Black Test
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, I'd be Japanese and the awesomest person alive
A/N: This is a story that I thought as I typed it, so I hope it's as good as it seemed in my head. Please review! :D
A long standing rule for every ANBU candidate is to pass the screening, the trial testing, and finally the Black Test. For most, if they pass the screening they end up failing the trial testing. However, whoever passes the second procedure ends up wishing they didn't, for the final test is the Black Test. There's only one objective: you must take another's life.
For average shinobi, this test should be nothing, but for one as timid as Hyuuga Hinata, such a test would be virtually impossible. She had spent her whole life up to the age of sixteen as a healer, but when her tou-san got the news that her cousin Neji had made ANBU, he not so subtly nudged her in that direction.
This was something she could not fail at under any circumstance; she understood that her tou-san viewed her as nothing but a failure. Since she was going to be taking over as the head of the clan in only a couple of years, she had to change her caring ways.
She passed screening easily, she was the heiress after all, and the second test, the trial, was nothing but child's play compared to sparring with Lee, TenTen, Kiba, and Shino all at once. The third test, she wasn't too confident about.
"Don't sweat it, Hinata-chan!" Kiba exclaimed, flashing his former team mate a cocky grin and a thumbs up. "It's not all that bad! In fact, your Black Test mission is always so scary and fast paced that you probably won't even be able to remember your first kill, and after that, it gets a lot easier."
Though he was talking from personal experience, Hinata couldn't help but dislike the thought of killing another human being. She was always one to think that it was up to Kami who deserved to live and die, not herself.
I wonder if it will change me. She wondered, stopping in the middle of the road, a pale hand lifting up so that she could peer down at it. Almost all shinobi have killed. Kurenai-sensei, Tsunade-sama, Neji-niisan, Kiba-kun, Shino-kun… Even Naruto-kun and Sakura-chan have killed one or two over their time as shinobi… They all seem to be okay and not different in any way… So why do I find myself hesitating? It's sometimes necessary to make give a fatal blow, to protect the secrets of Konoha and my comrades!
"…nata!" Someone shouted.
"E-Eh?" She blinked rapidly for several moments, gathering her bearings. Kiba stood in front of her with a concerned look on his usually gleeful face.
"Is everything alright?" He asked gently, as if talking in a roomful of thin glass. "You're still worried about your Black Test, aren't you?" He continued on, cutting her off when she would've defended herself. "You know, no one will hold it against you if you don't become ANBU. After all, TenTen, Lee, Sakura, Ino, Chouji, and Naruto aren't ANBU, yet people still respect them as shinobi. So, if you don't feel like doin' it, then don't!"
Her lavender eyes slowly drifted to the ground as she bit down gently on her lower lip, a habit she picked up when she stopped the whole finger pressing thing. Iie. It's not that simple Kiba-kun… I cannot let tou-san down anymore. If I do, I will most likely either be disowned, or forced into some kind of arranged marriage because the council will most definitely not approve of someone who can't even kill one person… "Hai… I'll think about it overnight. After all, my mission will be tomorrow, so I need to have my answer by the morning."
"Hai! Well, it was cool that we could hang out for a while Hinata-chan! Have a good night's sleep!" He called, running off in the opposite direction of the Hyuuga district.
"Goodnight Kiba-kun!" She called after him, watching his retreating back as he disappeared into the evening crowd. I already know my decision though. She thought. I'll be taking whatever mission Tsunade-sama assigns to me tomorrow
"Hinata-san, you are aware of what this mission entails, do you not?" The golden eyed Hokage asked, leaning over her desk with her head resting on her hands.
"Of course Tsunade-sama." She replied, her head held high. She would not back down now; she had worked far too hard over the past few months trying to get ready for this.
"…Very well. Shizune! Give Hinata-san her mission scroll." She said, closing her eyes with a sigh.
"Hai!" Shizune practically leapt across the room to hand the younger woman her scroll. "Here you are Hinata-sama"
"Arigato Shizune-san." The heiress thanked, backing up until she came to the door, only stopping to bow to Tsunade. "I will return with this mission completed!" She exclaimed as loudly as she could (she had nothing on Naruto though), then turned and abruptly vanished.
"Shizune…"
"Hai Tsunade-sama?"
"Get me some sake." She ordered with a deep frown on her face.
Usually, the short haired brunette would deny her the addicting alcohol, but in this case, she would let it slide. She could tell what had the fifth Hokage so down spirited. After this mission, Hyuuga Hinata wouldn't be the same. A person with her kind of caring didn't come along too often, someone so…Pure-hearted. Death changes everyone's perspective in different ways, but in this case, it would not be for the greater good.
