Disguised Curses

Good morning my precious minions! Oh. Readers. Yes. *grins* So I haven't decided if next chapter will jump slightly ahead and be the 'Big Reveal' and then come back to the conversation implied at the end of this chapter, or if I should push it one more chapter out and just do the damn thing with our trio already. Regardless, I am already working on writing out the Big Reveal, such as it is, so if anyone has any input about preservation of the timeline or if they're willing to see a slight deviation of the time flow in favor of the shifting view (off the Trio and back to Takeshi-kun), now is the time to say something.

In other words, I am willing to listen whether the next chapter posted should be A Chat or The Chat.  Decision can be made after reading this chapter. ConCrit and reviews, are always welcome, as usual.



Warnings for this chapter... vague filler feelings mid chapter, appearance of Kyuubi- mindscape, and some disapproving adults. Disapproving OLD Adults.

I don't like this chapter. I didn't mind writing it, at the time, and it pushes into what I feel is a valid plot point I need and plan to use, but I look at it now and just see filler. No. Shutting up now so I can go write the Big Reveal. Which I have a feeling will be a long as hell chapter. Input and ConCrit welcome. review replies at the end.

My love to my beta/ first reader, Katrin. You are awesome. :3

 

 

 

Chapter 45

 

 

 

Naruto paced outside one of the Hyuga buildings, every sense on alert and ignoring the branch- family guards that had denied him entrance. Hinata had been summoned in for some meeting by the clan elders, and none of her assurances could completely dissuade him from worrying about her. It had been only two days since he’d put his mark on her, slept curled next to her on her bed. Her scent and the feeling of his chakra on her had managed to put him at ease for that night, but since then he’d gone back to cautious. He spent as little time as possible completely alone with her, while squashing as much time together as possible.

Hinata’s mark was definitely different than Sasuke’s, and it was quickly becoming apparent as he turned again and found his path blocked by Kimi and Hanabi. Naruto hadn’t smelled them coming, but he could smell her scent twisting into something bitter. Naruto let a fang catch on the inside of his lip, the small pain bringing him to a sharper focus. “Hey. What’s up?”

“Walk.” Kimi twitched her hand over, revealing the leash tucked into her palm. That Naruto hadn’t noticed Takeshi either simply proved how distracted he was allowing himself to become. He frowned a little at himself as he took in the ermine, hunched up a little and sticking close to Kimi’s feet. It was odd, however. Usually the ermine stuck himself to Neji or Hinata as much as possible. Naruto couldn’t recall if he’d seen the ermine since the abduction without being around Kimi or Hanabi, though. Then again, it had been only about three days, and Naruto had been deeply distracted.

Very, very distracted, obviously far too much.

“Sure. Need anything?” Focus, focus. Just because he was friendly with these two didn’t mean he should be letting them practically sneak up on him. Hinata’s scent was sour across his senses,  but nothing that urged him to disregard the veritable bodyguards in the way and charge to her aid. Someone was likely pissing her off, though, and he would be more than willing to improve her mood later, if he could. He snapped back to Hanabi when her voice reached his ears.

“- hope your day gets better. Thank you, Uzumaki- san.” She bowed stiffly at the waist, just enough to be respectful, and he smiled and nodded back. He still hadn’t been able to convince her to just call him Naruto, at least to his face. So formal, Hinata’s younger sister, although she’d finally lost that tone that made her formal words seem like an insult towards him.

“Anytime, Hanabi. I’m here if you need me.” They moved around him and left him to brood in silence, the murmur of daily life within the compound passing by him nearly unnoticed. Naruto took a lingering glance around and resigned himself to wait. He leaned against a post and closed his eyes, focusing out past the awareness of his mate. There was still the chances a threat loomed, unknown, out there just waiting for the right moment.

 

---

 

“You humans are confusing as ever.”

Naruto frowned at his surroundings and turned to the cage. He didn’t think he’d relaxed enough to be drawn here, before the sealed cage doors. Kyuubi loomed, a ghastly dull grey form standing in stark contrast to the dark depths of his prison. “You look.. old.” Naruto frowned. “What do you want?”

