A/N: Hello readers :D I have to apologize for being a bit late, but I was a bit sick. Anyway, this chapter is kinda like a filler, but also not. Enjoy :) I also forgot again to reply to reviews, I'll definitely do it this time, believe it! :D

Please R&R

Disclaimer: Not mine, just this story's plot is.

Different Words Same Heart

Chapter 6

Walking side by side, Hinata and Sasuke walked in companionable silence. Both lost in their thoughts.

A few days ago they stopped at Amagakure and gave the scroll Pain wanted so badly, back to him. It took a week to get back to Pain, although they both weren't in their best states, but they managed it.

In their trip to Amagakure, the village hidden in the rain, it was silent. Both of them decided to focus more on recuperating and since Hinata was taught few basics about Medical ninjutsu, she managed to heal a few of Sasuke's wounds too.

After giving the scroll to their leader, they headed back to their home base. Although, it didn't feel exactly home. And it was most likely that not one of the Akatsuki felt that way about being in the base of their separate homes. After all, the Akatsuki members is nothing but shinobi with a goal in their mind that even if it means abandoning their previous villages, families, friends and their comrades.

Some, it might have hurt, but others, probably not. Those who were hurt, were probably her and Itachi Uchiha, but also maybe Sasuke. But who knew what he was actually thinking. Sasuke was a closed book that only some could understand when they lost something precious in their life. However, to understand the whole deal, you would have to lose everything.

Sasuke lost everything that he held precious to him. And that meant his entire family. His mother, gone. His father, gone. His brother, a criminal. To add to the mess, he just got his brother back and Hinata honestly didn't know how things were between the two of them. Was Sasuke planning something or honestly forgiving him? Nothing was sure between the two siblings.

For that few facts, Hinata's pain couldn't even compare to his. Her family was still whole, few barely hidden cracks, but still everyone was there. The main house and branch family wasn't on good terms, but when were they? It was a separate two families, if you look at it in another light. The main house looked down upon the branch family, while the branch family harboured hatred for the main house.

Her sister, however, was a different case. Hinata didn't hate Hanabi, quite the opposite, really. She really loved her sister, but the position of the clan heir caused tension between them. Hanabi really wanted the heir position, while Hinata would want it to change the family to a whole.

At least, Hanabi doesn't have to worry about the competition any more. Hinata thought bitterly.

Quickly shaking her head, ridding her bitter thoughts about her family and her situation. The action didn't go by unnoticed by Sasuke. Snapping his head up to her, he looked at her, questioning her action.

"Hinata?" he inquired.

"Huh? Sasuke-kun?"

"You just shook your head without reason." He pointed out, looking forward to the narrow path before them.

"Oh.. Ano, I was thinking about-" She paused, thinking carefully about her answer, before answering, "-my family." This gained the attention of Sasuke.

His eyes widened a bit, before he recovered his impassive façade. "For what reasons? Their behind you now." He pointed out.

She nodded solemnly, "I know. But that's exactly why I'm thinking of them. Sasuke, tell me, have you never thought of Naruto-kun and Sakura-chan?" She asked softly, hesitant in her question, pausing when she asked him about Naruto and Sakura.

He moved his gaze down to meet hers, "don't talk about them," he snapped.

"Gomen," She muttered, lowering her gaze to the ground. Neji always had this thing about destiny and fate after the tragic death of his family, but luckily that changed after Naruto knocked some sense into him, but the way Sasuke was reminder her awfully of Neji back when he was still blinded by lies and hatred.

Back then, she was a disgrace. Weak in her families eyes and to Neji, she would have always stayed that way. However, together they worked hard, passing through Chunin in the first year after Naruto's departure. When two years went by, they both were promoted to Jonin, Neji being first and Hinata following not long after. That little fact proved that she wasn't what they thought of her. She wasn't weak in her Genin days nor was she weak now.

"D-Demo, Sasuke-kun, even though I hate my family right now and those who treat me like scum, there still comes times when I m-miss them," she lied, however, not about the part that she's missing them, but more like the part about hating them. "You're not perfect. They meant something to you, no matter how hard you try to hide it." She stated, half muttering it.

Sasuke turned his head to address or maybe snap at her again, she didn't know, but before he could do that, Hinata walked in front of him rather than next to him. The way she walked right now practically screamed that it was the end of the conversation.

Hinata felt proud of herself for finally telling someone kind of what was on her mind. Even though she could almost feel the scowl burning into the back of her head, but that didn't bother her.

A few hours later, the glare finally subsided when the sun finally decided to set and the moon was already visible in the sky. They both stopped when the road split into two sides, the left leading to a village and the right leading to another forest.

Without saying a word, Sasuke decided on the right road that led to the forest. Hinata scowled slightly at his retreating back, not believing that he wanted to sleep in a forest rather than a bed. She was a girl after all and that meant that she would rather prefer it that she slept on a soft bed, not on the hard ground.

