Dreamless Night

[Niro]

After ensuring the survivors were safely in the hospital’s care, Yoshinori and Tsuki made their way to the administration tower to report the mission's outcome. Their words were efficient, their voices steady but both carried the weight of everything they’d witnessed. When it was done, and they stepped out into the cool night air, neither spoke. As they walked through the quiet streets of Konoha, Yoshinori’s hand found Tsuki’s again, not tightly, just enough for quiet reassurance. There wasn’t a need for conversation yet. The village was still, save for the occasional figure walking home or a lone smoker on a balcony, their embers glowing softly in the dark.

By the time they reached the edge of the Nara forest where Yoshinori's temporary residence stood nestled in the trees, pain had begun to pull at his features. His shoulder ached with every step. The bite from the Baku hadn't severed anything, but it had left its mark, puncture wounds from its teeth, torn muscle, and dried blood crusted around the torn fabric of his shirt.

Inside, the house was dim and quiet. They made their way to the kitchen, where he sank into a chair at the table with a sharp exhale, the movement tugging at the injured shoulder. “Think you can help me clean this up?” he asked, trying to keep his voice steady as he started to peel his shirt over his head. The motion was awkward and painful, he paused halfway through, letting the wave of discomfort pass before continuing with a hiss. The ruined fabric was discarded to the floor.

He didn’t look at her immediately. Instead, he leaned forward on the table, elbows braced, head lowered slightly. His voice, when it came again, was softer. “Tsuki?” There was concern there, but not for his wound. His gaze finally lifted to hers, searching. “You alright?” The question wasn’t casual. It carried the weight of the lab, the children, the screams and stillness they had both witnessed. Yoshinori had kept himself moving, focused on survival. But now that the adrenaline had worn off, the quiet between them had changed and become heavier.

[Lunanana]

Tsuki held his hand but her mind was elsewhere when they walked, she finally snapped out of it when he asked her to look at his shoulder, a sense of care and worry overcame her ”Mm? Oh, y-yes, yes of course…” She stood close, gently helping him lift the shirt off, leaving him just for a minute to get the needed supplies - bandages, disinfectant, ointment. With them in her hands, she gently laid everything down on the table, and turned to him with a cotton swab in her hand before he addressed her again and she froze for a second.

Tsuki gently lowered her hand, pinching on the cotton a little and looking away, then back at him, unshed tears shimmering from the dim light of the house. ”They were kids…” She said and sniffled, placing a few drops of disinfectant on the cotton, as she moved closer to him. ”...This is going to sting a little… Should’ve let them fix it in the hospital, what if it’s not as faint as it looks…” Leaning in, Tsuki gently patted his wound, cleaning it with care and thoroughness. ”You’re right, you know… We saved who we could and that’s what matters, it’s just… I’ll send a letter to Hokage through my clan tomorrow. Whatever this was, we have to find them but I am afraid I will have to recommend another Hyuuga to accompany you…” She wasn’t saying it but she was thinking of herself as a failure at the moment. Even if she didn’t, Tsuki was right - whatever they were dealing with, her Byakuugan is far too weak to be of use, and she would be targeted. It’s better to add a stronger ninja there but a Byakuugan user nonetheless.

She put the ointment on, a cooling sensation spreading across his shoulder as she did. Tsuki was gentle in every move, and before she bandaged it, she took a peek with her doujutsu as well, only to find a chakra blockage on the shoulder. ”You’ll have to go to the hospital, Yoshinori… Maybe tomorrow.” She said, and slowly wrapped his arm with an elastic bandage, placing a soft kiss on top as a final touch. Without much words, Tsuki retreated to the shower.

