The characters', jutsu's, locations', etc; all belong to their original creator, Masashi Kishimoto.
There's no harm in letting your imagination run wild!
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Painting Reminiscences
Chapter 2
It was bright. Maybe a little bit too bright. Birds chirped outside the window high in the sky while the clouds scattered across the endless blue. It was slightly quiet, with a couple skuffles from feet here and there, but, in other words, it was still a tad bit quiet. As Hinata sturred where she laid, inbetween each movement she made, she could faintly hear the little whispers that surrounded her. Minutes passed where she remained, it had finally quieted down enough to where she could finally open her sore eyes. But when she opened her eyes, they quickly shut due the lights above blinding them to start watering at the sudden reaction. After her eyes stopped watering, she opened them slower this time, giving them a more or so reaction to get use to the bright light. With her mind still fuzzy, she slowly sat up.
W-Where am...I? she thought as she stared at nothing.
As her eyes focused, she peered around to look at her new surroundings. She was surrounded by pastel green walls, with a occasional circle window here and there. The floors were a milk white tiled color. There were bookshelves on each wall holding lots of documents. A few more beds were to the left of her all hidden behind white curtains. At each bed was monitor with muti-colored buttons. Her gaze around the strange room was cut short with a continuous beeping noise. Loking over to see where the beeping was coming from, she spotted a thin tube taped to her hand. As her eyes followed the thin tube, it was connected to this bag of water that hung from a single hook with drips of water seeping from it. To the left of the metal stand, was a moniter with the same milti-colored buttons like the rest of them. A green line beeped across the grid looking picture as it monitered her heartbeat. With her mind still a buzz, she let's out a relentless sigh of curiousity. She was so caught up in the scenere of the room that she was in that she didn't even hear the door open on the other side of the room.
"You're finally wake." said another unfamiliar voice. A male's voice at that.
Hinata's breath caught in her throat. Her eyes filled with sudden fear. The moniter next to her began to beep faster. Sweat beaded down her forehead, soaking her bangs. Her breathing deepened and fastened. Hyperventilation began to take over.
"You're awake I see." said a very familiar voice.
Her breath hitched in shock, "S-Sasuke?"
The ringing of bells echoed through her tender ears. Hinata curled her legs closer to her chest as she gripped at her skull, pulling at her strands in order to make the ringing stop. But, it just kept getting louder and must more sinister. It seemed to her like she was surrounded by the ringing of bells. She cringed her eyes shut in utter dismay.
What was that just now? she asked herself in sincere confusion.
"Hey Miss..." said the male voice as he walked towards the stricken in fear female, "Are you alright? What's wrong?"
The medic heasistated as he slowly walked towards the hyperventilating girl. With instinct, he settled his hand softly on her shoulder, gently nudging her in order to calm her down.
Hinata jumped at the sudden touch of the medic's hand, without looking behind her, "D-Don't touch me!" she hollared with a fear filled tone as she smacked the medic's hand off her shoulder.
The medic backed up a couple inches giving her her personal space. It wasn't enough for the hesitated young women. The ringing still overpowered her ears. As the ringing grew louder, she pulled at her hair some more. Her body seized up. The ringing was unbearably frightening. Having the sudden feeling of running away from this place, Hinata abruptly ripped the needle out of her hand and jumped out of the bed that she grew comfortably to laying in. With the slightest touch of the cool tile coming in contact with her bare feet, she fell. The ringing in her ears had stopped. With her focus now on why she ended up on the floor, the scuffling of footsteps came around the bed and stopped by her. The medic knelt down on one knee, checking her to see if she'd hurt herself.
