"Toshiro! Toshiro, you must wake! Toshiro!"

Slowly, the young boy opened his blue-green eyes, and his sight was consumed by the face of his mother, and she was deathly pale. Her blue eyes were burning with an emotion Toshiro didn't recognize, and her slender fingers were digging almost painfully into his shoulders as she shook him, and her snowy white hair was cascading wildly over her shoulders.

"Kaa-chan?" Toshiro mumbled in a sleepy voice, and he rubbed his eyes, even as his mother tugged him out of bed and onto his feet. "What's wrong?"

"Listen to me, Toshiro. We have to go." His mother, Sayuki, whispered, and she knelt down in front of him, so their eyes were level. Toshiro was getting a little worried now, his rapidly waking mind absorbing the scenery; all the candles had been blown out and the bamboo shutters were drawn, and Sayuki's futon was sprawled out on the ground, littered with wrinkles, and the blanket had been tossed carelessly aside. His mother was a very tidy person. He couldn't understand why she's throw it about like that.

"Kaa-chan?" He repeated, and his voice was growing higher with anxiety.

"Relax, Toshiro. It's okay." She purred, and she stroked his cheek, lovingly brushing some silvery hair out of his eyes. "We just have to go right now. Okay?"

"Why?" He asked sadly. "I don't want to go. Where's Tou-kun?"

"Daddy's busy," Sayuki said after a moment, but there was something about her voice that made Toshiro nervous.

"Where's Tou-kun? Kaa-chan, where is he?"

"Toshiro-"

CRASH

/

Hinata was confused. She couldn't understand why her uncle was yelling, or why her mother was crying, or why her father was standing stock still. They trading words in the living room, and the silky folds of her mother's kimono were becoming drenched with her tears as they ran freely down her face and dripped of her chin. Her uncle, Hizashi, was red in the face and screaming words Hinata couldn't understand at her father, Hiashi, who accepted what must have been verbally abuse without so much as a twitch. Hinata was hidden behind the sliding door, and she was peering through a paper-thin gap, and her tiny fingers were curled around the wood.

All of a sudden, the door to their home burst home, and Hizashi jumped back and reached for his sword, but Hiashi's hand lashed out and knocked it away. A person wearing a heavy black traveller's clock stepped through the door and, after a quick glance at Hiashi and his twin, stalked across the room and flung open the very door Hinata was hiding behind.

Hinata stumbled backwards with a squeak, startled by the man's abrupt movements, and cried out as he roughly snatched her arm and shoved her towards the door.

"No!" Haru, Hinata's mother, shrieked, and she leapt to her feet and charged at the stranger, but Hiashi caught her waist and held her still, despite her violent thrashing. Hizashi dived at the stranger, also, but another stranger suddenly appeared and punched him hard in the face, and, his grey eyes rolling in their sockets, Hizashi fell, his body slapping against the polished floorboards, unconscious.

/

"Kaa-chan! Who were they?" Toshiro shouted over the rushing of the wind as it billowed through their clothing, their hair, and the thunderous footfalls of the horse he and his mother were riding. Sayuki did not reply, and instead steered the horse into an abrupt turn and sent then racing down a rocky, dusty road, and Toshiro clung desperately to his mother's kimono, confused and scared.

Then Toshiro heard something that made his blood turn to ice and, glancing frantically over his shoulder, he saw several muscular horses charging after them, and all the mounts wore jet-black clocks that flapped wildly in the wind.

"Kaa-chan!" Toshiro yelled. "They're after us!"

Sayuki cursed, and, with a cry, kicked her horse's sides, and instantly their speed increased, and they thundered off down the path, but the black-clad figures were not to be out done. As one, they forced their horses to improve the pace, and they began to gain an alarming amount of ground. Sayuki gritted her teeth and glared daggers at the figures, and then grouped around in the obi sashed tied about her waist.

"Toshiro! Throw this at the road!" She commanded, and she carefully handed him several palm-sized orange balls, and, with a confused glance at his mother, Toshiro did as instructed. And the second the balls came in contact with the ground, they exploded into a suffocating mist that engulfed the trail in a matter of seconds, and the following riders came shrieking to a halt, their horses bucking and wailing in fright.

Toshiro stared back in astonishment.

Sayuki flicked the reigns, and the horse spirited around a corner, and vanished into the leafy darkness of the forest.

