NAMELESS

Chapter 1

The black haired young ninja stepped out of the administration building of Konoha village. He was looking tired. His clothes were wrinkled and dirty. His sword was hanging on his back. Rubbing his shoulder he stretched lightly.

“Sasuke-kun?” he turned to the sound, closing the back of his left hand over his mouth while yawning.

“Hinata,” one eye closed he nodded to the girl standing a meter away from him.

“Welcome back,” she said smiling lightly. Sasuke nodded again. “Ano…” the girl held her fist in front of her mouth and looked at the ground. “I am looking for Naruto.”

Sasuke sighed dropping his shoulders. “They didn’t come back.” Hinata looked at him confused. “He went to Whirlpool Country with Sakura,” He looked at the girl tiredly, “to search for his mother’s family.” Hinata hugged herself crossing her arms over her chest. She was looking nervous, sad and worried.

“When will… they be back?” she asked shyly.

“Don’t know,” Sasuke shrugged “after weeks, maybe months.”

“O..oh…” she swayed lightly.

“Are you okay?” he walked towards her concerned. She shook her head. Her eyes were glassy.

“What will I do now?” she whispered.

“Hinata?”

“What will I do…”

“Let’s go,” looking around Sasuke held her forearm gently and led her away. When they reached the training grounds he walked to the old logs and propped against one of them. Hinata followed him to the other one beside it. She slid down and crouched, crossing her arms over her knees and put her chin on her hand.

Sasuke waited examining her with his emotionless black eyes. She was looking pale and thinner. It was dark under her eyes as if she didn’t sleep for days. She was biting her thumb lost in her thoughts. Although he wanted to ask what was bothering her he waited for her to tell. He was uneasy not knowing if he should ask first or wait. Hinata was a quiet and closed girl. She would never tell what was in her mind or what was troubling her until someone forced it out from her.

He got to know her when she began to date his teammate, Naruto, a year ago. Hyuuga Hinata was not like the other girls he knew. She was silent, calm, nice, caring and thoughtful. Because of her quiet behavior he didn’t mind her being around them. She only talked when it was necessary or when she was asked something. She didn’t scream, yell, argue or cry loudly but showed her feelings with silent gestures. She smiled lightly not even showing her teeth, her laughter was silent and she had a habit to hide it behind her hand. She cried in secret not showing her tears. Turning her head away she always hid her teary eyes. She shared everybody’s worries and problems but tried to overcome her own troubles by herself. Except her teammates Kiba and Shino everybody waited for her to come to them when she needed help.

When Sasuke realized he liked her more than a friend he kept it to himself. She was his friend’s girlfriend and Hinata always treated him as a friend. She respected his silence and privacy. Sometimes she offered something nicely but had never tried to force him to do it when he didn’t want. While Naruto and Sakura bickered, argued or hustled they stood and watched; Hinata smiling or worried and he was expressionless but annoyed.

A month ago Naruto and Hinata broke up because of the pressure of Hinata’s father. In spite of objecting her father she chose to leave her boyfriend. Naruto was upset, hurt but mostly angry to her. After their break up they ignored each other. Hinata didn’t step out of Hyuuga compound unless it was for work.

Before the young sannin left for their fifteen days mission the girl came and wanted to talk with Naruto. But he didn’t stop to listen her using their mission as an excuse. Sasuke remembered her begs to talk to him for only one minute. He said they could talk after he was back. However he wasn’t back. On their mission he heard a few things about his mother and left to pursue his past. Sakura decided to accompany Naruto on his journey in spite of coming back to the village with Sasuke. He saw no reason to string along with Naruto to find his family.

“Hinata?” Sasuke crouched in front of the girl, who was crying silently. She sniffled and wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand.

“Naruto is not coming back…” she said with a low voice Sasuke hardly heard her. “What will I do now?”

“Hinata, what is it you want to talk with him?” he looked at her patiently. She was staring at the ground and biting her bottom lip. She was on tiptoe with expectation for Naruto’s turn and he didn’t come back. She tied all her hopes to him and now left by herself she didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t tell anybody about her problem. If her father found out it would be worst than death. The shame. Blame. Disgust.

At eighteen years old she was accepted worthy in her family. Maybe she was not as good as her younger sister or her cousin but she was worth to be introduced to the people as a daughter with pride by her father. She wasn’t the black sheep anymore.