Hinata laid on the floor with wide eyes. She wasn't shocked because the ringing had stopped, but, something warm was streaming down her hand, down her slender fingers, dripping onto the tiled floor like rain. She soon fixed her eyes to look down at her hand. Blood. And lots of it dripped from her hand where she ripped the needle from. Seconds ticked by. Long, agonizing seconds ticked by. Almost like time was threatening to stand still. Without realization, she was being scooped up in the medics arms as he gently settled her back in the bed that she escaped from. She stared with intent curiousity at the medic as he pulled out a box, opened it, and began to take out gauze, rubbing alcohol, and a couple strips of tape. Hinata decided not to fight anymore. So, she lets the medic treat her bleeding hand.
It was silent, Hinata's curiousity took over as she spoke, "Earlier..."
"Hm?" the medic questioned her as he finished securing the bandage to her hand.
Hinata stared up at the ceiling of the pastel colored hospital room, "What you said earlier, I heard it from somewhere."
But, where did I hear it from? echoed in her head as she laid there in the hospital bed in confusion.
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"The woman you guys brought in has woken up." said the medic as he stood a foot away from the Kazekage behind the desk.
"I see." the Kazekage answered nonchalantly as he didn't look up as he scanned the files he had in his hands.
With his arms by his side, the medic continued, "But..."
With that one word escaping the medic's confused mouth, the Kazekage looked up away from his papers to look at him, "What?"
"When I mentioned to her that she was awake, she started to hyperventilate." the medic mentioned to the Kazekage before contuing on, "Earlier before I left, she told me that she heard what I said from somewhere."
"Did she tell you where?" asked the Kazekage as he kept an eye on the medic who stood infront of him.
The medic shook his head, "Unfortunately no."
With a slight nod of, "Strange?" from his head, the Kazekage continued, "Almost like she's suffering from..."
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"Amnesia." said a different male medic who sat next to her in a chair with a blank document in his hand.
Hinata looked at the medic from her pillow as she asked, "Amnesia?" in confusion.
"Yes amnesia." the medic stated towards the distraut female in the bed, "Do you remember anything? Like, did you hit your head?"
Hinata stared at the male medic beside her, "Hit my...head?"
"I'll take that as a no." the medic said with a sigh before asking her another question, "Do you know where you are at least?"
Why is he asking me all these questions? spoke her mind as she intintitavely shook her head no.
"I see." the medic responded while scratching his head with his pen, "Looks like I'll be needing to do a CAT scan."
"A CAT scan? What's that?" Hinata asked curiously while she faced the male medic.
"Think of it as an x-ray for your brain. If we do a CAT scan, we can see what going on with your brain to see if this amnesia is temporary." the medic reassured her with a smile, "Don't worry, it's painless."
He watched as Hinata stared remotely at the little remote in his right hand, "When I push this green button, the extraction of your kekkei genkai will began. Also, every jutsu, every ability, along with all your memories will ceased to exist. You won't only forget hand signs or what jutsu you'll be able to do, but also, your identity will also disappear along with everything else. And believe me, this process is not going to be painless."
Ringing began to seep into her head Everytime I try to remember something, this ringing becomes unbearably hard to handle. Why is that? echoed through her mind as she grabbed the bridge of her nose in displeasure to relieve her pounding head.
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"Is this your first CAT scan Miss..." asked the female medic who held up a blank file, "I'm sorry to not have asked earlier but, what's your name?"
Jumping at the sudden voice that distracted her from her gaze around the room, Hinata answered the female medic, "I'm sorry, b-but I...I really don't r-remember."
The female medic looked at her with a confused look, "You mean you don't remember your name?"
With her hand intertwined with each other, she began to twittle her thumbs, "N-No."
Seeing that she was still confused as to what was going on, the medic sent her a reassuring smile her way before ushering her to the table, "Nevermind my question from before."
Hinata looked up at the female medic before with a even more confused look on her eyes, "All you have to do is lay on this table."
"O-Okay." Hinata hesistated an answer towards the female medic.
