A strange new life

3.13

“Congratulations! You’ve all passed the second exam.” Iruka-sensei said after checking an old fashioned clock. “This calls for celebration, I wish I could take you out for ramen at Ichiraku—”

“Yes!” Naruto hollered, tackled his favorite teacher.

I smiled at the scene. Iruka-sensei went on and on about the Third’s message on the wall. Heaven mind, earth body, train your weakness. It was all super interesting, and I made a mental note to research the meaning of that later. I just couldn’t right now. I had just woken up a few hours back, but I was tired. With the confirmation the exam was over, adrenaline left me. I hadn’t realized how tense I was. But there was one more thing I needed to do. While Iruka chattered about this and that, I collected the discarded Heaven and Earth scrolls. It was prime material for my dreams of flying god and Konoha’s Black Flash. With the insights Orochimaru forced on me, I was sure it was only a matter of time until I deciphered the space-time logic.

Team seven passed the second exam, but the five days hadn’t ended yet. According to Anko’s rules, no one could leave before five days ended. It took us two days to arrive at the tower, which meant we had to wait three days until the test was over. Iruka-sensei led us inside. I glanced at Ino and waved her goodbye. Ino smiled, waved back. I sighed in relief. For a moment there, I thought it hadn’t been a nightmare and I kissed Ino.

The place we headed to was some sort of open area. There was no real accommodation, not ones we could use. We’ve passed the exam, but we were still being tested. There was no food, water, or anything provided for us. We were confined with only the supplies we carried with us. It wasn’t really a problem for our team. I had my seals with me, it would last more than three days, but I was curious how the other teams would deal with this situation.

A few teams were already inside the arena. The Suna trio. A team from Ame. A team from Taki. Iruka-sensei waved us goodbye, left after a few more words of wisdom. With nothing else to do, I moved to one of the walls, sat down with my back to it. Better keep an eye on our enemies. Naruto and Sasuke followed. Sasuke winced, hand went to his neck. Yeah, better talk about that soon.

“Hey guys,” I said, talking out loud. I spoke when trying to snap Sasuke out of his cursed seal induced psychopathic episode, but I wasn’t sure if it would work again. It did, but that same tearing sensation came once more. This time stronger. The taste of blood in my mouth felt stronger as well. My voice was raspy. More of a croak than a real voice. My throat hurt, like it wasn’t supposed to make that sound.

Naruto gasped. “Hinata-chan. Your voice!”

I smiled at the brat. Nodded. “Hi Naruto-kun.” I had an urge to cough I couldn't suppress. Covered my mouth with my hands. Coughed. The hands came out flecked with blood. Yeah, damn. Back to the board.

Sunshine brat cheered. Hug tackled me. I even saw a few tears in his eyes. I rolled my eyes. Patted his head. Dumb emotional children. I might have stealthily wiped a few tears away as well. Still hugging a crying Naruto, I looked at Sasuke. Took out my board. “Does it still hurt?”

Sasuke looked away, but nodded.

“Hurts when you use chakra?” I pressed. Sasuke didn’t answer, but I saw him tensing up. “Be careful, please?” Guess I couldn’t call him Emosuke anymore, not when I was seconds away from crying. Didn’t even know why I wanted to cry. I blamed Naruto.

After the hug, Naruto got up, left to bug team ten. I saw my opportunity and even with my gut saying I shouldn’t, I went for it. I waved Sasuke to follow me, led him away from the others. We stopped near the big statue in the open area.

I sat down, popped out my board. Considered how to broach the topic. “How are you, really?”

Sasuke’s stare was more broody and intense than usual. His jaw was clenched, his hands balled into fists. “I would have killed them, if you didn’t stop me.” He muttered. “I still want to kill them.” He looked away, breaking eye contact.

I never considered how Sasuke felt about the whole thing. I still didn’t know why he was so obsessed with revenge, even if the boy had mellowed a lot after joining team seven. He was still broody and trying to act cool and distant, but he often bantered with Naruto, and did seem to like the sunshine brat. 

My lack of response was some sort of trigger. Sasuke looked at me again. Scowled. “Why do you care?” His voice rose slightly. “I see how you look at me. You think I’m pathetic. You’ve done it from the first time you saw me when we were five.”

I blinked. Sasuke’s words slapping me in the face. Was that how I looked at him? I never liked Sasuke, if I was being honest. The reason I didn’t was because I never liked his whole theme and style in the original story. The broody obsessed emo character that caused trouble for everyone, but because of plot armor, turned out to be the cool guy and most loved in the whole story. Yeah, I hated that. And I had been treating Sasuke with the same distaste.

Sasuke pressed. His eyes were harsher. “Why? You’re just a clanless girl. Why can you be better than me? Why?” His eyes turned red, tomoe spinning. Black creepy tattoo crawled out from his neck, covering the lower part of his face.

I panicked. Didn’t know what to do. I needed to snap him out of that mood. I hugged Sasuke. “I’m sorry.” I croaked out. Ignored the taste of blood.

For a long while, Sasuke didn’t react. I couldn’t see his face, but I felt  how tense he was, and his trembling. He exhaled and like a scared kid, put his hands around my waist.

I didn’t know what to do. I kept Sasuke at bay, because I didn’t want to deal with the whole emotional baggage he had. The only thing I could think of was that dealing with Sasuke just became more complicated. And we didn’t even got to talk about the issue at hand, the cursed seal. I was a horrible person.