.

Nightmares

.

Prologue:

Hate

.

"Another beauty

Loved by a beast

Another tale of infinite dreams."

-Gethsemane by Nightwish

.

.

.

XXXX

.

When he noticed her after returning, Uchiha Sasuke hated her.

He disliked her white Hyuuga eyes, despised the innocence found in the light lavender depths. He'd grind his teeth at her voice, soft and polite, every time Naruto held a conversation with her and the Uchiha was forced to listen. After all, the traitor couldn't be trusted, couldn't be on his own, couldn't be free. If a teammate wasn't with him, he couldn't walk around Konoha unaccompanied.

The girl irritated him when she stuttered, her cheeks burning in embarrassment at the silliest of notions, her petite body hidden beneath thick layers of cloth.

It annoyed him that when she looked at him there was nothing but a pure sense of curiosity. She'd regard him with such when the Uzumaki introduced them, her pale gaze ungrudging, honest, and vulnerable.

Sasuke would have preferred fear, hatred, even pity.

Curiosity?

Not so much.

Her eyes made him feel like a pinned specimen in a laboratory, carefully scrutinized whenever she thought no one was looking. The translucency of those irises made it seem as if she could see right through him...as if she could possibly grasp what went on in his mind.

How ludicrous.

"Nothing escapes Konoha's white eyes," he'd heard.

What an unrealistic assumption. Sasuke was certain the Byakugan had a blind spot somewhere.

He admitted she was no longer the wallflower she was at the Academy: quiet and withdrawn, always civil and meek, getting flustered at everything and nothing, marginalized for her shy and humble nature. Being instructed into her family's techniques should've distinguished her from her peers, but it hadn't. Despite her Hyuuga heritage, she would constantly hesitate to give her all in training spars, wary of causing harm to Academy classmates.

Hn.

She's a shinobi, not a mother hen, he'd thought back at age seven, a few months after the massacre of his clan. He'd dismissed her as insignificant the second her face was shoved into the dirt because he'd known.

Known she could've won but had refused to try. Instead, she'd admitted defeat, cheekbones pooled with warm blood as she bowed to her opponent.

How weak.

"She's pretty strong," the Jinchuuriki of the Leaf claimed after a taijutsu spar with the Hyuuga, the opposite of what Sasuke had come to believe years before.

Sasuke, to an almost nonexistent extent, agreed that the orange-clad ninja had a point.

While the idiot used brute force to charge in, the Hyuuga merely danced her way in to block nerves and incapacitate muscles, leaving her opponent paralyzed and stunned.

"It's just a demonstration!" the blond had assured hastily as he tried to regain some of his lost dignity.

This, after all, was the first time they attempted to train together and they needed to see each other's abilities to acquire a training style and whatnot.

...Excuses.

Sasuke then thought with dark amusement that for such a seemingly incompetent girl, the Hyuuga was fast. She acted with an efficiency he'd originally refused to acknowledge and had proved him wrong without even trying. Although not as fast as him, she was agile enough to cause notable damage.

With her exceptional chakra control and even more exceptional patience, Naruto learned ways to not only improve control over his ridiculous energy reserves but in defending himself against tenketsu blockers without overwhelming his body.

Sasuke's sardonic amusement had been short-lived when she offered them bentos the next day.

That, and onigiris.

Memories of his childhood had rushed into his mind, leaving him rooted to the spot, staring at the food that had obviously been well-prepared. But his past memories weren't the main problem. No, he'd eaten riceballs after his mother and clan had been killed by his elder brother. No, it wasn't that.

It'd been the tomato fillings and the sincerity in which she smiled and given them to him.

She'd been sweet and awakened sentiments he'd locked into his heart before ripping it out.

She made him feel weak, normal, and he'd walked a path of darkness where Death roamed to get rid of that impotence, only to have a simple gesture of kindness crack his wall.

Kindness...wasn't given to a traitor nor was it well-received by the Uchiha.

It was utterly unfathomable.

Stupid Hyuuga.

Sasuke's initial indifference grew to despise along with the days, fastening itself to the things she represented and the possessions she held and he lacked.

Innocence, white and pure, untainted by the horrors of death and betrayal. A clan, a family, the title of heir.

She had everything he craved and he detested her for that, even now, four months later after their official meeting. She was everything he was not and he couldn't comprehend how, after the war and the death of countless shinobi, she could still live with a clear gaze.

It infuriated him.

Just how mindless could this girl be, he'd wondered unceasingly as he sat under the shade of a tree, forced to witness how the Uzumaki and Hyuuga trained together.

Sasuke...truly despised her.

XXX

.

Of course, personal inclinations mattered little when on missions. Thus, it was only a matter of time before his negative views were forcibly replaced by an unenthusiastic sense of duty.

A mission that ordered him to find the Hyuuga after her sudden kidnapping was issued to his new ANBU team. As much as he felt like breaking each of her tiny bones and snap her slender white neck because she was a puzzle he couldn't put together throughout sleepless nights, he had to do as commanded and act accordingly.

Little did the insomnia that plagued him for the past week matter. Of little to no importance was the fact that tonight was one of those nights in which she was still a mystery he couldn't explain and his memories of long ago haunted him.