As Hinata laid down on the cold table, she peeked back at the female medic to see what she was doing. She watched with content as the medic reached for bundle of cords from the top shelf. After unraveling the bundled cords, she began sticking sticky pads around on her forehead. After the few sticky pads were secured on her forehead, Hinata stared up at the female medic. With a reassuring smile, she pushed a single button. Slowly, the table began to back up, taking Hinata through the hallow towel. When Hinata's body was fully inside the hallow tube to where only her feet were sticking out, the female medic left.
After taking her seat in the room next to the CAT scan room, she pushed a button, lighting up the CAT SCAN IN USE sign outside the room so that people will know not to interrupt. Seconds later, the female medic looked through the window, she reached and pushed another button to dim the lights where the CAT scan was being done. After a couple minutes passed, she pushed a button that read SPEAKER, when it lit up yellow, she bent her head down to were she was just inches from the microphone.
"I'm needing you to lay perfectly still okay? So just relax. It'll only take a couple minutes. The CAT scan will be done before you know it." she asked through the microphone.
Hinata jumped in suprise from hearing the medic's voice through the microphone, "O-Okay." was her only answer.
After she pushed the SPEAKER button off, she reached her hand across the dash to push the START SCAN button. Within doing so, she watched from her seat through the window the light above the CAT scan blink red, letting her know that that it's about to start.
Inside the CAT scan, Hinata laid perfectly still. As she laid there, she watched with her eyes as the inside of the tube lit up a bright white color. The buzzing noise from the CAT scan seemed to calm her nervously beating heart. Seconds ticked by. Hinata still laid there perfectly still. So, she decided to close her eyes.
It was quiet. Too quiet. That is until the ringing in her ears stopped, but, was shortly replaced by electric shocks being sent throughout her body. She swung her head back in forth with so much effort that her head could easily just rip off her shoulders.
"AAAAGGHHH~!"
Hinata abruptly shot her eyes wide open at the sudden image that playe in her head. She could still hear that deaf defying scream echoe deep inside her mind. Her heart began to race in anxiety.
From behind the window, the female medic watched as the scan of her brain showed up on the moniter. With a note pad next to her, she was ready to scribble down anything that she thought would be suspicious. As the image of Hinata's brain was fully visible on the moniter, the medic looked it over. Nothing suspisious was seen. As the female medic scaned it over with her eyes one last time, she stopped mid way.
"What's this?" she questioned herself outloud.
"What'd you find?" said a young male's voice.
Jumping in surprise, the female medic turned to look behind her to see who spoke, she sighed in relief upon his glance, "Kazekage-sama, you scared me."
He didn't budge were he stood, with his arms crossed infront of him, he asked again impatiently, "What's you find?"
"R-Right." stuttered the female medic, she turned back around and pointed the end of her pen on the monitor, "Here. Take a look at this."
The Kazekage took a few steps toward the medic, he was just close enough to her back to where he cloud look over her shoulder at the monitor that displayed Hinata's brain. As he followed her brain, he too was confused as to why only that single spot on her brain was black while everything else was lit up white.
"Everything else seems normal, but..." the medic broke off the Kazekage's concentration on the black spot when she tapped it with the back of her pen, "This black spot is sort of suspicious."
"Do you know anything?" he asked the female medic with the same nonchalant tone as always.
"Lettme see." she answered as she looked closer at the scan on the moniter, her eyes traveled to the other part of the screen, "I don't get it."
"What is it?" asked the Kazekage with a new tone to his voice.
The Kazekage looked closer as he watched the medic's hand point to the top left of the screen, "Right here. Everything is normal, but, look at where the memory bar is."
He looked closer to see what she was talking about, everything was at a 100% scale, that's when he seen it too, "Her memory is at 0%?"
"Yes." the female medic answered with worry, "It's not amnesia she's suffering from, but, it's dementia."
"Dementia?" the Kazekage asked in confusion.
"It's a combination of loss of memory and loss of intellectual function." the medic answered him as she scribbled it down on the notepad next to her.
