
Supreme happiness, uncontrollable and encompassing bliss, enveloped Hinata. This was it: the new beginning of life with experiences full of awakening power just like this time, because she and he were... they were finally strong enough, to allow themselves to need each other. She could only close her eyes and in the kiss lose herself.
The hand not upon Hinata's face Gaara placed gently upon her lower back, so to pull her closer towards him. She accepted his contact, his words, his past and present and future promise. For this time of expression of that... trust... he closed the slightest distance between them. He even let himself give a real, miniscule tremble as Hinata so delicately ran her hands into his hair to twirl the ends of the blood-red tresses round her fingertips. He was allowed to be with this person whose strength was not for destruction, but creation.
Gaara's sand exploded in a whirlwind about them together, rushing and spiralling from their feet to the tops of their heads until a spherical tornado of energy unrelenting swept so strongly around them.
When the time came they separated, though Gaara's arms loosely still hung round Hinata's waist. The sand fell around them slowly in a crystal curtain that glimmered as the moonlight reflected upon the specks. Hinata touched her lips with the tips of her fingers. It would be unbelievable, to think that potency and subtlety were at balance in her for this moment, if she did not believe in the boy she looked up at now. It was true reality, however: she trusted that. When Gaara looked to her, she smiled, and in return Gaara touched and held his forehead to hers.
The moon shimmered gracefully above the two teenagers. The silent protector of the world: giving hope to those without a chance, delivering those who are lost home, and reminding all those who have forfeited in the search for... whatever they believe to be love... that nothing is ever truly lost unless you stop seeking it. The moon, perpetually the embodiment of perfection, is now mirrored forever in two pairs of eyes: one azure and one pearl-white, two beings united eternally.