They

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Notes: We’re at the fourth chapter- actually the fifth since I combined chapter three and four last update- so it’s plot-time! Hopefully things will move forward a bit quicker and more updates in the future than it has been in the past.

Please read and enjoy.

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Chapter Five

“Are you sure it’s okay?”

A small forced smile as the young woman turned on her heel, already holding out an umbrella and ready to unfurl it, “Hai…I can walk home by myself, Naruto-kun.” Hinata finished softly, a light blush gracing her pale cheeks.

The blonde-haired boy pouted, in what Hinata thought was the most adorable manner.

But then Naruto grinned, gently patted the girl’s dark hair, ruffling it up at bit.

“Alright then, but you’d better get home safely Hinata-chan. If you don’t, I won’t ever forgive myself for letting you go out in that.” Naruto said, jerking his thumb back to the archway of the school, where rain was literally coming down in buckets.

Hinata ducked her head, her face all but burning after Naruto unexpectedly touched her hair.

‘It isn’t real…’ a part of her whispered, causing Hinata to cringe.

“Hey…”

Hinata glanced up to see Naruto’s expression change to one of concern.

“Ano sa, I don’t have to be at the club meeting, so if you…”

“Ah, but you’re the president, it would look very bad if the leader of the club bailed out on a meeting.” Hinata corrected.

Naruto frowned- more like pouted- arms crossed over his chest as he grumbled, “I guess you’re right…”

Hinata smiled again as she walked towards the door, “I…I’ll be fine, Naruto-kun. Please don’t worry.”

Naruto nodded and waved goodbye, “Alright, if you’re okay with it. Bye Hinata! See you tomorrow.”

The girl nearly tripped over her own shoes as she heard Naruto say her name.

Just…her name, without a respectful suffix. It sounded intimate and a lot ‘cuter’ than adding ‘chan’ to the end.

But just as the girl was about to breeze out of the shoe locker room, her spirits high, Hinata realized, yet again, that…maybe this wasn’t suppose to happen.

That…she wasn’t meant to be with Naruto. Because if this was a ‘false’ sense of reality, then maybe this was the dream…as opposed to the nightmare that was yesterday.

Had she been anyone else, Hinata would have thought to place the blame on Shikamaru for bringing her around.

Hinata felt…that she would have been perfectly happy NOT thinking that the monster had been real.

On the other hand…Hinata could ‘almost’ understand why he was so curious to find out what happened.

To have almost a full day of one’s life fogged and clouded beyond reason and to have a ‘fake’ life, a false sense of security, placed over those missing pieces like a big blanket…

The girl underneath the umbrella trembled.

Yes, Hinata could imagine how…unsettling…no scary that realization must be.

And…to also think that you were alone in that realization, it would drive anyone- least of all herself- to do desperate acts just to get someone to believe.

Hinata frowned as she shifted uncomfortably, “That still doesn’t give him an excuse to pull up my blouse…or to take off his shirt in front of me like it was no big deal,” the girl mumbled to herself.

As she slipped through the open wrought iron gateway of the school, Hinata felt her face flush with warmth; even then she shook her head in denial.
“That…didn’t mean anything.” Hinata muttered yet again to herself.

“Oi…you! Wait up!”

“Shikamaru…get back here!” a girl’s voice piped up.

“Yeah, quit trying to ditch us.” another guy’s voice replied, but it sounded different, deeper in fact than Shikamaru’s.

Without looking back, Hinata could tell by the sound of turning bicycle spooks that Shikamaru was ignoring the requests…demands of his friends to go back to them.

Within a moment, Hinata gave a side long glance to the boy who was pulling along a bike with one hand while holding an umbrella over his head with the other.

Hinata kept her gaze rooted to the sidewalk, her shoes nearly missing a large puddle of water as she walked.

“You…you really shouldn’t just abandon them like that.” Hinata managed to say.

Beside her, Shikamaru shrugged, “They’ll get over it…”

“Please stop following me.” Hinata said softly, yet the underlying force could not be denied as the girl sped up her pace to walk ahead of the teenage boy.

As he watched Hinata hurry to the first pedestrian crossing, Shikamaru scowled.