He's worse than Hanabi when she's mad, she thought when she noted that he was probably still mad at her. She followed after him, making sure to keep few steps behind his brooding form. Or she thought he was brooding, maybe it was just because she was starting to feel guilty about saying those things to him.

Finally, they reached a good place to rest the night. Relieved, Hinata removed her Akatsuki robe from herself. She silently made a bed for her with her heavy robe. Sasuke seemed to do the same at the time.

"We'll have to take turns taking watch through the night." Sasuke piped up over the awkward silence.

"Ano, why?" She asked softly while sitting cross legged on her robe.

"We're Akatsuki, meaning we probably have enemies." He stated and Hinata resisted scowling at him for saying that as if she was an idiot for even asking why.

"Oh. I'll take the first watch, I'll wake you up at one? It would be best if we move when the sun hasn't come up yet."

"Hn. I'm going to sleep now, wake me up at the time you said you would. We leave at 5." Hinata nodded at Sasuke and looked at him as he slowly took in the position to sleep.

She quietly looked at the starts until her partner's breathing became relaxed, meaning that he was deep asleep. She turned her gaze to Sasuke's still form. If she didn't know any better or wasn't a shinobi, she would probably thought the man before her was dead and not just sleeping.

To any person that can look at him, would think that he was an innocent man and not a wanted criminal that abandoned his village and most likely killed few people himself. But all shinobi had to kill some time in their life, the only difference between a criminal and a village shinobi was killing an innocent person and killing a criminal.

She still remembered her first time that she had to kill a person out of hatred. It was a time when they all got a mission as team eight again, the only difference was that she was the Jonin, playing the roll of team leader while Kiba and Shino was Chunin. The mission just required them to scout the border between the Wind country and Fire country.

The mission turned bad, however. Hinata and her team was attacked, but easily managed to overpower them. Until another shinobi arrived and nearly took Kiba's life if it wasn't for Hinata that used her 64 palms on him and lastly pouring most of her chakra into her gentle fist technique, delivering the final blow to his heart.

After that happened, she finally understood why Naruto went into the Kyuubi state. All that hatred when you see a fellow team-mate getting hurt or when hatred builds up and finally releases its full power. The only difference was that the Kyuubi state was much worse than just the anger that she released when she was angry at seeing Shino laying motionless and Kiba and Akamaru bleeding out on the ground.

Sure she killed people before for the sake of the mission, but none of that guilt could compare to the guilt she felt when she killed that man out of anger and hatred. The times that she killed shinobi before were nothing compared to that feeling that she felt when those feelings took over. Her mother always told her that as long as there is good, there will also be bad, and that meant where there is love there will be hatred. All that matters is that the good in a person overshadows the bad.

After Sasuke's parents and clan's downfall, it was likely that he locked everyone out. Not wanting to feel the pain of losing someone any longer. To come home to a bloody mess, nobody can feel pain like that.

Shaking her head to bring herself out of her reverie, she looked at the moon, noting that soon she would have to wake Sasuke up and rest herself. The time passed quickly when a person has so many thoughts going around in their heads. Quietly, she looked at the moon, deciding that thoughts about Sasuke wasn't a good thing. Although she had him as a partner, it was Naruto's wish to bring him back to Konoha and that meant that the job of trying to understand him was team seven's.

"Sasuke-kun," She muttered when she walked over to where he was sleeping. His eyes shot open at the sudden sound and person next to him.

Blinking slowly, he nodded to her. "Go sleep, I'm up." Even a ninja would be a little drowsy when waking up apparently.

"Thank you, Sasuke-kun." She said and went back to her make shift bed. Sasuke was in the tree, looking at her with no emotions showing. Involuntarily, a shiver ran up her spine when she noticed his gaze on her, seemingly studying her.

"G-Good night," She muttered and turned her back to him, closing her eyes in the process.

"Hn."

Sasuke being the one lost in his thoughts as the silence took their small camp over once more. The only audible thing was the cricket sounds and a water fall that was a reasonable distance away from them. She focused on his breathing near her and slowly she fell into a dreamless sleep. No annoying thoughts troubling her any longer than what was really necessary.

-xxx-

The following morning Sasuke woke Hinata up by poking her shoulder. Hard. Groaning, Hinata sat up straight, not even bothering to look at him. She noted that he smirked briefly when he saw her ignoring him.

"Let's go."

She nodded at him and picked up her Akatsuki cloak from the ground. After dusting it off, she put it on. Without words, they both resumed their journey to their base.

"Ano, Sasuke-kun, can we stop at the village near our base?"

"Yes. We have to get our supplies after all."

She sighed in relief. She really did need new clothes for her stay at the Akatsuki and some ninja tools while they were at it.

"Arigato," she said as they walked once again just like the previous day, side by side. Just this time, the silence between them still had a slight edge to it, but was more comfortable.