"In other words..." the female medic paused as she turned to face the Kazekage, "It's permanent."
Before the Kazekage could give her a response, he looked pasted her to see the twitching of Hinata's body inside the tunnel of the CAT scan. A the female medic gazed back through the window at where he was facing, she pushed the SPEAKER button.
"Are you alright?" she spoke through the microphone.
With her eyes still shut, the ringing returned to her ears even louder than before.
Tears dripped down her face effortlessly as more electric shocks convulsed through her body. Her body arched in the upmost posistion you can ever imagine, her heartwretched scream continued to escape her lips, echoing off the walls, filling his ears with desire. Not only was her Byakugan being extracted from her, but, her very identity was being erased from her very existance.
With that memory already gone, the ringing in her head kept getting louder. With how badly she wanted to hold her head, she still remained still. But, the pain was too much for her to bear. Without warning, her mind went blank. Everything began to dissolve like vapor right before her eyes. She could hear people surround her. Chatter filled her ears making the ringing sound even more painful. The table was pulled out from inside the scanner. When her eyes suddenly hit the light from the CAT scan room, she felt relief consume her. But, it wasn't relief. Anxiety settled in. As the medics helped get the sticky pads from off of her forhead, her eyes rolled in the back of her skull. Her body began to convulse uncontrolably.
"She's having a seizure!" yelled another young female medic from inside the CAT scan room towards the people behind the window pan.
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Hours passed by to where if felt like days as Hinata finally came too. As the heart moniter continuously beeped, Hinata slowly opened her exhausted eyes. She was back in the hospital room. With a breathing mask over her nose and mouth, she was too sore to move, let alone to blink her eyes. As she laid there in the bed, she listened to the calmness that consumed her by the sound of the beeping noise from the moniter that monitored her heartbeat. She could faintly hear chatter from outside the hospital room.
Outside the hospital room in the hallway, the male medic asked, "What are we to do Kazekage-sama?"
"Contact the Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village." answered the Kazekage.
Before he continued with his answer, he peeked in through the cracked open door to the hospital room to see that the female konoichi had woken up. Drowsiness and confusion overpowered her face.
With his arms to his side, the Kazekage looked back at the medic who stood before him, "Let them know that we have one of their ninja bedridden."
"What about her condition?" asked the medic.
Instead of the Kazekage giving him a straight away answer, he stared back into the hospital room, watching her with content in his pastel blue eyes. When he had his fill of staring at the kunoichi in the other room, he turned the other direction.
"I'll tell them in detail." he answered, but, before he could walk away, he stopped, "For now, don't overwhelm her with your annoying questions."
When that was said, the Kazekage disappeared with the swooshing sound of his sand, leaving the kunoichi in the medic's hands.
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Back in his office, The Kazekage sat in his chair. The stacks of papers he hadn't gotten done were piling up. Exhaustion took over his nerves as he slumped his head down on his hands.
"Dementia?" the Kazekage asked in confusion.
"It's a combination of loss of memory and loss of intellectual function." the medic answered him as she scribbled it down on the notepad next to her.
His muscles tensed up as the last bit of that memory played in his mind like a record of repeat.
"In other words..." the female medic paused as she turned to face the Kazekage, "It's permanent."
He gripped the bridge of his nose as the memory faded away from his mind. As his muscles released their tention, he sat straight in his chair. Sighing, he reached under the desk to pull out a blank scroll. As he unraveled it, he grabbed his paint brush, dipped it in the black ink, and began to write.
Dementia. Dementia is a combination of loss of memory and loss of intellectual function. The young man at the desk found out that the girl he'd brought back had dementia. I may not know anymore information about it, but, neither does he. I sort of feel bad for him. I mean, I may not know the guy, but, he seemed pretty worried about the girl. I just hope both of them will be okay.
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Reviews'/Comments are greatly appreciated.
Stay tuned for Chapter 3 of Painting Reminiscences.
