Temari listened to the gentle caress of the oceans waves against the bleach white sand that covered the beach, the outline left behind clearly marking the tides limited reach.
The crisp ocean air caught her wild and untamed hair, rustling it slightly as gray, near silver colored eyes looked out to the horizon, her knees hugged tightly to her chest, a few wisps of the sun's bright ways seeping through the shade of the palm trees that leaned over her.
She had woken up this morning late, near mid day if she had to guess. Her body, still weak from its previous injuries and exhausted over the late nights events had needed the rest and apparently even the infamous "Devil King" had recognized such and had allowed her to indulge in the extra hours of sleep.
He'd indulged her so well that when she woke up the ninja was nowhere to be found, only a smoldering fire pit in the center of the cave, several supplies and equipment. Weather his or Hinata's she had no idea, nor did it really make a difference.
And of course the last ornament in the cave was the sick Hyuuga herself. Temari had to gasp at the Hyuuga's features. She hadn't seen Hinata at all and only received a few clipped, measured responses from Naruto as to what was wrong with the unconscious Hyuuga when he had carried them both back to the island.
Her normally porcelain skin, a faint hue of healthy pink was now a sickly pale, blue veins actually visible beneath the ghostly flesh. Her hair, normally a luminous sheet of black that shined with even the faintest light was now dim, wet with sweat and matted down onto her forehead. The bed she had been laying on, made with a mixture of dry and green leaves, grass and twigs, no doubt made by Naruto was cold and did little to improve her condition. But considering the lack of resources there was nothing that could really be done.
When she had finally gathered herself enough, noting that her clothing was still with her she had left the cave, placing a few pieces of dry tinder into the fire pit to keep it burning strong while she went to get some fresh air.
Now, several hours later she sat just beyond the mouth of the cave, at the, gnarled, root lined beach border, the rotting remnants of wood and palm tree skins littered around her.
She was really more shell shocked than anything, here, stuck on this island with now, nothing more than her previous jail keeper, and worse yet her jail keeper's boss.
Everything just seemed like a blur, one second she was standing across from Gaara. The next, everything had gone to hell and she was here...where had it all gone...her freedom was right there. It had been so close...so close she could almost taste it, almost feel the blazing, warm wonderfully inviting heat of Suna on her face again.
She sighed, the sound, miserable, laced with exhaustion as she let her forehead fall and rest against her knees. "Why me?"
She knew why her. She knew it very well. Because she was the sister of the Kazekage. Because she was Sabaku no Temari, Wind master of Suna. Because She was the one thing that the Kage of Konoha could wield that would force her brother to submit without a fight.
He wanted Suna's surrender, he wanted Suna under his rule. He would get it one way or the other. The fact that Zhuge Liang had given him tinder to stoke her incentive to actually consider cooperating was merely a bonus in his eyes, nothing more.
A shadow suddenly fell over her, and the crunch of sand under a boot became apparent to her ears. Bringing her gaze upward to the silhouette of Naruto, the sun overhead shining in her eyes so she couldn't get a good look at his face.
She caught a glimpse of his hair, wild and untamed as it swayed in the breeze, indicating his hood was off before she adjusted her position beneath him, placing herself so his head cut off the sun's harsh glare, allowing her to see that he still had the metallic face mask covering the lower half of his face. The imposing, dreaded visage he normally wore, the one he used to terrorize any that stood in his shadow severely diminished at the sight of bare skin, blue eyes and blond hair.
A rumble sounded above the two and Temari brought her eyes up, eastward where she saw a thick, black cloud looming over the mountain side, thunder rumbling as lightning flashed through the moisture that made up the clouds. "I would suggest, daughter of Suna." Came his flat voice as he turned towards the cave, his strides easily swallowing up the distance between himself and their temporary shelter. "That you come inside lest I am forced to deal with two deathly ill Kunoichi while I'm on this island."
She turned back to look at him, noticing only now the three bird carcases held firmly in his grip. Their heads dangling.
"I'm surprised." She suddenly called after him, making him pause at the mouth of the cave. "You don't have me shackled to your wrist. And you're letting me walk around without an escort? My god the worlds coming to an end."