Sasuke was the first this time to break the silence between them after the first ten minutes, "What was you family like, that made you hate them?"

She was slightly shocked at the question to say the least. She thought for a while to what she should say, but said after a while "Things were al right for the first five years of my life, after that my mother passed away from sickness. It was after her death that everything seemed worse for me. The main house and branch family feud was more apparent for me and the hatred between them was surprising to me. My father held high expectations from me because Neji was the Hyuga's genius, but was from the branch family so therefore he couldn't become clan heir.

"I think it may have been after my sister became more like my father that I decided to make myself stronger so that she wouldn't become fully like him at all. Even after I became Jounin along with Neji-niisan, he still looked down upon me. That is when my hatred started to grow toward the Hyuga family." She finished her story. Some parts were lies of course, but not all of them. She told the truth about her mother, though.

Sasuke pondered over her words for a while, "Hn. I had my fair share of expectant fathers before."

"Nani? Really?" Hinata asked, half surprised while another part of her wasn't that surprised, because clans are sometimes arrogant and need to prove themselves great.

He closed his eyes briefly and nodded his head. "Yes, he wanted me to be better and become a prodigy."

"Ano.. But you were one?"

"After my clan massacre. Not before then" He said simply.

"Oh.. I understand, Sasuke-kun. It must have been hard for you"

Shrugging, he said, "Hn."

Silence ensued shortly after his short answer and Hinata understood why. Sasuke wasn't someone to really talk, much less share information. That was, however, something that mostly everyone learned in their times at the academy.

Soon, after walking for hours long, they reached the village that showed they were near their base. Although it was a small village, a lot of ninja's were known to come through this village. Therefore they had many ninja tools as well as ninja attires.

After spotting a nearby clothes shop, Hinata turned to Sasuke. "I won't be long. I'll meet you in an hour at that dumpling shop, Sasuke-kun?"

Nodding his answer, Sasuke walked away, probably to tend to his own business in the village.

Furrowing her brow slightly, Hinata walked into the shop and was immediately greeted by a friendly middle aged woman, "Good afternoon! How may I help you?" Hinata couldn't help but notice that the woman was slightly scared when Hinata entered the shop.

"I would just like some shinobi wears, please."

Nodding, the woman mentioned with a shaky hand toward the corner of the shop. "Here they all are." She smiled at Hinata and went back to stand behind the counter.

"Arigato," Hinata called at her retreating back. She shook her head at the worried or scared woman, she didn't know which was it.

She turned her gaze to the clothes in front of her and browsed through it, carefully looking at the materials to see which would last longer in fights with other shinobi.

After finding what she needed, Hinata walked to the counter to pay. She just bought plain shinobi clothes, black pants with a standard black turtle neck shinobi shirt and lastly, a burble vest that went over it. But none of that really mattered since she would wear her Akatsuki cloak above her clothes, though she did choose carefully for reasons like fighting again.

The woman took the clothes from Hinata's hand and flinched when she accidentally touched her hand.

"T-This would be 50 ryō" The woman shakily said. Hinata frowned at the woman and grasped her hand to which the woman paled at.

"Please don't hurt me." She gasped out.

"Nani? I just want to know the reason for you being so afraid?"

"Y-You're A-Akatsuki." The woman said, nervous at being asked that question. Hinata finally understood and let the woman's hand go.

"Al right." She muttered, quite shocked that a person was so afraid. "Thank you for the clothes." After saying that, Hinata left the shop quickly.

Shaking her head to rid herself of the shock, she looked at the sky. She noted that there was still time before she had to go meet with Sasuke.

She walked slowly to the dumpling shop, noticing the looks that people threw at her when she walked by. It was similar to the look that the woman gave her when she first walked into the store.

Is the Akatsuki really that bad? She asked herself, but quickly scolded herself. Of course they were. They were criminals. Most likely known so well by this village because a base was located near the village.

She smiled at the people also sitting at the dumpling shop, before taking a seat herself, waiting for Sasuke to get there. She pointedly ignored the hushed whispers that broke out near her.

Before getting annoyed at the attention, he finally showed up. After noticing her, he walked to their table and put a black backpack on the table before sitting down.

"What's in there?" She asked.

To answer her question, he pulled out a kunai out of the bag. "Weapons."

"A-Ah. Al right."

-xxx-

A/N: Sorry for cutting at such a lame place, but I didn't know what to write more. This was more of a filler, but I decided to put in at least some development in this chapter. Lately I was feeling a bit sick so I couldn't update so fast, but at least I did, right? Heh. Sorry if this chapter was a bit more boring than the previous, but I have more plans for the next few chapters at least. The grammar and punctuation may suck a bit in this chapter.. Also: I plan to change this story's name. When I add the next chapter, I'll change it so any suggestions are nice.

Thank you for reading, please review. 3

~Ronni C.