In this human world, Sasuke was sure most people would call those memories Nightmares.

They were ever-present, lingering in the corners of his mind, ready to torment him and drag him into a void where Madness ruled without opposition accompanied by the smell of Death. They were constant and loud, always burning, always torturing him, forever stacked in his mind for later uncontrolled retrieval. The Nightmares were chaotic and most of the time, unpredictable.

It was bound to be a dark night.

Sasuke glanced back at the towering green doors of the village, his frown hidden behind a porcelain mask.

"Damn dobe," he murmured, faulting the blond for not being home to take the Uchiha's place in this plan. It was plain bad luck that the Uzumaki was out of Fire Country territory.

Turning away, Sasuke followed after his squad, effortlessly catching up to their speed.

Even with the exchanged reports from other teams and the Inuzuka tracking dogs at their disposal, it would take more than a week for them to pinpoint the Hyuuga's location.

XXX

.

After continuous days of sleeplessness and active search, he finally found her.

Sasuke stepped into the wet, musty chamber before him, his emotionless eyes flat as he bypassed the two guards he'd just annihilated and watched her. The little Hyuuga princess with eyes like the moon and face of a doll.

The even up-and-down of her ample chest as she slept made his veins run cold with Disdain and Rage, emotions he was well-acquainted with. As he stared at her slumbering form on the wooden table her captors – without a doubt – had strapped her on a while ago, at the black violet strands of long and oily hair sprawled carelessly to the side, and at parted, split lips, the unmistakable rush of Jealousy and Contempt overtook his senses, blinding him without consent.

For a pause that felt longer than necessary, he stood with his bloody katana in hand, still, wondering how in hell she managed to sleep, unperturbed, after knowing she had been kidnapped, beaten, and tortured by a group of renegade Mist ninjas who'd probably hunted her down for her gifted eyes, when he himself could not after years of trying?

She was sleeping.

Sleeping.

He felt his jaw clench.

Stupid Hyuuga.

He'd heard the scream that gave way to her position just as he'd entered the seemingly abandoned hideout. The bloodcurdling cry—that had against his self-control managed to raise goose-bumps on his flesh— had bounced off the walls in an infinite echo. But now, after all the things she had gone through, she...slept?

She looked peaceful, as if by succumbing to a deep slumber her reality would fade and she'd wake to find herself in her room, safe, warm, and with her family back in her village.

Stupid, stupid Hyuuga girl.

All Nightmares were there to stay. They wouldn't vanish; he, of all people, knew that. It was about time the little kunoichi learned that as well.

Red eyes narrowed, taking note of her tattered black thermal shirt, ripped beyond recognition. It hung to her figure by mere threads, her dark green vest likely discarded in some godforsaken place.

Underneath the fresh blood on her person, his Sharingan detected patches of angry bruises covering her neck and face, the purple eggplant color of raw meat a high contrast to her natural white pallor.

For a macabre moment, he internally remarked on the deep mauve-crimson tint that seemed to be a better match than the usual lavender against her creamy flesh.

Her wrists and ankles were tied by thick leather straps that held on tight, immobilizing her body as he for once took over the title of the inspector and not the object observed. The tables had turned, and now it was he who watched her closely.

Her black pants were filthy, torn, and stiff with dried blood. One look at her was enough to tell him that external bleeding wasn't the only issue. If his intention was to return her to Konoha alive, he had to move. Now.

It was his mission to complete and if he failed, that crazy Hokage might just assign him D-rank missions again. Not to mention what the Hyuuga prodigy or Naruto would say if he allowed the girl to die. Not that he cared about what either of them thought.

Without wasting any more time, he cut the restraints, the sharp blade of his katana slicing soundlessly. He scooped her up in his arms, wanting to get this over with and drag whoever was willing (probably Rock Lee) to the training grounds for a devastating but much-needed fight.

Diffusing the tight tension this mission had brought had quickly become a priority.

Before he could exit the place altogether, two crystalline containers caught his attention, the dim glare of a dirty, aged lamp – the only source of light in the room – reflecting on their surface.

He paused, his gaze instantly drawn. Adjusting the small girl upon his shoulder, he neared with silent steps, a sense of foreboding growing deep in his innards.

Curiosity outmaneuvered his reluctance, and his free hand reached for one of the jars. When he realized its contents, a disturbing chill ran down his spine.

A lavender orb, large and unblinking, floated in the clear liquid, staring back at him expressionlessly.

He felt his stomach turn, a revolt he attempted to disregard.

He'd seen far worse, why was this plucked eye any different? She'd been careless, getting captured like that.

And yet, his fingers clenched around the flask, his jaw set.

Stupid, stupid Hyuuga.

Without looking back at the corpses on the floor, Uchiha Sasuke took the two glass containers and left with an unconscious Hyuuga in arms.

XXXX

.

.

.

A/N: Post-War AU.

To avoid confusion, Hinata is a Jonin and was kidnapped; Sasuke and his ANBU team found her in Water Country 3 weeks after.

Do I deserve a review?

9.11.13

Revised: 5.14.20