/

Hinata fought weakly as her small wrists were bound and her mouth was gagged, and began to weep openly as she watched Haru claw furiously at her husband, and Hizashi twitch limply on the floor. Hinata was flung unceremoniously over the stranger's shoulder, and then he strode out of the door and into the street, but not before Hinata spotted the other one throw a small black bag onto the counter. Then the two of them were mounting horses, and Hinata was seated between the first one's legs, and they pointedly ignored her muffled sobs as the horses started off at a slight trot. Then they became faster and faster and faster, until they were nothing more then a muddy brown blur, fluttering down the street.

Hinata faintly heard her mother's scream of despair, and the pained shout of her father as Haru undoubtedly attacked him; but then the horses served around her a corner, and the sounds from her home were cut off.

The gag felt weird against her lips, and it took Hinata a moment to realize there was something powdery and sickly rubbed against it. Her eye lids began to slid downwards, and her body became numb, and her head titled unconsciously to the side.

Just before she blanked out completely, she saw her captor's hand move to their mouth, momentarily releasing the reigns, and a male voice say "We've got her." And then she knew no more.

/

They were at a harbour, and a boat for Kyoto was leaving. Sayuki lead Toshiro down a number of muddy paths ways that eventually led them to the boat, but they were hidden amongst the shadows, and the only person who could see them was a middle-aged man with snowy white hair. He was waiting patiently by the ship, and his amber eyes lit up with relief and happiness upon sighting Sayuki and Toshiro. Toshiro dimly recognized the man as his sickly uncle, Ukitake Jyuushiro and his mother's elder brother.

"Jyuushirou-nii," Sayuki hugged her brother, and Jyuushiro wrapped his thick arms about her waists, holding her close; and Sayuki abruptly pulled away and pushed Toshiro gently towards Jyuushiro.

"Take him and go," Sayuki ordered, and Jyuushiro's eyes went wide with disbelief, and Toshiro gaped at his mother, his bewilderment sky rocketing.

"Kaa-chan!" He gasped. "Don't go! You have to come, too!"

Sayuki smiled gently, and ruffled her son's hair. "I'm afraid I cannot, Toshiro. They would find you if I came."

"Sayuki-chan..." Jyuushiro murmured, and his eyes filled with tears; but he hastily wiped them away.

"No, they won't," Toshiro said in a firm, yet desperate voice. "You can't go, Kaa-chan."

Sayuki just continued to smile, and pressed a kiss to his forehead; and then she gathered him in her arms and dropped him into Jyuushiro's. She darted over to where the horse stood waiting, and bravely ignored the screams of her son as she mounted and road away.

"Kaa-chan! Kaa-chan!"

Jyuushiro watched until his sister was just about gone, and then turned and hurriedly made his way onto the ship. Toshiro struggled violently in his arms, forever calling for his mother, but Jyuushiro held him tightly-

"Stop, you! Where's the boy?"

Jyuushiro checked, and looked around madly, searching for the source of the voice, but Toshiro already knew where is was coming from and, taking advantage of his uncle's lapse in control, wriggled out of his grip and stumbled back out onto the path.

Just in time to watch his mother crumble to the ground, a sword embedded in her chest, and slick, crimson blood pooling around her body.

Toshiro froze.

And then Jyuushiro was there, and he snatched Toshiro's collar and hulled him back onto the boat as the black-clad figures turned and walked away, sheathing their swords as they went. Toshiro's eyes were so wide, his pupils were very nearly non-existent, his mind trying and failing to process what he had just seen.

Then it all clicked.

Toshiro opened his mouth, but no sound came out. Then he managed a broken whimper, a shuddering sob; and then he screamed.

"KAA-CHAN!"

! I own neither Bleach nor Naruto !

Hello :] Insanity here. Okay, at the moment I am suffered from a serve case of writer's block; but when I have writer's block, it usually prevents me from working on stories I'm ALREADY WORKING ON. So, this is what I do. I right down whatever I can think of, until I'm out of juice. I've done it millions of times, I've just never uploaded any.

A sad, dark, bloody Toshiro x Hinata story set in feudal Japan with a magical twist, which will come into play eventually. Now, I'm going to be blunt: I have no idea what I'm doing with this story. Not really. It's more of a help-defeat-writer's-block kinda thing, but it might develop into more. Who knows?

For future reference, this fic is gonna be dark and bloody, as stated before. You have been warned!

And for those reading Lavender Lily; I'm using this fic to get back on track. I can understand that might sound strange, but it's the truth.

Thanks for reading! Please review!