Hinata was acting…rather cold for someone who seemed so nice and approachable ‘before’ all of that happened.

Rather than being perturbed or considering it all ‘too troublesome’; Shikamaru pushed his bicycle forward, sloshing through several puddles, while at the same time attempting to balance the umbrella in order to keep himself dry.

When he reached Hinata, she had stopped because the crossing light had turned red, taking advantage of this, Shikamaru intoned dully.

“You’re being very rude…you know?”

Hinata’s right hand curled tightly around her umbrella handle, “Please,” she stared, almost close to begging, “stop bothering me and go home.”

“Hn,” Shikamaru mused, “wish I could. But, someone’s got to look out for you and…we still need to finish our conversation about…”

The crossing sign intoned the signal to cross, the light turning green and Hinata was one of the first to venture forward; but Shikamaru was right behind her.

Suddenly the boy realized where she was heading; but he refrained from speaking until they had reached the other side, to which Hinata ventured to the right.

“You’re going to the subway station.” Shikamaru stated rather than asked.

Hinata jerked and suddenly stopped as people parted and walked around her, whom was blocking the flow of human traffic.

Biting her bottom lip, Hinata found her body was quivering yet again, “H-hai…I am.”

Lifting her umbrella slightly, Hinata glanced over her shoulder, her gaze attempting to gauge Shikamaru’s reaction to her admission.

He looked the same, bored, dull, and seemingly detached from the situation; but, even with her brief backward glance, Hinata could tell that something had changed to.

The tone of their ‘conversation’ had ceased to be friendly the moment she had attempted to coolly brush him aside; but…it was now that things were serious.

“Are you…” Hinata gulped, “going there too?”

Shikamaru shrugged, “I hadn’t planned on it,” he said in droll tone; but then he smirked a little, “but I guess that place is as good as any to help put together what happened to us, right?”

Hinata shook her head; she hadn’t wanted to go to the subway station to find out anything about that!

She had simply walked in that direction out of habit.

But, a part of her was starting to wonder too.

‘Now that he’s mentioned it…’

Hinata closed her eyes and attempted to drown that voice out with thoughts of how much ‘better’ this reality was. She was happy! She had the attention of the one person she loved and admired.

And she wasn’t dead.

What more could she possibly want?

What good would it do to find out what really happened yesterday?

Nothing.

It wouldn’t do any good, if anything finding out the truth would destroy this seemingly perfect ‘new’ life, the replacement for her old one.

“Well,” Shikamaru said as he carelessly placed his bicycle in an ally way, “Are you coming or not?”

Hinata stared at him in a bewildered sort of way, almost as if she was looking at him for the first time.

But, Shikamaru realized that Hinata wasn’t looking at him, rather her glazed glance was directed over his shoulder.

Turning his head back, Shikamaru blinked.

All he could see was a crowd of plain clothed people, some coming out of school, others heading home from work.

What on earth was so fascinating to Hinata about a group of people?

Unless, she was looking at something…that he couldn’t see.

If that was the case, then it wouldn’t be the first time actually. Hinata had seen the fox long before he had.

Shikamaru knew that, for whatever reason, Hinata’s gaze was the first to follow the monster’s movement. He had simply followed her gaze until the picture of the beast finally became clear to him.

So leaning over her, getting in closer, Shikamaru asked the smaller girl in a whisper.

“What are you looking at?”

Hinata’s formerly transfixed gaze, slowly blinked, before she glanced up at the person casting a shadow over her.

Brown and gray eyes crossed paths, Hinata unconsciously scooted back half a step when she realized how close she and Shikamaru were standing to one another.

Despite her marginal retreat; Hinata couldn’t shake the feeling that she could have turned around and bolted in the opposite direction and still Shikamaru would somehow managed to encompass and ‘capture’ her.

It was…that same feeling she had when he tried to fend off the fox.

Something dark and slender had rose up to the fox’s mouth and attempted to secure the jaw of the monster shut.

‘A…a shadow?’ Hinata thought as she saw something to Shikamaru’s right flicker, her gaze turning away; but her attention was easily wrangled back as a rough palm cupped and twisted her head back.