“You marked her but refuse to mate her. Why refuse something that is yours?” Even the fox’s voice sounded empty and tired. The usual brimming hate was missing- not that Naruto would ever complain about that.

“We’re not ready yet. We aren’t set up for kids, and Hinata doesn’t want to risk it until we have the time and experience to deal with it. I agree with her.” So, so many reasons he could think of, their reputations and her clan far closer to the bottom of that list. “Would you have kits when you can’t feed or protect them?”

“…” Kyuubi glared down at him, silence as heavy as any words. Of course the demon fox wouldn’t answer that question. “She is your mate.” As if those words held the entire world in them. Maybe for him they did. “You should claim her soon.”

“And you’re a sneaky under-handed demon. You haven’t shown your face much since I claimed Sasuke. What are you up to this time?”

“I want you to break the seal. When you have both your mates and my power is bound into your body, you will release the seal. My soul will be set free, but without my power I will be nothing. You will do this for me.”

 It wasn’t the first time they’d talked of this, although Naruto had never promised to follow through with his side of this little plan. He’d had Kyuubi explain things before, about why he wanted things done this way. Naruto hadn’t been convinced. “You’ll never be ‘nothing’, Kyuu. You’ll always be a demon fox full of his own plans.”

“I will be as close to nothing as I’ve ever become. My power bound into you, but my soul freed will prevent anyone from containing me, in any form or method, until you die. And no one can use you to bring me back without lifetimes of patience.”

“Kyuubi… I don’t know if I can promise you that.” Shit, last thing he needed was setting Konoha’s least favorite terror loose upon the village again. Everything would be ruined.

“Then when Akatsuki catches us, they will rip me from your body. You will die and lose everything you’ve claimed, and I will be sealed away. It is the only reason they would hunt the tailed beasts.” Kyuubi pressed his furred head against the bars, staring down into the face of his vessel. “You must release whatever is left of me when this is done.”

“And if we’re caught before I can?” Even in the solitary confinement of his mind, Naruto could only whisper the words. Kyuubi didn’t answer him, merely stared through the bars with all the anger bleeding from those crimson eyes, so out of place in the old-aged grey fur. “Fine. I’ll do it, on one condition. You have to leave the humans alone.”

“I wouldn’t bother you pathetic humans if you only killed each other. But if humans threaten me, I will not hesitate to destroy them. It is that simple.”

“Then go away. Disappear somewhere, away from people. If they can’t find you, no one will bother you.”

Silence filled the halls of Naruto’s mind, the fox staring at him, unblinking and creepy. Finally he turned away in dismissal, tails brushing against the bars of the cage before fading down into the depths of the cage. “I will look for seclusion when my spirit is freed.”

It was probably the closest thing to agreement he would ever offer. Naruto traced the seal over the lock and then left, taking the heaviness of their conversation with him back into the waking world.

 

---

 

He waited for another hour after his impromptu meeting with Kyuubi before Hinata emerged from her meeting. She looked exhausted, acrid scents of stress and anger pouring off her in waves that burnt his nose. Naruto spent long minutes holding her to his chest, daring to glare at anyone who came too close, before luring her to the small kitchen she and Neji favored. A hot cup of honeyed tea always went a long way to calming her down. She sat beside him, hot cup in her hands and his arm wrapped around her shoulders.

Her head rested against his chest just below the curve of his shoulder, and he squashed the urge to drag her into his lap and hide her from whatever threatened her. It had to have been some type of threat- his typically calm, contained mate was so hard to anger, but she did have her triggers. Someone had provoked her.

Eventually, that someone would answer for their threats, whichever ones they used.

Naruto would be more than pleased to be the one dishing out the retribution, should Hinata will it. He would not tolerate anyone threatening his mates.

“They want me to take over father’s duties while he is absent.” One hand had crept to his leg, a safe distance between knee and thigh, helping support her balance as she leaned against him. Her cup’s half- empty now. “The elders think I’m closest to representing his voice among them until father returns. And if he doesn’t,” she stopped and took a shaky breath. “If he should not return it would give the elders time to decide if I’m suitable as a long- time replacement or choose someone else to fill his role.”

