THE BEGINNING OF THE END
Shortly after the battle against pain, a group of 5 went out to research more on the Akatsuki. These were: Naruto, Hinata, Tenten, Choji and Shikamaru.On leaving the village, they headed straight to the border, in the middle of the night, unbeknownst to the village and even Tsunade.
Naruto's POV
IT was just minuites after we lift the village, eyes focused and courage, mixed with a tinge of fear filling our hearts. I tried to look forward into the forest but suddenly caught sight of Hinata's eyes, her pure white eyes that felt like the were boring into my very soul, her blue hair that oddly, reminded me of the river. She looked straight at me with pure innocence but i could tell she was sad, distured, and a thousand reasons flashed through my mind as to why.
Come on man, you can do this, just ask her.
"Umm, hinata"
She looked at me with suprise and a sudden blush appeared on her cheeks, staining them a bright red.
"Yes, N naruto-kun?"
"What is wrong? you seem so distant"
"its nothing really, just musing to myself"
"come on, you can tell me"
"I said its nothing"
Her voice flared up a bit as she said this, and i couldnt help but feel suprised, and a little hurt.
But she continued:
"S Sorry, just leave me alone for a moment"
"No problem, we all have things on our minds".
Although i tried to sound confident, i could still see the hurt in her eyes, making me know that there was something she kept from me.
"If you two are done talking, there is somewhere just beyond these trees we can camp for the night"
i heard shikamaru say.
"I hope we can find some food there. I am starving"
choji replied, earning a chuckle from shikamaru but a retort from tenten
"Is that all that is on your mind? i seriously wonder how ino can manage you", she said. We all laughed at this, all except for hinata, but i felt that it wouldnt be wrong to leave her to her musings, if it made her become herself again.
We continued travelling until we came upon a small village.
"shikamaru, is this not...", said tenten, wanting to ask a question. But shikamaru cut her off,
"Yes, it is. I know it's dangerous but there is no other place to camp for the night." he replied.
Filled with confusion a d curiosity, I asked, "what is it? and why is it dangerous?"
"well", shikamaru said, " this is a village which is said to have one of the most powerful doujutsu called the Amenokogan, which is said to send a person, or group of people, to his worst hell. Whether physically or mentally, no one knows"
A huge ball found its way to my throat but I still tried to speak, hwving a thousand quedtions. Looking at the rest of the team however, I realized that they were just as clueless as I was. And once again I looked at Hinata, as she still wore a troubled, depressed face, one that I never knew she had. Sighing, I made a silent vow to free her from whatever was troubling her.
On getting to the village, we raised our gaurd and stepped in cautiously in order to avoid any unwelcome suprises. But strangely, the village appeared deserted, empty houses and noiseless streets. All was quiet until the sound of a bottle was heard. We turned to look at the source of the sound but saw a small boy rushing away from us with a bottle that seemed to contain a strange liquid.
"Hey, wait a minuite", I called out. But the boy just kept on running leaving us no choice but to follow him. He ran and passed a clearing in the forest. When we got there, there was a small cabin in the middle which had a little light in it.
"Maybe we can get some food there", choji said earning in a scary look from tenten and a chuckle from I and shikamaru. Looking back at the target, we slowly made our way to the cabin, which on getting close looked poorly kept, like no one had lived it it for years. I got an eerie feeling from it, the way the moonlight danced on it made the pit in my stomach to increase in size and length. Nevertheless, we knocked on the door for several minuites, hoping that someone would open up. After knocking for a long time, we turned to leave when a sickly hand opened the door. Looking inside the cabin filled my stomach with an even greater pit. My eyes could not believe what i saw.Hundreds of beds all containing men who looked like the had not eaten in the past 5 months. Their shoulder blades looked so pronounced and if I wanted to I could count their ribs. With sunken eyeballs, one of the men looked at me and suddenly, I knew that they were sick and would die if they did not receive any cure. Looking gurther into the cabin I saw the small boy from earlier, feeding one of the men with whatever liquid was in the bottle. I walked close to the boy and saw that the liquid was just water. Pure, clean, normal water. Confusion hit me like a rock and I turned to to the boy. Before i could speak however, he spoke up:
"My name is Toshinori. I was born here but moved out with my grandfather when a man called orochimaru came to the clan to experiment on the clan because of their eyes. My grandfather warned against it but the people would not listen"
As he said this, tears welled up in his eyes. I reached out to comfort him, but he continued:
"We left the village. Me grandfather eventually fell ill. But he warned me contantly to be aware of Orochimaru. I did not think much of it at the time, worrying only of his health. However, two years after leaving the village, he died. I returned only to see the results of his predictions and warnings. In a bid to duplicate our power, he made a poison which only reacted to those with our eyes"
As he said this, I noticed the faint glow of blue in his eyes, which gave me a dizzy feeling.
"The effect of that poison is what you are seeing right now", he concluded.
"This is horrible" tenten said, " he must pay for all he has done". The rest of the team nodded in agreement.
"Is there anyway to fix this?" I asked, fear and guilt filling me. Fear of what may happen to them and guilt for not being there to stop it.
"Do not beat yourself up Naruto", I heard shikamaru speak, " we all feel the same way as you".
I sighed and looked around at the hopeless scene before us.
"There is a way to save us", the man who had opened the door for us finally spoke. He was so quiet that I forgot he was standing here the whole time, which is why i jumped at bit in suprise when he spoke.
"But it is a very dangerous way, something that no body in their right minds would think of doing", he finished, with tinge of fear in his eyes which also had pure anger as shown in the light- blue glow I saw in it. Upon closer inspection, i saw that he was slighly more agile than the rest of the men, guessing that he must have been infected last.
"Whatever we need to do, tell us", I said with my teammates nodding in affirmation to my words.
"Fine, this is what you need to do".
The anticipation in me was rising through the roof but I was ready to do whatever was needee... at least I thought I was.
Well guyz thats a wrap for chapter one. Tell me what you think in the comments. Criticism is accepted but do remember that this is my first work.What is the way?Why is hinata sad?Find that in the next chapter