"You need no escort here daughter of Suna." He replied looking over his shoulder to meet her gaze with his own. "This island is only a few dozen miles wide. My clones are spread throughout. And believe me they will see any help that by some miracle may come for you long before you do. You are trapped here."
His words spoken Naruto turned away from her, the swoosh of his robe dying away as he entered the wind shielded cave. Temari sighed pitifully again, her shoulders slumping before she picked herself up, wiping away the sand on her backside before she made forced herself to march back into the inky shadows of the cave.
As she made her way into the cave behind the blond she saw him set down his kills for the day, drawing a kunai to cut them up as he began pulling out the feathers.
Temari made her way to the side of the cave, the same side she'd been sleeping at earlier. Well, this spot was as good as any really.
She curled up, hugging her knees as a cold draft made her shiver, she noticed Hinata shiver as well, and watching the Kage of Konoha stop mid yank she knew he had seen the same.
He set the half feathered carcass down surprising her as he walked over to the Hyuuga. Kneeling at her side he undid the clasp of his cloak, allowing the red material to ripple for a moment on the floor before he grasped it with a firm hand and placed it over the Hyuuga, hoping the extra layer would work well enough to shield her from the cold now seeping in through the open end of the cave.
His task finished he turned away from her, knocking a few more twigs into the fire to make it larger before he turned back to the birds.
Temari's eyes widened just a little at the sight of him without that cloak, surprised by how much less imposing he looked. She had always seen him with it, or at the very least the white Kage robes, which in itself made him seem much more broad shouldered than he looked right now. He was surprisingly slim, nothing at all like the legendary "Demon King" No wonder he wore it to battle.
The Suna female had to wonder with that thought if there was any damn aspect of this man's life that didn't revolve around war and death.
Naruto knelt down once again next to the birds, continuing to yank out the feathers dutifully. Temari watched him, trying to think of some subject of conversation that wouldn't get her larynx crushed.
Surprisingly though, it was not her but Naruto who broke the silence. "You have something on your mind Sabaku?" Though it was toned as a question she knew it was an observation. The deep baritone only enhanced by the mask he still wore bringing her attention straight back up to him.
Finally registering the question she slowly shook her head. "Not really." She said before chuckling, the sound dry and lacking humor. "Just...trying to find a way...to start a conversation...with possibly the worst conversationalist in the country."
Naruto, not pausing from his task, set aside one bird and began a similar process on the second. "And what is it you would like to talk about princess?"
She rolled her eyes, shoulders shrugging with an irritated air. "How the hell should I know."
Naruto raised an eyebrow. "You are the one desiring conversation are you not?"
"Yes its just-urgh" She groaned, eyes closing in irritation as she rubbed her temples. "What the hell am I going to talk about with you of all people!? Not gonna tell you anything about my past, god knows you're not above using it against me or Gaara. And your certainly not going to tell me anything about yours! The war is the last thing I wanna go into right now, but its probably the one thing you can discuss civilly with another human being!"
Her tirade finished Temari breathed heavily through her nostrils glaring at the apathetic Naruto, who seemed to actually shrug before turning away from her and bringing his attention down to the third bird where he began to yank out its feathers as well.
She sighed as she lowered her head again. Several, bleak, oppressive moments, filled with nothing but the faint sound of rain and the crackle of fire to echo around them.
Finally, she broke the silence again as Naruto skewered the three birds onto a wooden steak, putting them over the fire. "Will you at least tell me what you'll do...if you win?"
"If I win?" Naruto questioned, a hint of incredulousness in his tone, never turning his eyes away from the task at hand. "By now, Hatake's forces are marching onto Kumo's doorstep, the main Kumo force, and your brothers reinforcement, still out at sea, too far to affect the outcome of the battle. With Kumo defeated only Suna will remain. And as we've seen your brother is willing to surrender for your sake."
Temari's lips curled back in a quiet snarl, hating how certain of his victory he sounded. "Well what will you do then. When you win." She stated, drawing out the 'when' in an obviously sarcastic manner. "What are your plans for after the war?"
