I am really, really unhappy with the title. Seriously. It's uncreative and stupid and... uncreative. If anyone has a better title, feel free to share, and I'll credit you and stuff. Maybe write something for you if I really like it...?
...I really need a better title.
This one-shot is inspired by my science class, because my science teacher is amusing and I like him.
Of Mice and Snake
Hinata knew she didn't have very long to live. Nor did her (overly large) family. The average lifespan of a typical pet mouse was, after all, approximately three years. A few reached the age of five, like Hinata's sweet Grandpa Jiraiya and Grandma Tsunade, but she knew they were the lucky exceptions...
She also knew that, with her being naturally quiet on the outside, The Great Mhauss had shoved twice as much internal chaos inside her brain. The Great Mhauss had probably figured the shy outside and tumultuous inside would balance each other out, and it was probably The Great Mhauss who had created her tendency to over-think, worry, and ramble (internally, of course) when something bad happened...
Come to think of it, was The Great Mhauss also responsible for her fainting whenever Naruto-kun tried to talk to her? But that was unfair! How was she supposed to get Naruto-kun's attention if she kept on fainting? How could The Great –
But wait, wasn't that blasphemy on her part? Hinata's eyes widened as she profusely apologized (internally, of course) to The Great Mhauss.
She became acutely aware that she was rambling (internally, of course) and that she had a bigger problem to face.
A potential life-threatening problem.
The grip on her tail was released, and she dropped into the glass cage. A second later, Hanabi, dangling by her tail, was also dropped into the cage. The latch was closed with an ominous click.
A life-threatening problem, then.
"Hina-chan," Hanabi said, "what's going on?"
Hinata felt like fainting. She knew what was going on – she had seen it, but she'd never thought it would be her and her sister who were thrown in to face It –
A pile of dead leaves in the middle of the cage moved. It raised Its head, and Its black beady eyes stared at the two mice huddled together in a corner.
A beat of silence, then –
"Snake?" Hanabi whispered.
"S-snake," Hinata whimpered in confirmation.
"Snake! Hina-chan, it's a snake! Hina-chan! Hina –"
"Shh, H-Hanabi-chan, w-we're going t-to be okay, it's g-going t-to be okay –"
Hanabi burrowed under Hinata in terror, muffled squeaks escaping from her mouth. Hinata tried desperately to reassure her younger sibling even as her own heart sank in dread, for she knew that no, they would not be fine; they would end up as snake food in less than a minute.
But if they were going to die, she was going to take care of Hanabi one last time before that happened. Granted, they would not have very long before –
The leaves rustled. The snake slithered leisurely towards them, stopping a few mouse-lengths before Hinata.
Hinata shoved Hanabi behind her and started backing up, only to go cold when her tail felt the glass behind her.
The snake flicked its tail. "I think..." it said lazily, "I think I'll have you first."
And then it lunged.
One second Hanabi was behind her, the next she wasn't.
"Hanabi-chan!" Hinata skittered forward frantically, not knowing what to do besides scream out her sister's name. "Hanabi-chan! Hana –"
The snake imperceptibly tightened its hold on Hanabi. Hinata stilled.
"Hina-chan," Hanabi gasped.
"L-let h-her go, p-please," Hinata squeaked. "T-take me, y-you can t-take me f-first, please!"
"I don't believe I will," the snake said. "She looks tastier."
This was true, of course, Hinata thought. While her fur was a plain, dull gray, Hanabi's was a light, creamy brown color that was more pleasing to the eyes.
Ah, she was rambling (internally, of course) again.
"B-but," Hinata cried.
The snake squeezed harder at Hanabi, trapped within its coils. A rush of air escaped from Hanabi's mouth and her tail thumped feebly against the ground.
"S-stop it! Stop it! Hanabi-chan!"
The snake hissed irritably and made to go towards Hinata. Her first instinct was to shut up and run away – anything to put some distance between her and the snake - but she forced herself to continue screaming, that maybe if she annoyed the snake so much it would eat her first –
The snake was before her in an instant.
