A/N: Please read the author's note at the end of the upload.
Disclaimer: Roses are red, violets are blue. I don't own Naruto so Kishimoto can't sue.
The sun shined down on a large peaceful village filled with people milling about throughout the bustling city market. A wind blew gently through the leaves of the foliage nearby adding to the tranquil effect on the town. As people walked about obliviously about two miles beneath the soil other activities were going on.
Underneath the surface of everything was a single room, dark and dank in appearance. In this room were three figures. Two were standing before the third, which was strapped to an uncomfortable steel chair. The entirety of the room was lit by a single dim overhead light bulb that swung back and forth loosely on an electrical wire. Water dripped from the ceiling onto the soaked hearth only serving to add to the less than pleasant atmosphere of the room. Simply put this was a dungeon of the worse kind and the single prisoner there can attest to that.
The two figures standing, one man and the other a woman, were angry. You could tell because of their tight expressions and tense bodies.
The only male present in the dingy little room wore a long dark gray trench coat over top of his navy blue jounin uniform and black leather combat boots. He had on a matching navy blue bandana on his head. The dark glare in his eyes and scowl on his scarred face added to his already impressive intimidation factor. He had his arms crossed as his eyes bore into the prisoner's head as if willing that person to combust into flames on the spot.
The second standing figure was a woman. She wore a tan trench coat that was wide open and did nothing to hide her provocative outfit beneath it. Her orange miniskirt hardly covered her tantalizing legs and thighs and her fishnet, barely-there top was the only thing protecting her torso from the cold air in the room. Her hands were set on her hips as her eyes flashed with white hot rage and frustration. She was only two seconds away from attacking the amused individual strapped to the chair in front of her.
Finally the captured person sitting with her hands and fingers secured tightly behind her back on the chair gazed back at both would-be interrogators turned punishers with poorly concealed mirth. She was a sight for sore eyes as she looked beyond worse for ware.
What started out as a basic questioning turned into something more because she refused to give them the answers they thought they were looking for. From there it escalated into a full blown interrogation that led to mind rape and downright physical torture, although it hadn't gone beyond the typical beatings yet.
She took them all in stride with a damnable smirk on her face as her blood dribbled down the corner of her mouth and the side of her head. Her left eye was swollen shut and the other had a nasty bruise on it. Her eyes gave away her laughter even if she hadn't opened her mouth or spoken since she got smashed in the face by brass knuckles. She could only laugh at how ironic and fucking unfair life has always been for her.
"Are you going to stop with this ludicrous interrogation yet or not? Because I've already said all that I'm going to say." The woman spat out blood before nearly choking on laughter from the looks of disbelief on their faces.
"We'll have to try other methods." The man whispered to his partner quietly inside the dinky prison. She nodded her agreement before walking up to the detainee and smacking her across the face harshly. Then she calmly straightened out imaginary wrinkles and walked out of the room.
"Don't look so shocked. After all you brought this upon yourself, you traitor. And don't worry she'll be back real soon." He was responding to the confused, questioning stare sent his way by the POW.
The captured criminal could only sigh in disappointment and feign her incredulity as she held her aggravation in check. "How many times must I say it? I'm not a traitor!" . . . At least not by less than savory choices, she added silently in her mind. I've had good reasons for doing what I did. As if those thoughts could justify her actions.
When the female interrogator returned she wasn't alone. With her came two more surprising people. In walked the leader of the village, the fifth Hokage, and her one time teammate and long standing friend and companion, Jiraiya, the toad sage. Both took one good look at her condition and grimaced in sympathy and disgust. Taking the beatings these two torturers could dish out isn't easy.
"Untie her Anko-san, Ibiki-san. We will take it from here," Lady Hokage commanded. Both did as ordered without so much as a peep although Anko grumbled how lucky the woman got off.
Once she was set loose she fell to her knees in exhaustion as her lack of strength and support took its toll on her. She was soon re-apprehended and dragged off behind the village leader and her confidante. The last thing she saw before blacking out was the bright midday sky.