"The lands must be kept in order. Governors and overseer's will report directly to me. Rebellions, and dissenter's will be put down and silence, order and peace will be maintained once it has been properly established."
"Order and peace?" She questioned with disbelief before snorting. "With all the blood on your hands to think you have the arrogance to talk of peace. You'd oppress people until any shred of self thought and resistance is drained from them. Thats what you would do."
"And that-" He responded. "Is enough for me."
Temari could only stare with a slack jaw and wide eyes, shaking her head slowly as she closed her eyes. This...this...just how callous could one man be?
A shuffle to the side brought both their attentions towards the lone Hyuuga, her shivering intensifying enough to make the heavy cloak visibly shake with her movements.
Naruto stood from his spot again, dutifully making his way closer to the Hyuuga, his sharp hearing catching the sound of her slightly more accelerated heartbeat. He knew she was awake before he even got there.
Temari watched as he knelt at the woman's side, his black clad form obscuring her upper body from view, allowing her to look only upon the crown of raven black hair. She would have moved from her spot, but she doubted the Hyuuga, if she was even awake, would want to see her.
Naruto's clawed gauntlets gripped Hinata's chin firmly, moving her face so that she would see him when she opened her eyes. "Hinata." He called, his deep voice resonating in the disoriented Hyuuga's ears.
When her eyes opened Naruto could actually feel himself stiffen. The normal pale lavender, was now lined with dark, sickly looking blue veins. Was the poison going to affect her eyes? Eyesight was everything to a Hyuuga. Would she be able to manage without it? Would she loose her position as Clan head?
His thoughts on this new development was cut short as her voice, weak and raspy reached his ears. "Na-Naruto-cough-sama...I-I-I'm sorry. Te-Tema-"
Naruto, realizing what she wanted to say quickly moved to interrupt her. "Sabaku is fine." He stated shuffling his position a bit more to the side, allowing the Hyuuga girl to catch sight of his fellow blond.
Not knowing what else to do the Suna ninja quickly spoke up, her tone hurried and and somewhat uncertain. "Uh-yea...yea I'm fine."
Naruto nodded. "You have done your duty well Hinata. You need no longer exhaust yourself. Rest for now. Recover your strength." He said slowly, nodding gently at the Hyuuga beneath him.
Temari stared at the scene with something akin to wide eyed disbelief. No correction, it was wide eyed disbelief. Was he...was he comforting her?
Hinata's lids grew heavy, the shivers that raked her body not relenting in the slightest. But there was nothing he could do to change the temperature, and he did not know how this poison would react to the proximity of Kyuubi's chakra. Or even if her weakened body could fight away the toxic effect of the chakra. The warmth it could provide was far too risky considering the gain. He could only hope she was strong enough to at least weather this cold out. Tomorrow morning he could begin to work out a proper wind barricade at the mouth of the cave.
He began to stand, ready to move away from the Hyuuga so he could move the birds over the fire when Hinata's hand shot forward, grasping his arm in a feeble grip, but strong enough to give him pause as he looked back at the Hyuuga.
"I-ahh-" The Hyuuga gasped, her mouth opening and closing for several seconds as if the words were dying in her throat before they could reach her lips.
Temari watched the strange scene unfold before her eyes, feeling as though she were intruding, which she probably was.
Hinata's eyes glimmered with something akin to shame, breaking away from Naruto's searching gaze. "Hinata?" He questioned, the chilling edge of his voice, provided by the mask, not making her next request any easier.
"Co-Could you just...stay...until...until I fall asleep again?" The Hyuuga's face scrunched up with embarrassment at her vulnerability. At her weakness. She hadn't gotten sick in so long and the last time she had gotten sick Hanabi and Shino had mothered her so much she didn't even want their comfort anymore. But, here. In this cold, dank cave, with this miserable feeling of weak muscles and twisted insides. She realized just how much they helped her and how much that help meant to her
Naruto, for the first time in several years was caught completely flat footed, and his expression, shielded by his mask was only minimally less extreme than Temari's slack jawed one.