[Niro]

Yoshinori could see the weight of the lab’s horrors still pressing down on Tsuki. He didn’t blame her, no one walked through something like that and came out untouched. He bit down on his tongue and kept still as she carefully cleaned and wrapped his shoulder. The sting of the disinfectant was sharp, but he let it pass in silence. She didn’t need him flinching or grimacing right now not when she was already shouldering more than her share of guilt. "...Yeah," he said quietly after a beat, responding to her earlier comment. "They were. What we saw... it wasn’t just cruelty. It was evil. And unless we keep standing up to it, it’ll keep happening." He exhaled sharply when she tightened the bandage but didn’t protest. The discomfort was a small price to pay if it helped ease some of the doubt he could see in her expression.

When she eventually slipped away to shower, Yoshinori waited until the water began pounding against the porcelain before moving. He walked to the bathroom door and eased it open just slightly, enough that his voice could carry without invading her privacy. Then he sat down, back against the wall, letting the words come naturally. “Please don't recommend another Hyuuga,” he said softly, his tone more thoughtful than insistent. "You might not think you weren't enough but without you, I seriously would've died. Hell, even if there WAS another Hyuuga there, I still would've died, Tsuki." The clan had already decreed he stay away from her and what other way was better than him dying on a mission in some underground lab, his body and any evidence unable to be retrieved? With him dead and her demoralized from his death, it would be like taking two birds out with one stone. "I want-no, need YOU by my side, not someone else."

He let the quiet linger for a moment, not to be dramatic, but to let the words settle and his gaze drifted to the ceiling. The words had been tumbling around in his head since the adrenaline wore off, and this was the only way he could say them without getting in his own way. "We can always get stronger and I know you have it in you, I've seen it. You just need to trust yourself and you'll be surprised at how much you blossom, love. And if you can't trust in yourself just yet...can you at least trust the me that trusts you?" He didn’t wait for a reply. She’d heard him, that was enough for now. With a quiet grunt, Yoshinori pushed himself to his feet and walked back to the kitchen. His shoulder ached, but he barely noticed it anymore. From his weapons pouch, he pulled out the three journals they’d recovered from the lab and laid them out on the table, flipping one open. There were still questions left unanswered. And he had a feeling the truth, whatever it was, was hidden in these pages.

[Lunanana]

She heard the door open while the warm water dampened her hair. Tsuki listened, her facial expressions changing with every sentence, from worried to scared, then accepting, soft, and finally, loving. She was done, and wrapping a towel around her body, she slipped out of the shower, placing her hand on the fogged mirror and slowly sliding it to the side, revealing her face. He trusts you. Was that… A smile forming? It was! She did not deserve him sometimes, really. He was understanding and caring, and he gave her space when she needed it, letting her digest what she had to before making any decisions. Tsuki bit her bottom lip, silently getting out of the bathroom, her feet made almost no sound and she saw him standing by the table, looking at something.

Her hands wrapped around his waist, as she tiptoed and placed her chin on his shoulder. ”Okay…” She pressed her forehead to his jaw lovingly, like a cat marking its territory with scent. ”Okay, I trust you and I will get better. With you, for you… Thank you.” After a moment, Tsuki added. "We will still need to dig deeper because this can't go on but at least now we know what we might be looking for. We still need someone there to help recover the bodies, for a proper burial... But I think the Hokage will arrange that. I'll make sure to ask someone and I will let you know." She held him close before finally releasing him and standing by his side, eyeing the journals. ”Are these…?” Her eyes squinted, looking at them for a moment before a crimson blush striked her features.

”I-.. I should pro-.. Probably change, yeah. I’ll be right back!” You’d think a woman who had already passed a lot of steps with a man would become less bashful around him… It seems not this one. Not yet, at least. She returned shortly, this time dressed in a simple oversized shirt and leggings, with a towel in her hands, drying her hair as she looked at the journals again by his side. What were those about?

[Niro]

Yoshinori felt her before he heard her, her slender arms wrapping gently around him from behind. The tension she’d carried earlier had lessened, replaced by something calmer, more grounded. He leaned into the soft headbutt with a quiet smile, relieved to feel her energy shifting. “Thank you,” he murmured, his voice low as their attention drifted back to the journals spread out across the table.