“Come on Hinata, what did you see back there?” Shikamaru asked, his voice sounding different. It wasn’t dulled, bored, or even annoyed at her.

‘What did I see?’ Hinata repeated that question in her head.

‘It was nothing! Nothing! Nothing at all!’ a part of her screamed inaudibly, desperate to convince her.

But, Hinata was growing tired of that voice, growing tired of that…cowardly self who would rather wallow in a world of lies and illusions.

“I…I can show you.” Hinata said softly, her shaking free hand-since she was still clinging to the umbrella- reaching up to lightly touch on the hard hand against her chin.

“But, you’ll have to trust me.” Hinata said her gaze looking up pleadingly.

At her touch, his grip became slack and finally dropped away.

Closing her eyes for a moment, Hinata slowly opened them again, silver-gray focused on that same spot where she had first seen ‘them’.

At first, all the girl could see were people. Plain and ordinary people. School children and teens still in their uniforms milling about the different sweet shops, arcades, and video places…some even gathering around a movie theater entrance. She saw tired men and women migrating toward the subway station, preparing themselves for a journey home.

But then it all shimmered.

Like rain hitting a window pane and sliding down it, the ‘people’ became transparent and simply became insignificant dots. Grayed crystal droplets. Then, the water coated ‘window’ was cleared by some invisible hand and the plainly clothed people, the modern buildings, even the sidewalk evaporated.

In its place was a dusty dirt road, not a drop of rain in sight. The buildings were small, square, and made out of wood, with bits of mason to break up the monotony and to give stability.

Hinata felt air catch in her throat as she saw the two beings from before. Her small hand blindly fumbled until she found Shikamaru’s larger hand and squeezed it.

Surprised by the importune touch, Shikamaru first looked at Hinata, but she shook her head and silently pointed to the spot she was staring at.

Confused, Shikamaru frowned slightly, but shrugged yet again and went along with it.

Brown eyes blinked then visibly widened as he caught a glance at the same world Hinata was peering into.

Dirt paths, simple houses and shops on either side. There were people around, but they were fewer in number and they were all wearing kimono-like garments out in broad daylight.

And it looked like an ordinary day, no festivals or celebrations.

“No…” Hinata said suddenly as she tugged on Shikamaru’s hand again, “you’re looking in the wrong place…”

With that Hinata steered him to look ahead, to a place where the ‘world’ was split between the old fashion Feudal styled buildings and the large modern buildings of steel and glass.

Just barely crossing over that line was a couple, a man and a woman walking side by side.

The man looked to be about in his early thirties. Darkly tanned skin, a bristly beard and sideburns along the lower half of his strong boned face, dark eyes looking to his right and down at the woman. He was wearing a dark haori, a white sash around his waist, two curved knives hanging off either side…

Shikamaru felt a peculiar, and uncharacteristic, sense of rage bubble up within him.

“That’s him. The bastard who tried to…”

“Shhh!” Hinata hissed between her teeth, her fingers coiling around his and squeezing to the point of pain, “Don’t say anything, just watch.”

“But,” Shikamaru started to protest, yet he stopped when Hinata squeezed his hand again, the word “please” rolled easily and softly off her tongue, forcing him- in her own way- to remain still and silent.

Though what he was suppose to be watching, Shikamaru hadn’t the faintest idea. All he saw was the man and the…

His gaze widened.

He recognized the woman too! She was the one who had pretended to be a hospital nurse!

“Can you see it?” Hinata asked quietly, her gaze watching the woman, her own kimono was a light purple, but something wasn’t right.

Long unbound black hair whipped around as she smiled, ruby red eyes gazing up at her companion. Trickles of blood coursed down the side of her pale neck…dripping onto the kimono, dying the hem crimson.

The ‘stain’ spread upward, it bled through the silk, causing it to become torn and tattered. Slowly pieces of the cloth fell away…as did skin…hair…

She was fading away like a mist that was burned off by morning sunlight.

Shikamaru, for a second turned his gaze to the woman’s male companion; but he was already gone.

Turning his eyes back to the woman, now there was nothing left of her.

To his right, Shikamaru could hear Hinata gasp for air, her slighter frame leaning up against his for a moment.