The Sabaku, for her part couldn't believe what had just reached her ears. And she openly stared at the two, eyes locked onto the blond haired ninja's kneeling form. Dear lord what would he do. If even half the stories about him were true then he would kill her on the spot for even having the audacity to entertain the bloody thought that he would actually stay there and...cuddle with her? What would he even do?
Naruto's eyes seemed to narrow, looking down on Hinata's head as she pointedly avoided his gaze, the piercing ice picks seeming to pierce straight through her. "Why?" He questioned, his eyebrow slowly raising.
Hinata seemed to open her mouth to speak before weakly shaking her head. "No...ne-nevermind it was...just...just the poison talking."
Naruto nodded, standing from his previous location and walking back to the fire. Temari's eyes on him the whole way, half relieved he didn't kill the Hyuuga, and half disgusted with how he so callously brushed off the Hyuuga's plea.
The fire crackled merrily in the center of the cave between the three, its orange glow making the shadows quiver at the edges of its reached. Temari watched Hinata carefully, observing as the Hyuuga's eyes closed and her breathing evened out with shuddering gasps, falling into a fitful sleep she turned her blazing eyes onto Naruto watching as he lifted the birds from their place above the fire, examining them.
"You're a cold bastard ya know that?" She muttered, more to herself than anything. But the echo of the cave did nothing to shield her voice from him.
Naruto paused before looking at her. "What are you babbling about now?"
Temari shook her head disgust at his actions rolling off her in waves. "You treat your own officers like trash and you expect the world to just fall in line at your word. Yea. That's gonna last a long time.
Naruto looked back to the fitfully sleeping Hinata watching the gentle rise and fall of her chest as she took in shaky breaths. "She is fine." He stated simply. "I do not know what stems your anger Sabaku."
"You don't know?" She questioned before gesturing towards the sleeping Hyuuga. "You-She-in all the time I've seen Hinata this is the one moment I can say little miss tough as nails has shown any kind of vulnerability and you-you just brush her off like...like...she's just some brat who's just whining because her thumb hurts."
"Her emotional state will pass. And she will come to her senses soon enough. A physical comfort is not only unnecessary it would also delay me from getting other things done to finish securing this cave so as to ensure her survival."
Temari shook her head. "Haven't you ever been sick? Don't you remember that helpless feeling of just...vulnerability that made you want your mom, dad or anyone to just be in the same room with you?"
"Because of the Kyuubi's chakra within me, I have never been ill. So these feelings you describe are unknown to me." Naruto stated simply, eyes blinking open and closed with a languid, lazy air about them as he stared at her.
The Sabaku stood from her place at the side of the cave with an angry air about her, staring at him with such contempt it rivaled the expression his sister had worn upon their meeting when he assaulted Kumo. "Whatever." She scoffed before making her way closer towards the Hyuuga and kneeling at her side, brushing a stray strand of hair away from her face and grasping the pale, sweating hand in her own.
Though Temari reminded herself that they were enemies, and that if the Hyuuga did die here it was a one up for her brother and her, she also had to remind herself that if Hinata did die it'd just be her and the sociopathic nightmare with delusions of grandeur and world conquest.
So yea...it'd be best to help the Hyuuga stay alive.
Naruto seemed to pause watching the Sabaku as she knelt at Hinata's side, curiosity, an emotion not often seen, shining behind his bright blue orbs. Interesting. He couldn't help but think before he set the birds down over the fire again. Shifting his position, he brought up his left gauntlet, undoing the clasps that held it tight to his wrist and forearm before pulling it free, setting the metal armor down with a soft thump and the clocking of metal joints reaching their limit as the fingers fell and bent limply.
The sound brought Temari's eyes back to him, watching as he did a similar process with his right hand. Only difference is, that when the clasps were undone on his right hand, a virtual stream of blood was released, trailing down his arm and dripping onto the cold stone floor of the cavern and Temari had to gasp at the sight. Naruto ignored the sound though pulling away the gauntlet revealing, a hand that was covered from wrist to fingertips in horrible burns, several areas of it charred black while others had burnt all the way down to the bone, the stark white a sharp contrast to the glaring red and sickening black. Good God...the pain...it must be excruciating...and he...he had worked with that hand all day?