“I’d bet the raid rattled them,” he said, his eyes scanning the scrawled notes in one of the books. “They’ll lay low for a while, scatter. We’ll need to keep an eye on quieter towns, missing persons reports, anything small enough to slip under the radar.” His arm lingered lightly against the small of her back, a grounding gesture more than anything, as she stepped closer to glance over the pages with him.

When she registered what he’d found, her reaction pulled a real smile from him and then a half-laugh as she suddenly realized she was still in just a towel.
“I’ll pretend I wasn’t admiring the gorgeous view,” Yoshinori teased, voice warm but restrained, before she vanished into the next room to change.

He returned his focus to the journals. The first one echoed the same medical entries they’d seen in the orphanage, still full of strange, almost intentional obfuscation. More codes, more layers. He tossed it aside and reached for the next, just as Tsuki reappeared, now wearing one of his oversized shirts. A quiet glance slid her way, affection in his eyes. “That’s a great look too,” he murmured softly, more to himself than to her, as she settled beside him again.

“These journals look like they belonged to the staff who worked down there,” he explained, shifting them between them both. “Lots of medical jargon. Could be a cover, or maybe there’s something real in it. Either way…” He pointed at the markings that overlaid some of the letters, subtle but familiar. “These same symbols showed up in the house documents. There’s definitely something hidden here.”

[Lunanana]

”Mm… You’re right. Let’s hope it’s limited to Fire Country.” She noted, and blushed deeply again, dismissing his tease with a slight pout and drifting her gaze away. They both sat down on the same chair, well, Tsuki sat down on his left leg, her own legs dangling a little in the space between his other one, as she took the journal in her hands, looking through it.

The symbols were the same, and it unsettled her, knowing that there were more characters at play here. ”When I was at the other house…” She recalled, looking at him. ”A decoy stole the girl I was watching. It was one of the villagers too… Which means we had someone tail us from the start. That’s what doesn’t sit right with me - if they knew, they must’ve foreseen that we will find their location.” She hummed, flipping through the pages. Was this anticipated? Were they that confident in themselves or was it another tactic? She blinked a few times, noticing a few last names, Uchiha, Hyuuga, Ōtsutsuki, Chinoike… All of the clans that possessed doujutsu. ”Whatever is hiding in these pages… We have to find out, have something concrete, this could be bigger than us.” She noted and looked at the other journal laying on the table.

She didn’t see a lot down in the underground lab, hospital, whatever it could be called. Naturally, her next question was…

”Did you find anything else there?” She asked and slowly leaned in resting her back against his, raising the journal in her hands so it was comfortable for both of them to read it now. She flipped the pages again, there were numbers, symbols, even drawings of different eyes.

[Niro]

Yoshinori sank into the seat, exhaling slowly as the tension began to ease from his shoulders. Tsuki joined him a moment later, settling into his lap with a familiar comfort, her presence grounding rather than distracting. He wrapped his arms gently around her waist, pulling her closer, the warmth between them quiet and reassuring. A soft hum vibrated in his chest as he glanced down at the journal in her hands, his gaze skimming the pages alongside hers.

The script was dense, medical terminology woven with cryptic notations, and though he wasn’t well-versed in medicine, Yoshinori knew there were people he could turn to for help decoding it. Still, he could sense there was something more beneath the surface. Something intentionally hidden. “I wonder if it was the baku,” he murmured, resting his head lightly against her shoulder. “Its genjutsu clearly had control over the kids, but… maybe the townspeople too. Not everyone would’ve had the chakra control to resist it.”

He fell quiet, letting the thought hang between them as the weight of what they’d uncovered pressed down again. What they’d seen, the experiments, the children's condition, the mention of the Byakugan, it was darker than either of them had expected. And the idea that someone had found a way to suppress such a powerful eye… it was both deeply unsettling and oddly fascinating. “I don’t think it’s over… not yet,” he said after a pause, eyes narrowing slightly as he flipped to another page.

