Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Warnings/Notes: OroHina eventually, this is probably OOC and if you don't think it is it will become OOC, sorry but it's just the way I tend to write and it's bound to happen with a pairing like this one. Just to warn you in advance, rating may go up due to later chapters, reasons why will be listed as warnings/notes at the beginning of the chapter. Anyway, please enjoy!

It was the middle of summer, days were warmest now and she was growing tired of the routine weather, the routine rising and setting of the sun. She was getting tired of wasting her life away doing nothing she thought was important. Every accomplishment she made was nothing, no matter how she tried it didn't seem to matter, it amounted the same way in the end. She sat on her knees and watched the sun slowly begin to set the flowers in the field around her were slowly wilting and dying away from lack of water.

She looked at them with empathy, but amongst that too was envy, envy burning deep within her. At least these flowers could die without too much suffering; she however could not, that would be taking the easy way out. They like her were fragile, swept away with the wind; she touched one as she forced back tears stinging at her eyes. They were like her…and yet they weren't.

People liked flowers, they accepted flowers, even called them beautiful, flowers were…normal.

She wanted to spit, she wanted to cry, nothing was fair. She was so much like the flowers and yet she wasn't accepted, nor was she ever called beautiful, nothing she ever did would ever get her acknowledged, if so it was for the wrong reasons. She sighed and sniffed back more tears, clenching both her fists in anger; all she wanted all she needed was someone like her. Someone that understood, but she could never have that and it was a selfish hope anyway.

She rose to her feet, cursing herself under her breath as she did so, she hated that she was so weak, she hated it, she wanted to die sometimes when she thought about how disgraceful everyone thought her. But she wouldn't die; she couldn't, no matter how much she tried someone always found a way to "save" her, she was told it was because they cared for her.

She punched the ground and shook her head, they didn't care, no one cared, they weren't saving her at all, she needed saved from the people around her, she needed saved from the hypocrisy and scorn, she needed to grow new wings and fly away. Her broken, tattered ones refused to support her. She was too weak to make it to salvation, too weak to die, too weak to keep fighting to get away from it all.

She was just too weak.

Tears leaked from her eyes and she cursed herself for that, tears were a weakness, crying was a weakness, but weakness was a part of her, one she knew she'd have to learn to accept since she couldn't seem to find anyway to avoid doing so. She clutched grass in her hands and pulled it up from the roots as she stood and kept it in her hands, letting it fall to the ground once she was standing at full height. She wanted to scream but she didn't, she couldn't all she could do was break down a little more, her trembling knees threatened to buckle, her legs beginning to give way and so she turned to run back, far away from the village that'd hurt her so. Her indigo bangs were whipped across her forehead by the wind as she slowly turned around, she knew if she didn't seize her chance now she'd be too weak, too afraid, and she'd never do it.

She tried to run but her legs were frozen to the ground, she gritted her teeth and forced herself to move, once she took the first few steps she pounded her bare feet against the cold, hard ground, ignoring the rain that was now beating down on her. She ran faster and harder than her legs had ever carried her before, she headed straight out of the gates of Konoha and began making her way threw the opened field. She could see the forest on the edge of the horizon, she was getting closer, but she was tired, she couldn't get her breath easily and her body was no convulsing from exhaustion and overexertion but she didn't stop.

She ran longer, pumping her legs hard until she came into the forest, an ocean or trees surrounding her, she collapsed then. Her feet all the way up her ankles were covered in mud from the rain that still beating down on her but that was the least of her worries. She blinked a few times in an attempt to clear her blurring vision but to no avail. She gasped at a stray rustling of leaves in some nearby brush and coughed a few times, spitting up blood, which she wiped on the sleeve of her jacket.

She willed herself to get up again, telling herself what she'd heard was only an animal, but gasped at the sharp, siring pain which shot up her legs as she put weight on them. She put a hand on a tree beside her to steady herself, breathing hard, almost still panting even after she'd been lying on the muddy ground for nearly twenty minutes. Her vision was still blurred and her stomach lurched when she attempted to move any part of her body.

She bared her teeth and bowed her head painfully, this wasn't supposed to happen, she wouldn't let it happen, she'd gotten this far, she had to keep going, but she couldn't, her body was at her limit. With her last bit of strength she reached around her neck with her free hand and undid her forehead protector, letting it drop to the ground without a second thought. She glared down at it, her gaze riddled with contempt, she hated her village, hated her family…or at least she wanted to. After all, they'd done horrible wrongs onto her but it was hard to blame them, even she agreed she was as weak as they proclaimed she was.

"Well now…" Came a silky voice from behind her, her eyes widened and she released a small sound that was supposed to come out as a gasp, though it wasn't heard over the sound of the rain anyway. "Who have we hear…?" The voice came again, followed by a bout of darkened, eerie laughter.

She heard footsteps approaching her and tried to speak, to yell at whomever it was to stay away from her but she was unable to work feeling into her jaw. The laughter came again, sounding the same except for being heartier, deeper.

"So you're mute." The figure taunted her as he apparated quickly behind her and gripped the back of her neck painfully, ripping her away from the tree she was holding to steady herself only to turn her to face him.

Hinata looked up into the amber eyes of Orochimaru, up into a face she knew well, a face she knew was evil, her gaze traveled subconsciously downward, she looked at the smile her wore, trying to read it along with the rest of his expression.

"How interesting…"

"N-N-Not m-mute." Hinata forced out, fear gripping at her causing her voice to break even more than it would have because she was weakened.

Orochimaru laughed again, "Why go through all this." He gestured to her body, "You can barely stand, why would you go so far, what are you running from?" He asked her.

Hinata's breaths came out quicker and more sharply, she closed her eyes, "Wh-Wh-Why d-do you c-c-care?" She managed to ask, Orochimaru's loosening grip on her neck was all that supported her now since her legs were like water underneath of her.

Once again Orochimaru chuckled, "You're a weak little thing aren't you…?" He continued to taunt her.

Hinata couldn't muster up the strength to say anything more than, "L-L-Leave m-me."

Orochimaru smirked, a shadow falling over his face as the cloudy sky became even darker, "Leave you alone here to die, let you fall to the ground like some helpless animal, that's what you want me to do?" He asked her, but by now she was incoherent, barely even conscious. Had she been awake only seconds longer she'd have felt Orochimaru picking up her limp and mangled form to take her away back to where he was hiding out. Inwardly, his thoughts began clouding his mind.

She'll be back in that village the morning she wakes up…but no matter, I can let her go…after all…she is of use to me no matter where she is….