"What the hell happened to you!?" She nearly shrieked, the high pitch of her tone resonating through the cave.
Naruto paused looking back at her before he turned his eyes back onto the hand, a kunai being drawn by his left. "In the battle two days ago. Your brother transformed into the Shukakku. In order to defeat him I had to use a combination of the Rasengan, and fire elemental chakra. The largest I've used to date, the resulting damage was thus, burning away my hand and breaking most of my arm. I was able to control its movements with a thin layer of chakra so as to dull the pain and maintain the illusion that I was uninjured."
"But-God what the hell-you...you just kept on using this hand like that?"
"The pain is manageable." He responded and Temari nearly retched as the man suddenly slid the kunai over his hand, literally scraping off the rotten and burnt skin. A shudder passed up and down her spine making her shiver and twitch with disgust. She'd seen some pretty messed up things. But the sound of that kunai scraping off that...skin...and worse yet, scraping bone was enough to make her sick to her stomach.
"Don't..." She paused, swallowing so as to compose herself. "Don't you have healing or something that...manages that."
Naruto nodded. "Yes. But it cannot replace, or reanimate dead tissue, and so I need to take it off myself." He paused before looking back to her. "And do not think...that your false concern will grant you any sympathy from me should you attempt anything once we reach the mainland...Sabaku."
Temari sputtered in indignation, her face growing red with anger. Never mind the fact that in a few more hours she would have possibly deduced such a plan herself. But the fact that he had suggested that now, when she felt nothing but morbid curiosity and even a tiny bit of sympathy for the guy was enough to make her hackles rise. Well his hand could rot for all she cared now.
Several minutes into the process however, it soon became apparent that ignoring him was a task, easier said than done, especially when the only sound in that cave was his kunai scraping over his skin like he was scaling a fish.
It became apparent very soon that the extent of his medical expertise extended no further than this grim self mutilation display. Apparently all he was gonna do was cut himself, free of the dead tissue and leave the rest to be fixed by the red chakra. No doubt what he had done the other day as well. If he had used proper medicinal techniques then it may have already been healed.
"So..." She swallowed again. "How long should it take to heal."
"Considering the extent of the damage one or two more days."
One or two more... standing up Temari marched right up to him, bringing Naruto's attention towards her. She never noticed his free hand tighten on the kunai before she knelt at his side. There was no way that she was gonna listen to that grizzly orchestra again two more times. Quickly grasping the cloth of his sleeve she pulled the appendage towards her. Naruto watched, incredulous as she looked at the nearby bag, sifting through it where she found some bandages and healing balm, along with a small vial of alcohol disinfectant.
She pulled out the alcohol first eying him warily as he merely looked back at her with an air of indifference, not saying a word. This was an unnecessary act really. But the Sabaku was agitated and allowing her to see this moment of "Vulnerability" may allow him to more easily pry information from her in the future. She'd been right. He wasn't above using her past against her.
The Alcohol spilt over raw skin, white foamy bubbles hissing angrily throughout his entire hand like acid before dying away. Temari could only imagine how much that hurt. But his face never even twitched, though that could be related to the mask still on his face.
The balm came next as she took some in her own hands and gently rubbed it over his Naruto ignored the slightly cool sensation, a stark contrast to the previous sting before Temari slowly began the process of bandaging his hand and individual digits.
Nearly an hour later the Sabaku sighed as she finished tying up the end of the bandage. "Done."
Opening his eyes the blond flexed his fingers, spreading them out before tightening them into a fist. "Adequate." He remarked before standing slowly and making his way, once again towards the exit of the cave.
"Your bloody, fucking welcome." The Sabaku muttered to herself as she went back to Hinata, having enough sense to pull away the roasted chickens from the fire, lest they burn. She could only pray that Somebody would show up soon. Otherwise she may be accused of being the only person crazy enough to attack the devil king in a completely one on one fight.