Her father accepted her friendship with Naruto but he didn’t allow the relationship to be gone far. Being main family member of a big and old clan wasn’t easy. There were a lot of things that tied the members. Nobody was free in clans. Everybody had a responsibility for it. They had to be careful from how they walked, talked to what they wore. A little mistake, a little bad behavior would effect all in clan. Especially for main families the rules were stricter and there was absolutely no freedom or private life.

Hinata didn’t want to face the wrath of the clan. She didn’t want to live those days of her childhood again. Her father should be ashamed of her. He would exclude her again.

“I needed to talk with Naruto,” she sniffed. Sasuke waited for her to continue but she didn’t.

“Can’t it wait until he is back?” Hinata shook her head.

“Maybe you can send him a message?” He thought his suggestion was absurd. He knew they went to Whirlpool Country but he had no idea about whereabouts of his teammates. They could be anywhere. Hinata thought about it but shook her head again.

“I can’t. What if someone else find it…”

“What is it you don’t want anybody to know but only Naruto?” he frowned. “What happened?”

“I…” Hinata hugged herself tighter. She didn’t know who she could go for help. Her sensei’s hands were full with her child and being a single mother wasn’t easy. She couldn’t dare to talk with Kiba or Shino although they were her closest friends, brothers. Her family was out of option. She thought about the guy in front of her. He was asking to help her.

He was Naruto’s friend, teammate. They were always together. Even she spent more time with his teammates than the time she was alone with her boyfriend. Naruto had always invited them to go out together. Sometimes Sakura and Sasuke refused and left them alone to give them some privacy. But it wasn’t important to Naruto. He liked to be with a lot of people in spite of being alone with her. The only times he preferred to be alone on their dates were when he wanted to make love.

She knew she could trust Sasuke. He was one of the people who didn’t find her silence weird. He respected her and accepted her as herself. He never judged or called her weak. He was careless how much strong she was. He went by what she was capable of. On a training camp he was her team captain and she learnt a lot of things from him and about him. He was a good leader. He knew about all his teammates and helped everybody to improve themselves in that one month. He was strict about the work but when the time came he let them have fun. While he got along well with everybody there was always a line delimiting people to get closer to him. She was one of the people who he let in his aloof world. Of course being Naruto’s girlfriend helped it a lot.

The ex-avenger settled himself a simple life in Konoha after his brother’s death and Akatsuki’s fall. Most of time he was on missions with teams or alone. Sometimes he hung out with his teammates but in crowd he was always standing aside not mingling with people around him. He was always a watcher from outside. He didn’t care to join arguments or discussions. Hinata usually found herself standing beside him watching their friends.

“I-I am scared,” she cried. “I don’t know what to do. Naruto…” she took a deep breath.

“Hinata, tell me what is wrong. Maybe I can help,” Sasuke asked one more time patiently. “If it’s necessary I can go and find Naruto.” Hinata scratched her finger with her nail hard frowning.

“I… I am pregnant,” she whispered. Her head was down but Sasuke could see the redness on her cheeks. Not knowing what to say he sat down in front of her. He knew how it was for a woman to be pregnant illegitimate. It was something not accepted in families like hers. The mother and the child would be looked down. They would be exiled. Not only them but also the family of the girl would lose its respectability in the society.

Beside the sudden pang in his heart to learn the girl he liked was pregnant, as his friend, he was sad for her too. He rubbed his temples while swearing like a trooper to Naruto.

“I’ll go and find Naruto,” he said. “I left them at Rain Village three days ago. They still should be around there. You two can get married and…”

“No.” Hinata said. “I… father won’t let me marry him,” she put her forehead on her knees. Sasuke looked at her.

“Why do you want to talk with him then?”

“I don’t know,” the muffled respond came with a sniffle. She just didn’t know what to do. She held her head and took another deep breath. “I can’t give birth to this child,” she cried shaking her head. She couldn’t have an abortion in the village. It would be heard by everybody next day.

“Do you want to have an abortion?” Sasuke asked. She nodded.

They sat there in silence. Sasuke gazed away and Hinata cried.

“Tomorrow. I have a mission in Hidden Grass Village,” Sasuke said looking at a bird hopping on the field. Hinata looked up to him. Turning to her he continued “I’ll ask you to accompany me. It was an A-Rank… On our way back we can go Central City…” Hinata looked at him with wide eyes.

“There… you can…” Sasuke starched the back of his neck.

“Thank you.” Hinata smiled half-heartily grateful for her friend’s help. She couldn’t do it by herself.

End of Chapter 1