"Maybe I should eat you first," it said.
"N-no! I m-mean, y-yes, take m-me first!"
"What, exactly," the snake flicked its tongue out at Hinata, "do you hope to achieve? It doesn't matter. I'll eat you both."
Oh, she knew that. But she was also aware that as they were talking (or rather, the snake cornering her), Hanabi's beautiful creamy fur was paling and her thrashing movements were growing weaker. Hinata looked down at her pet mouse claws, or lack thereof, and knew fighting the snake was out of the question, but she could not sit there and just do nothing...
"P-please," Hinata begged. "Please..."
The snake turned away. "You might want to close your eyes."
She did not. Hinata had failed in protecting her sister, so she would make herself watch as Hanabi's movements slowed down and the little mouse wheezed for breath.
"I'm s-sorry," she sobbed. "I'm sorry, Hanabi-chan!"
"Hina –"
The snake squeezed.
Hanabi twitched feebly, then stilled.
The snake opened its mouth wide and turned to Hanabi, but then fixed Hinata with its stare. "Look away now," it said.
Sobbing, hating herself, Hinata did.
She did not know how long she curled up in her corner, in a motionless daze. It could have been hours or it could have been days... and then she became aware that she was still alive.
Why was she still alive?
"Because I haven't killed you, obviously."
Why not?
"I need to digest my food. Are you aware that you are talking out loud?"
Hinata couldn't find it in herself to blush as she normally did. Instead, a deep-rooted seed of something unfamiliar rose in her chest, hammering and threatening to burst out.
Was it –
"You have something to say."
– anger?
"Hanabi-chan," she whispered.
She looked at the snake, coiled up all prettily without a care in the world, when it had just eaten her sister. Her sister. She was dead and Hinata had failed –
"I need to digest my food."
The snake's eyes were calm and emotionless, as if it hadn't just killed her sister, and that was what riled her up.
Gone, at least for the moment, was the quiet and shy Hinata. The anger was stirring in her chest, unfamiliar but oh so good, and she took it and fueled her words with it, moulded them into the sharp claws she didn't have.
"You killed my sister," she spat. "My sister. And now you sit there and – and talk to me. Like you haven't just killed my sister. Like you haven't done anything wrong. You enjoyed it too, didn't you? You're a monster. You're a monster and I hate you!"
The snake flicked its tongue out at her, and this time she didn't skitter back nervously. "You didn't stutter." It seemed... amused?
"W-what?" Hinata said, momentarily thrown off-balance.
"Ah," the snake said, "there it is again."
"Y-you –"
"I apologize."
Hinata's mouth flopped open. "You apologize? That's it? You apologize?"
"You misunderstand. I do not apologize for eating your sister... however, I do apologize for causing you grief."
"You don't –"
"If you'll let me finish," the snake said pointedly. "I cannot help what I am. I am a snake. We eat mice. I am simply doing what my nature dictates. I cannot stop eating mice, just as you can start eating snake."
Hinata shivered, not only at the prospect of eating snake, but because she realized the snake could not help doing what it did. But the grief of her sister was fresh, and she tried to come up with a retort because Hanabi-chan...
"I-I... I d-don't c-care. Y-you killed her. You k-killed her and she's g-gone..."
The snake seemed to sigh, a tiny wisp of sound escaping from its mouth as its tongue flickered. "I know you don't. You think of me as a murderer... but what about the corn seeds and insects you eat every day?"
"Th-that's different," Hinata wanted to say, but couldn't see much of a difference at all.
"It's all a matter of perspective," the snake said, then curled up and appeared to fall asleep.
The loss of Hanabi still hung over her like a cloud, but Hinata had been more aware lately. She deduced that she had been inside the cage for five days.
She also deduced that her staying alive had apparently been of great importance to the humans, for they had been looking inside the cage more often lately. Probably surprised at the fact that the snake hadn't eaten her. How long did it take for snakes to... digest, anyway?