Strange symbols laced the corners of the paper, deliberate, repeating. His brow creased in concentration. “This almost looks like... a map fragment?” He leaned in closer, brushing his fingers gently along the page’s edges. “But it doesn’t match the layout of the lab. So...how to we get to it and where does it lead?”

[Lunanana]

"Ohhh..." Smart . Maybe it was the Baku and not something else. That seemed way more logical, considering how fearful and confused the man was once she caught him. She listened to Yoshinori attentively, slowly giving him to hold the journal in his hands instead of hers. Her eyes trailed the outline of the map fragment as Yoshinori brushed his finger over it, and she turned the page, looking at the top corners and finding nothing. Then again, until she turned almost all of the pages, finding just a small piece again at the end of the journal only. "I wonder..." Tsuki slowly leaned forward, taking another journal in her hands, and flipping over it, finding two pieces of the fragment again. A victorious "Ha!" echoed in the kitchen, as she relaxed again. "It's like a puzzle..."

Soon, they both were browsing through the journals, placing them one near the other, aligning the corners. They worked silently but efficiently, and for a moment, Tsuki walked away and made some tea for them both, handing one cup to Yoshinori as she cradled hers with both her hands, looking at the map, which was missing a few pieces. Her eyes slowly drifted to Yoshinori looking at the pieces before his eyes, thinking, trying to make sense of it, and she smiled softly to herself, a faint blush on the tops of her cheeks. Cute.

Tsuki sat down on the sofa, placing her half empty cup on the table and thinking out loud. "It's clear we are missing some of them but from the outline it looks like an old building. Look at the door symbols, they're marked as archways, makes me think of either the sewers or an old dungeon..." Her voice was a little more silent. While he still looked, she curled up on the sofa, resting her cheek on the backrest, and blinking slowly. Not a few moments passed before her body went limp, and the calming sound of shuffling papers, taste of warm tea and Yoshinori's presence lulled her to sleep.

[Niro]

"Very smart," Yoshinori said warmly, a proud smile tugging at his lips as Tsuki carefully flipped through the remaining journals. Her intuition had been right, they were connected. Together, they moved pages around, comparing notes and aligning patterns until the puzzle began to form a clearer picture. When she slid off his lap, he blinked at her in brief confusion before catching on; tea. He offered a quiet nod as she moved toward the kitchen, a soft fondness lingering in his gaze. While she brewed the pot, he kept at the journal, though his focus wandered now and then to the gentle clink of mugs and the calm rhythm of her movements.

When she returned, he accepted the cup with a quiet "thank you," fingers brushing hers for a moment. The heat seeped into his skin, and he exhaled slowly, eyes drifting shut as the warmth traveled up his arm and spread through his chest. “Could be,” he murmured, answering her earlier musing. “But something about it says mine to me…” He drained the rest of his drink before leaning forward again, brows drawn in thought. The support structures sketched across the map looked vaguely familiar, like the ones he’d seen during an old academy trip to a decommissioned mining site.

There had been dozens of abandoned mines dotting the country, especially during desperate efforts to locate rare minerals. Easy places to hide in. Easier still to connect underground if you knew the right jutsu. “What about thi-” He paused mid-sentence, glancing over to the sofa before a quiet laugh slipped from his throat.

Tsuki had curled up against the cushions, eyes closed, breathing soft and even. The sight tugged at something in his chest. After everything they’d been through, rest suited her. She looked so at peace. He stood, careful not to make a sound as he moved through the kitchen and dimmed the lights. Then, approaching the sofa, he crouched gently beside her. His arms eased beneath her frame, lifting her with a practiced grace as her head instinctively nestled against his shoulder.

Yoshinori pressed a tender kiss to her forehead, his lips lingering for a breath longer than necessary. “You did good today,” he whispered, voice barely above a breath. Then, quietly, he carried her off to bed.