For a second, her eyes looked white as opposed to silvery-gray colored pupils…there was nothing but a white and almost blank expanse in her eyes.

But like the ‘old fashioned’ couple, the white film over Hinata’s eyes quickly faded back, until her gaze was normal again.

“That…was weird,” Shikamaru commented, more at Hinata’s change in appearance.

For her part though, Hinata remained silent, her gaze still staring at the same spot.

Only this time someone was staring back.

Hinata felt her heart give a small ‘jolt’.

A red smiling yet sorrowful gaze was looking at her.

A pale and beautifully exotic face framed by long feathery black hair.

Lips painted oh so deep a red.

In the woman’s hands was a paper-bamboo umbrella. Painted along the surface was the exact picture she and Shikamaru had just seen. A man and woman in old kimonos walking side by side, only they were ink paintings as opposed to living people.

Hinata’s bottom lip trembled.

“Hey…” Shikamaru gave the girl a testing- and light- shove against her shoulders since Hinata hadn’t moved or talked after they had witnessed that strange scene.

The girl swayed on her feet for a moment, making Shikamaru fear that she was going to collapse in a dead faint…again.

Arms moved to grab and keep her steady; but Hinata easily breezed past his hands.

Instead, Hinata, quietly and in almost trance-like state, her shoes trudged through a rain puddle, heedless that her shoes and socks had become drenched.

The girl stood, teetering at the edge of the sidewalk, inches away from pavement and the cars speeding across the highway.

“What…what the hell do you think you’re doing!” Shikamaru yelled as he scrambled to catch up with Hinata before she could take another step.

Hinata couldn’t hear him, or rather…she could, but at that moment words were of little consequences.

Instead, she was solely focused on the woman with red-lips.

She smiled a warm expression that was shared between mother and daughter or perhaps sisters.

As strange as it sounded, Hinata ‘felt’ like she knew this person…from a long time ago.

Lips painted red moved, saying, “Follow me.”

Hinata put one foot forward, then the other…

Something that sounded like a car horn wailed at her; but she couldn’t have cared less.

Air rustled her hair followed by the screech of tires as something moved to get out of the way.

Screams and voices rose above the din of mechanical noises.

The woman was slowly turning around to walk away.

Hinata tried to force her mouth and tongue to cooperate enough for her to form words; but before so much as a sigh could leave her, the young woman found herself being roughly pushed forward.

She fell to the concrete and was all but dragged by her blouse collar across the rest of the way.

Once on sidewalk, Shikamaru finally allowed his trembling knees to lock and he fell, crouched awkwardly just inches from the street crossing.

Looking back to the road, Shikamaru could see several drivers had skidded to stops- in their attempts to narrowly avoid Hinata- most of them were giving him and her evil stares, ‘the finger’ and cursing up a storm at other drivers they had collided with.

Shikamaru sighed, his shoulders shaking. He had been so damn scared. Within a few span of seconds all he could think about was seeing Hinata die by getting struck by a car. And it became a different sense of terror as he decided, at the last second, to grab her and run, because at that point now it was his life on the line as well as Hinata’s.

Hinata stared at him blankly, this...just pissed him off all the more.

“Quit looking at me like that, stupid! You almost got yourself killed! Walking out in front of a bunch of moving cars! What is with you huh?” he asked while gripping Hinata’s shirt collar.

The girl blinked as she vaguely felt him shaking her each time that he spoke as if to punctuate each word into her already addled brain.

Hinata’s eyes saw the black dress shoes of the woman as she stopped behind Shikamaru.

“Would you mind telling me what the hell you were thinking! You could have gotten yourself killed. And me too since I had to keep you from getting run over!”

“Is this boy bothering you, little girl?”

Shikamaru stopped shaking his classmate long enough to glance back over his shoulder.

The woman with the red eyes and lips smirked at his expression.

“What’s the matter, boy? You will rough up and yell at poor little girls, yet you have nothing to say when someone calls you out on it?”

“You…you’re…” Shikamaru began quietly, his grip on Hinata becoming slack.

“You’re Kurenai.” Hinata replied, surprising both Shikamaru and the formerly ‘mysterious’ woman.