When she came to she was inside a large, opulent office lying on the floor face down. Her hands and feet were chained to the ground limiting her movements and hindering her ability to do more than just raise herself to her knees. The criminal looked around noticing she was healed for the most part and wasn't alone in this large room, so she decided to voice the obvious.
"Well if it isn't what's left of the Hidden Leaf Dozen. How have you all been?" Her voice was sickeningly sweet and falsely friendly. "What? No answer? I'm hurt." She merely grinned contradicting her words. "What's with the faces? Not happy to see me? Humph! Look, Lady Tsunade, why don't you cut straight to the chase here? I'm freaking starving and the sooner this gets taken care of the sooner I can eat that five-star gourmet slop you feed the prisoners," she sneered sarcastically.
Another figure walked out from one of the corners of the room and slapped her across the face violently. Her head snapped to the side viciously from the unexpected gesture. Slowly she turned to face the new intruder with a stony look so cold it would make Land of Snow feel tropical.
"It's lovely to see you again little sister," she spoke apathetically to the young white-eyed female and watched with silent regret as tears spilled from the girl's pearly orbs.
"How dare you show your face around here after what you've done? How dare you!" Hanabi shrilled in anguish as her tears continued to spill.
"You don't understand. None of you do, so don't go acting all self-righteous when you have no clue what's going on," Hinata said monotonously, only serving to fuel everyone's frustration with her. Shockingly, Jiraiya remained calm and collected as if he wasn't the least bit surprised about all of this; it was as though he expected it.
"Then enlighten us, since you seem to have all the answers," Tsunade spoke calmly despite her negative feelings about the whole situation.
"It's not my place to say. I swore an oath that I would bury that information along with my body. I don't go back on my word Lady Hokage, so save yourself the trouble and just sentence me already." She looked out of the large windows behind the Hokage's desk, staring at the Hokage monument solemnly.
"Humph! So you've grown a back bone, have you?" Hiashi sneered from his place beside Hanabi. Hinata's eyes locked on to him and the glare she sent him was lethal.
"Don't you even start," Jiraiya interjected quickly, noticing Hinata's demeanor change from stoic to downright hostile.
"No . . . let the bastard talk. He'll be more surprised when I rip out his damn throat." Hinata's eyes flashed daringly, practically begging him to continue. All of those present, who thought they knew Hinata, were shocked immensely by her behavior. However, most thought she was putting up a front. One of them stepped up to challenge her and find out.
"Oh? How do you plan to do that? If you hadn't noticed you're chained to the ground," Neji interrupted the heated staring contest between the two Hyuga condescendingly.
"Go to Hell, Neji. I don't need any of your crap right now, so just shut the fuck up," Hinata bit out, focusing her burning gaze on him. She didn't miss the sarcasm he spoke to her with, his tone suggesting she was, for all intents and purposes, a fool. He nearly recoiled from the deadly intensity of it.
"Enough!" Tsunade silenced them quickly. "I want answers, your promise, vow or whatever the hell it was, be damned! You will let us in on what you've been doing willingly or not," she hissed, completely fed up with everything at the moment. "Jiraiya!" She barked.
"Yes Tsunade?"
"Use the jutsu!" She gave him a scathing scowl to shut him up before he could question her decision.
Jiraiya sighed before walking up to the prisoner while speeding through a long combination of hand seals. "Sorry kid. Can't disobey the boss lady now; can I?"
Hinata chuckled bitterly and shook her head in agreement with his statement as she watched the sage move through each seal with confidence and precision, knowing exactly what was coming. "No, no I suppose you can't." Before she was rendered unconscious once more she heard him whisper, "Forgive me." She only hoped she could.
All of those present inside the Hokage's office surveyed the new place and found themselves in an entirely transformed area. The once familiar surroundings of Tsunade's office was now a large field of clouds floating above, around and below them in a perpetually evening sky, the colors shifting between the beginning of sunset to the beginning of moonrise. Konoha's finest didn't panic for the simple fact that they stood on a single piece of land present in the entire realm.
