Evanescent and Enduring

Chapter Eight

He had done it. He was doing it. He was laying waste to Konoha. Madara was long gone from the efforts of the Ninja Alliance, Naruto was in the intensive care ward in the hospital, and no one could hope to stop him. From the Hyuga Compound, she could hear the screams of the citizens and the downing of Konoha's greatest ninjas. The village was to fall by sun down.

He had yet to touch the Hyuga; his army had been ordered to leave it to the last, she knew it even if she hadn't been there to hear him say it.

As the sky seeped red from the fires and blood, she calmly trimmed the lilacs in the garden. Her cousin and her sister were at her side, one fearing for her life and the other agitated that they were not out there helping their comrades. But they understood, just as much as she, that the enemy was not going to touch them. They understood, just as much as she, that the Uchiha would never touch them.

She had worn her most expensive and most beautiful kimono for him, had decorated her hair with the most elaborate jewels and pins for him, had painted her face with the most delicate and breath-taking make-up for him. Just for him. She had not warned her own village of his coming destruction… just for him. Everything – just for him.

She couldn't help but be a little spiteful as she clipped, a little vindictively, a lilac bloom from the bush. She would think that he would be grateful for her – that he better be grateful for her. She turned to her sister, who carefully slipped the blossom in her hair and stepped back with a nod. Her sister had been waiting for this day as well…

The front gate of the Hyuga Compound splintered open in a reverberating crash, but she didn't even blink as she strolled to the koi pond. She hoped that the koi would not be too disturbed by the invasion. He had always liked koi fish.

"Hinata-sama!" her cousin called out in alarm.

She did not move or even startle when she felt the giant sword at her neck, just below her neck. From the corner of her eye, she saw that it was one of the members of Team Taka, a grinning madness of a sword master.

"I wonder what he'll do," he speculated, "if I were to kill you."

"He would kill you," she replied with certainty.

They did not doubt that he would, and the sword master grinned and lowered his sword, turning to her sister instead, who was just as impassive as she was. Always a Hyuga…

Soon an Uchiha.

There was madness to be had in the Hyuga Compound then as she heard screams from the servant quarters and blood spill from the guard towers. She frowned, a delicate movement that did not deter from her beauty, and believed that he would not take kindly to what his army was doing to her clan.

In fact, as one ignorant ninja came up to her with a sword ready to slit her if she were not to obey his advances, she merely stepped aside just enough to avoid her kimono from being bloodied when he ran his own katana through his own man who had dared to eye her with anything but reverence and devotion.

In the background, she could hear his other men and women stop their attack on her clan and she graced him with a smile.

"Sasuke," she breathed.

He looked like a God, all bloodied and hard – his eyes a fathomless black and his expression blank – his clothes ruffled, opened to show his torso and abs, and he cared nothing more about Konoha when he laid his eyes on her again.

And again, he knew that he was hers.

She let out a surprised squeak when his arm wound around her waist and drew her to his hard chest, her kimono staining red in an instant, and he kissed her hard and sure and absolutely enamoured. His tongue pried open her mouth and she moaned, softening against his body, and she even let out a protesting whine when he finally withdrew.

He smirked at her pout.

"I have returned," he said, as if that made up for all these years…

And it did.

She smiled and kissed his throat, a soft brush that made him shudder with want and obsession.

"I love you, Sasuke," she whispered above his heart.

He pulled back just enough to look her in the eye, and smirked when he sure that she was awake this time.

"I love you too, Hinata," he returned, a little hoarse, a little rough, but every bit truthful and dedicated.

And then he dipped his head to capture her lips again, as searing as the wildfire that swept through the village and burning it to the ground. Their union was baptized in the flames of his destruction, the ashes of their once beloved village… and consummated that night in her bedroom, among the broken window and the dust of the hollowed village.

Finally, they both knew, she was his too.

End

xxx

the point