The word brought a sharp pang to her heart.
"Approximately two weeks. You are talking out loud again."
She stopped listening after "two weeks." Two weeks, and then she would be with her sister again.
"I do not understand why you would offer yourself to me to save your sister."
"W-what?"
"Why?"
Such a simple question, and yet... "B-because she is my sister. I-I... I love her."
"Tell me about it."
"T-tell you?"
"About this... sibling bond. Tell me."
"A-ah..." Hinata said. "W-we..."
"Well? Speak up. Or do you not care for her after all, because you cannot describe it?"
"N-no!" Hinata burst out. "I-I love her! I do! Because she is family!"
The snake was silent for a while. "I think," he said, "I have realized that you lose your stutter when you feel strongly about something."
Hinata predictably stuttered.
"So she is your family. And?"
"A-and what?"
"It is the only reason you acted that way? The only reason you love your sister? Because she is family?"
"I-I..." Hinata was speechless. "It... um... a family... loves each other."
It was inadequate, yet was strangely all she wanted to say.
"D-don't you h-have a family?"
The snake cocked his head to the side thoughtfully. "No," he said at last.
"W-why?"
"I will tell you if you do not stutter."
"Um," she said. "I-I w-will try," she stuttered.
The snake flicked his tongue out. "Good enough, I suppose. Now, snake mothers generally do not take care of their young. After the eggs are laid, she leaves, and we fend for ourselves."
"W-what about your brothers or sisters?"
"Snake do not travel in groups."
Hinata was horrified. "H-how did you g-get here?"
"I suppose they thought I was reasonably attractive." The snake shrugged, a slow movement that began when he raised his head and ended with a rippling movement of his tail. The sunlight glinted off his white and yellow scales.
Hinata snorted slightly.
"What?" The snake said.
"You are," she said, giggling hysterically, "a pretty snake."
The snake looked offended.
Hinata carried on giggling.
"If you are quite finished," he said. "I would like to take a nap."
"W-wait," Hinata said, sobering up quickly. "W-what's your n-name?"
The snake looked at her oddly.
"U-um," Hinata said. "S-so I don't c-call you Snake all the t-time."
"...Sasuke."
"I-I'm Hinata. Ah, b-but you already know..."
The snake blinked and was asleep in seconds.
It occurred to Hinata that she had started thinking of the snake as a 'he' rather than an 'it', and she could not remember when the situation had changed.
Hinata nibbled at a slice of apple the human had left for her. It was almost two weeks since she had been stuck inside the cage with the sna – Sasuke.
Two weeks.
She had not forgotten, per se, about Hanabi... but the burning rage was absent.
Maybe it was in her nature not to be angry for too long. Maybe it was the fact that she... understood, to a certain level, that the sn – Sasuke did what he was meant to do.
She crunched on the apple absentmindedly, trying to decide if she should offer an apology to the fruit for eating it.
"The humans find us interesting," the sn – Sasuke remarked casually.
"Mm," Hinata said.
"They won't find us interesting for long."
"Why?" Hinata asked.
"Because nature will take its course."
An inexplicable feeling of dread crept up on her, and then –
He struck.
Hinata squealed and leapt away. She should have known, she should have been more aware... but for what, really? No matter how agile she was, she would tire eventually, and he'd get her –
She made another leap, barely missing the striking snake.
– but she'd see Hanabi again –
The thought froze her. The snake pinned her against the ground.
"How disappointing," he said. "You're weak, and pathetic. You give up so easily."
Hinata struggled half-heartedly, the primal instinct to stay alive overruled by the want of seeing her sister again.
"You are weak; you will never end up in the same place as your sister!"
Hanabi-chan –
And then Hinata knew.
"I-I am not weak!"
"Prove it," he hissed.
"I-I wanted to save my sister! I was willing to die for her! I know more than you about family and love and sacrifice! You are the coward!"