Kurenai was the first to recover since she stood upright with a small indulgent smile on her lips.

“That’s right. You’re pretty smart, for a silly little girl who foolishly tried to take her chances with no less than twenty cars at once.”

With that, the woman unfolded her bamboo umbrella moving to walk on.

“Wait, please!” Hinata asked as she attempted to pull herself up to stand.

“Iie,” the woman said, without looking back, “I will wait for no one.”

“B-but you were there…at the hospital, please wait, there are so many things I want to know.” Hinata said.

Kurenai stopped in her tracks. She didn’t want to look back.

She had only tracked down the two Asuma had ‘saved’ from certain doom because she was curious.

Just what was it about those two children that trigged a rare bout of sympathy and compassion from her husband?

Still, Kurenai knew that it would be rude to simply stand and then walk on.

She turned, looking back she was surprised- but at the same time not- to see the boy helping his female classmate up.

Something…Asuma had mentioned about those two suddenly clicked with Kurenai.

The pretty woman scowled at herself.

‘No, no. You promised yourself not to get involved with Asuma’s mistake. You helped Tsunade create a new life for those kids. They should be grateful…no ecstatic just to be alive. They don’t need to know.”

“Oneesan, if you know about what happened to us, I think it would be better if you told me and her.”

Kurenai looked up at the young man who had addressed her in such a casual manner.

Shikamaru was curious.

How was this woman connected to him, Hinata, and the man with the curved blades?

And, if Hinata knew about this woman, even if it was just her name; then this might be worth looking into.

The woman, Kurenai, pursed her lips together as if she was inwardly debating something.

Finally, Kurenai nodded in agreement.

“Alright, I’ll share with you two what I know, but” she raised her umbrella up closing it since the rain had ceased to be nothing more than a sporadic drizzle, “only if you can keep up with me.”

A dark brown eye brow raised, “Keep up?” Shikamaru repeated, “Like a race or something?”

“Hai, a race” Kurenai said a glint of mischief in her red gaze.

“Or contest if you prefer to call it that. If you two can follow…” she pointed to the skyline that was clearing up to reveal weak afternoon sunlight, “and keep me in your sights until after sunset; then you win and I’ll tell everything.”

“But, if I can escape to the point where you two can’t find me, then I win and I will not say anything should we ever meet again.”

Shikamaru frowned.

He didn’t like the sound of this ‘contest’.

It seemed too easy.

“Do you promise to tell us everything if we win?” Hinata questioned, causing Shikamaru to jerk and look at her as he tried to stop her.

Kurenai nodded solemnly, very serious about this promise, “Yes, I’ll tell you two whatever it is you want to know.”

“Wait a minute,” Shikamaru said as he grasped Hinata’s hand and pulled her aside.

“We can’t do this,” were the first words out of his mouth.

Hinata blinked, “And why not? Shikamaru, this might be the only chance we have to find out…”

“Yeah I know, I know,” Shikamaru cut her off, a hand restlessly ruffling his own hair.

“I can’t explain why, but I have a really bad feeling about this.”

Hinata peered just beyond Shikamaru’s right shoulder.

“I don’t see why,” she said before looking back at Shikamaru, “she seems trustworthy.”

The boy’s expression soured, “How can you say that about someone whom you’ve just met; yet we’ve been in the same classes for years and you didn’t believe me at first?”

Hinata simply shrugged, “We could try at least. We have nothing to loose…well except for information that we don’t have…right?”

‘Well, she’s got a point there; but,’ Shikamaru looked to Kurenai, ‘I just don’t like her. Something is off about this woman.’

Before he could stop her though, Hinata nodded once before stating, “Kurenai-san, we accept your challenge.”

The woman smiled, “Good, but you’d better hurry up kids,” she began, her shapely form fading away in a whirl of wind, “time is running out.”

Then she was gone.

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Notes: …yeah I realized that Hinata’s ‘vision’ is a bit…err trippy, but trust me there is a reason/explination behind it, which I’ll get to…later! Since this chapter was written awhile back I’ll start working on the next chapter fairly soon, so keep an eye out for it. Thanks for reading!