"What is this place? Where are we?" Shikamaru asked as he watched what would've been the best place to go cloud watching had the situation not changed from serious to seriously bizarre.
"We're in what can be officially labeled Hinata's mindscape," Jiraiya spoke lucidly with a bewildered look on his face. "Although I didn't take her to be an air head."
"What the hell does that mean? What did you do? Is it because of the jutsu?" Naruto asked in his overbearingly obnoxious way.
"Shut up!" Sakura smashed her incredibly powerful fist against his head in annoyance as she muttered about loud blond idiot teammates under her breath.
"Obviously that would be the case Naruto." Ino rolled her eyes exasperatedly as she watched the usual dynamics of team 7. "It's similar to my family's mind-body switch jutsu; right Jiraiya-sama?"
"Correct, only this is a far more advanced version that requires a complex seal array both written and performed by hand. Before we had her brought to Tsunade's office I wrote the seal arrangement on the area she was chained to and on the back of her neck." He pointed to the back of his own to give them an idea where. "It was meant to be used as a means to read the prisoner's memories should they refuse to talk. The whole idea was to 'bring' the user into the mindscape. However, since the seals were all over Tsunade's floors everyone present in the immediate vicinity of the seals was brought in as well."
"So the room was changed into Hinata's mindscape?" Sakura asked for clarity.
"Basically, yes, that's what happened," Jiraiya finished his explanation. "Now the question is: where to begin looking," he muttered under his breath as he scanned around for some kind of clue.
Kiba scratched the back of his head in mild confusion before Akamaru started barking to get his attention. He turned to his partner when the dog told him he smelt flowers. Kiba sniffed the air to be sure and his eyes widened when he too could smell the subtle but sweet fragrance of a multitude of flora. He and his best friend took off in the direction the scent originated from. Everyone noticed and ran after them.
As they approached, the sound of rushing water reached their ears and they just knew that they were on to something. Eventually they reached a precipice, which obviously meant that there was an end to this plateau. As the group stared down the cliff they saw something incredible.
A ways below was an enormous field of flowers, of all kinds, and surrounding the large field on each side were two massive waterfalls letting loose torrential amounts of crystal clear water, shimmering like diamonds, that fell into an unfathomable abyss below. Floating above it all in the center of the sky was what looked to be a bright blue orb surrounded by dark winds. Upon closer inspection, they realized that it was actually a gateway or portal of some sort.
"Well now we're gettin' somewhere!" Jiraiya smiled a bit in relief. Everyone turned to look at the Toad Sannin in confusion. All they got in response was Jiraiya launching himself over the ledge of the cliff face and toward the blessed void below. "Tally Ho!"
The others had no other choice but to follow lest they be lost in this . . . oasis?
Landing safely on the surface of the flowery haven, everyone got a good look at Hinata's spiritual sanctuary before trudging onwards to explore the rest of the retreat. Soon the group stood before the threshold of, what could only be assumed to be the secrets of Hinata Hyuga's mind.
"What we're going to see is Hinata's innermost thoughts, feelings, and experiences. We'll practically be reliving her life while forcing her to do the same in her own mind. Now that you know what you're about to get yourselves into; do you really want to go through all of this? I can end the jutsu now and only the people that truly want to know can stay. You won't be faulted for wanting to leave now; after all, this is the biggest violation of privacy anyone can receive," Jiraiya spoke calmly.
"We've come this far . . . it'd be pointless to turn back now," Shino spoke everybody's thoughts, effectively stating their decision to go on, since all of them felt that they needed to know.
"Alright," with a sigh Jiraiya led them through the entrance and into the vault that was Hinata's mind.
A/N: Well I remember coming up with this . . . prologue of sorts out of boredom one day and totally forgot it rotting away on my hard drive, so here it is. I can't remember for the life of me what I was gonna do with it when I first wrote it. I keep remembering something about Akatsuki, Itachi, and a strong Hinata but that's about it. Since the rest of the plot is lost to me I'm proposing that someone adopt this and make it their own story. Just PM me to let me know if you want to so I can read what you write about it. I think it would be awesome to see what you guys write based off of this! :)