He grimaced at that, glad she couldn’t see his face in that moment. It had barely been days since the abduction and Hiashi’s mysterious disappearance, too short to determine what had happened. Too soon to make such decisions, in his opinion.

“Father argued for my right to date you. The elders would still prefer I marry for an alliance, to benefit the clan. They claimed you were a bad influence and implied they would strip me of any main family rights if we actually married. Perhaps demote me to branch family status.”

Naruto managed to stay in his seat through sheer willpower and the pressure of her leaning against his body. He entertained a vivid image of smashing his fist through some old-aged Hyuga face. He squeezed his arm protectively against her body instead, clutching her closer. “They will never seal you. I forbid it.” He remembered all too well Neji’s railing against the curse- seal on his skin, although Naruto had never seen one activated in his presence. He wasn’t sure that he’d keep control if he did witness it. But he’d flee and take his mates with him before he ever permitted such a thing to happen to her.

She carried his mark. She would bear none other.

“I may have politely told them what they could do with their opinions, and that if Hiashi himself approved of you, that they had no reason to complain.”

It took about forty seconds for her words to fully process, then he was tugging the cup from her hand and lifting her chin to kiss her thoroughly. Once again, she had surprised him, acting in defense of him. He would never get over it, or get enough of it.

“I love you, Hinata Hyuga.”

She answered his words with a bright, if small, smile, then pressed her lips against his again. It made the rest of the topic easier to finish. “They insisted they would keep the extreme for when I finally shame the clan by bearing ‘illegitimate heirs for both the demon and the traitor’. The elders believe I am already intimate with you both and refuse to accept anything else about the subject.” Her throat tightened over the words, a broken inflection clearly showing the quote before ceasing altogether. Instead she shook in Naruto’s grasp, finally collapsing from the stress and forcing the words out.

To his credit, Naruto didn’t leave her in a puddle on the floor and go stalking out to slit the throat of the person who’d shamed his mate. He wanted to; wanted to know that the people who hurt her so badly would pay for it all. But nothing good would come from him acting like the demon they accused him of being, the half- demon he really was.

He was part demon, not a damned monster. And he’d stay worthy of his mate’s fierce pride.

Instead he wrapped his arms a little closer around her and held her, stroked fingers over the brand on her back because he couldn’t not reassure himself of their bond. He held her and whispered sweet nothings, ‘it’s okay’ and other lines, rocking slightly in his chair until she calmed.

And when the rage cooled and his mate calmed, Naruto tipped up Hinata’s face to look into her bright, red-rimmed eyes. “They’re wrong. And I will do whatever I need to so they will back off.” Her smile was watery and weak, and he let her tuck her head under his chin again. “We’ll talk to Tsunade soon. I promise.”

He’d marry them both tomorrow if he had to.

If he could.

Maybe he should.

He’d have to ask.

Above Hinata’s head he grinned into the empty room, brain ticking away and feeling like the whole world could suddenly be at his disposal. It wasn’t, not yet.

But he was nothing if not stubborn.

_______ End Chapter _____

A/N:  D: 4 yr 1 mo. old. 100,460 words. 98 reviews. 4721 hits. 45 chapters.  (there are celebrations in my head over tipping the 100 K mark. now lets trip the 100 review mark!!)

As always, all thanks to my reviewers. Djargo, my lovely awesome reviewer~. It is nice to see the effect I try to build is being seen by at least some of my readers. Yes, the marking was meant to be sensual (but not sexual, and yes, there's a line of difference) and by now I'd hope Sasuke has learned Naruto's cues. I was doing some poking at the story and realized that roughly a year has passed (story time) since it started, and the double trouble have been living together in the same house for nearly all that time. It's also how I excuse Naruto's surprising amount of control that has accrued since the visit-to-Sand chapters. Also, if there's ever any questions you'd like to ask (offsite) feel free to email back the alert email. I never mind chatting up plots and such.

TigroSpottystripes... Yes. and just NO. Your words are accurate at a core level, to a point, but there's *more* than that going on. Please keep that in mind.