So, the brown haired assistant found herself moving to the spot that she kept the sake, a cloud of sadness following her.
Tsunade blinked rapidly when two cups were set down instead of just one.
"I'll be joining you for today only." She said in answer to the look, she obviously didn't need to explain further because the blonde shinobi was already pouring some liquor in each glass.
Three weeks later…
"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune barged into the Hokage's office, not even bothering to bow as she usually did when greeting her early in the morning.
"What is it Shizune?" The blonde asked, lifting her head out of a pile of paperwork.
"Its Hinata-sama ma'am. She's just been spotted at the gates! She has seemed to have completed the mission a week early!"
"What?" The papers were abruptly dropped as well as her mouth. Now, this was something she certainly would expect from someone like Hyuuga Neji, but not from Hinata. Just what was going on?
"She will be here in a minute, so please hurry and help me try to tidy up your desk."
"Fine." She muttered, picking up all of her papers and moving them over to another desk in the corner of the room. "That should do it!"
Knock, Knock.
"Come in." Tsunade called as she took her seat, eagerly waiting for the door to open.
"Ohayo Tsunade-sama." A familiar voice said in a low tone. "I hope that your evening was pleasant."
If she wasn't the Hokage, she probably would've gasped out loud, like Shizune just did, at the sight of the sixteen year old.
Instead of her kind lavender eyes, they seemed to be replaced with cool, hard violet. Her eyes have darkened. Several scratches and bruises littered the heiress's body, but nothing that would leave scars. Her once long indigo hair had been cut up rather messily and now reached her shoulders, varying in different lengths in a way that would've been considered layers if the pieces were symmetrical on each side, which they weren't.
What caught Tsunade's eyes though, weren't her features; there wasn't anything about her that she hadn't already expected, but what she held in her hands. A single black bag. It wasn't a retrieval mission that she had sent the teen on, so what could it be?
"I see that you're curious as to why I brought something Tsunade-sama." Hinata said a little boldly.
"Hai. This wasn't a part of your mission Hinata-san. Why have you brought this here?"
"Actually Tsunade-sama, this was my mission." She rather rudely tossed the ebony bag onto her desk, ignoring the scathing glare completely.
"What's in it?"
"Open it…Please."
Raising a delicate brow at just how far the timid kunoichi had changed, she reached down and carefully opened the bag, only to be plagued by a wretched and putrid smell. "Just what is in…" Her eyes immediately snapped back to the girl standing across from her with a look that could only be described as shock. "You…But…Why?" She asked finally.
Hinata didn't bat an eye. "He deserved it…He was raping little girls, Tsunade-sama. Not only that, but he would beat them, starve them… You can't imagine how many times I threw up over this whole ordeal. If you ask me, that teme had what was coming to him."
"That doesn't explain why you did that to the little girls too though."
"They asked for it. They said that they either wanted their kaa-sans or death. No one claimed them at the village I passed by on my way there."
"Hinata." The blonde frowned, with a look that almost looked like disgust. "That doesn't justify you killing them though."
Both shinobi ignored Shizune's loud gasp.
"They were hurting inside. They lost all reason to live."
"So you're telling me that if you were in their positions, you would've wanted death?"
"I don't recall saying that. But yes, I too would prefer to leave this life." Hinata paused, and then continued. "But enough of the children, did I pass?"
I cannot believe what this has done to Hinata! She was a kind, pure soul, yet look at her now… She's no different from any other shinobi now. "…Hai. You did get the mission completed, and not only that, but you finished a whole week early. Hyuuga Hinata, you are now officially a part of the ANBU. Congratulations."
Hinata straightened briefly before a self-satisfied grin crossed her features. "Good. I'll be with my clan for the next couple of hours, so when you get all the necessary things for me, I'll be waiting." She spun on her heel and exited the room.
"What do you make of that Tsunade-sama?" Shizune asked with a worried expression. "Do you think that she has cracked like Sasuke?"
"Iie. What happened with Sasuke was merely a fluke there won't be an incident like that in a long time."
Oh, the cool feeling of blood raining down on me is like no other! Hinata giggled as she sauntered down an alleyway that people hardly used nowadays. I cannot wait to experience it again!
"Hello there cutie." A deep voice rumbled from behind her followed up immediately by a firm hand coming down on her butt. "Want to play?"
"…Hai! That's the best thing I've heard all day!" She giggled manically.
It seems she didn't have to wait as long as she thought she would've.
END
A/N: That's the first time I've ever written something like this, so I hope I did a decent job on it.
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