Taking a deep breath, she opened her mouth as wide as it would go and bit down.
Startled more than injured, the snake released its hold on her. Hinata bunched up her muscles and jumped the biggest jump of her life. She aimed for the hole at the top of the cage, the hole she had been dropped through –
– and smashed into the transparent glass.
Dazed, she scrambled to her feet, sensing the snake slither towards her.
"Much better," he said.
Her brain registered the words a few seconds after. "Y-you were p-playing!"
The snake looked amused. "You do have a little bit of fire in you, it would seem."
"Th-that wasn't funny!" She cried, feeling herself start to hyperventilate.
"No," the snake said, "but it did tell me what to do..."
Reaching up high with his tail, the snake fiddled with the latch. A few moments later, the glass door swung open, swaying back and forth as if to mock Hinata for crashing into it earlier.
The snake looked at her expectantly. "Well?"
"W-what?"
"The door is open."
Hinata wasn't sure she heard him correctly. "W-what?"
"I said, the door is open."
"Y-you –" she spluttered, "you're letting me g-go?"
A languid swish of the tail. "Yes."
"B-but why?"
The snake looked annoyed for a brief moment. "I could provide you with a reasonable, logical explanation... however, the truth is that I don't know."
Hinata knew, then, that he was fueled by the same involuntary rush that fills one's body when one does things without explanation - the same way a family is fueled when it wants to protect its members...
She glanced up at the open door above her, enticing her towards freedom - but something held her down...
And then she remembered –
"Hanabi," she said.
"Ah," the snake murmured. "And so we come to the question."
Hinata dimly felt herself slump down. Did she want to go on – did she even deserve to go on? She'd failed Hanabi, and if she left –
She didn't deserve it.
"Or you may stay," the snake said. "And end it." His voice was quiet, without malice.
She felt heavy, weighed down by an invisible anchor. She should end it. She should stay and let Sasuke eat her – in some ways it would be a blessing... it would be so easy to –
But isn't the easy way the coward's way out?
And Hinata...
No.
She was not a coward. She had said so to Sasuke, and she would prove it.
But Hanabi-chan, the stutter voice inside of her said. Don't you want to see Hanabi again?
Yes, Hinata thought. And she knew she would.
But not now.
Now all she had were the memories in her heart.
She would go on living, if only to remind herself of Hanabi every day – of her sister's birth, accidents, growth, and – death –
Because if there was one thing she knew for sure, it was that Hanabi would want her to go on.
And she, Hinata, was not a coward. Not anymore.
Determined, she looked up at Sasuke.
The snake evidently saw the spark in her eyes, for he looked satisfied and lowered his head back down to rest on his coiled body.
"A-ah... but it's too high..." Hinata felt her resolve wavering.
The snake hissed, baring its fangs at her while simultaneously lunging forwards.
Squealing, Hinata jumped, soared, and found herself outside the cage, balancing precariously a mouse-length away from the open door.
The snake flicked his tongue out and fluttered it in what Hinata realized was the snake version of a smirk.
"D-don't do th-that again," she gasped.
"Apparently I cannot," the snake said. "You are out there, after all."
So she was.
Looking down, she asked, "But what about you?"
"I do not have legs to jump," he said blankly. "I have opened the latch with my tail, but I cannot reach the opening."
"Oh," she said, dithering, not knowing what else was appropriate for the situation. "I..."
"Go, before the humans find you."
Hinata thought she should say something, but her brain scrambled (internally, of course) for an answer that was not forthcoming.
"G-goodbye," she blurted. It was the only thing she could say, yet it was all she wanted to say. Then she turned and scampered off.
The snake blinked at her, then lowered its head and was still as a statue.
Goodbye, Hanabi-chan.
And Hinata knew the grief would never go away...
...But neither would her newfound perspective of the snake.
Okay bye hope you enjoyed
Trololololo
-TheAliensDidIt