Blood Drenched Butterfly

Chapter 2: The Middle

XXX

Instinctually, she knew her window of opportunity was only going to be so big. They had already seen the culprit—she'd even made eye contact with a few of the cadet branch come to check on her father—so now it was essentially a race against the clock. It would take only a few minutes to move that man's corpse, mere seconds if they divvied up into two teams, one to handle the body and another to come find her.

Would they kill me outright…? It was an idea that idly bounced in her skull. She saw it as her cousin Neji deemed it: an act of destiny. She was not cursed with the 'Caged Bird' seal...and it was due to that and her training that her plan had progressed as fas as it did. It was meant to happen. Her suffering...the tears spilt...all of those were necessary for her to see that change had to come, and that she had to be the one to bring it.

Not a single soul in her family was truly 'free'. The cadet branch were little more than slaves equipped with explosives set to go off at the slightest hint of wanting to move on their own, and the main branch was even more trapped, trapped in the past with their decrepit morals. They were family, and no part of their family was greater than the other. But now...thanks to her efforts, things would change. Undoubtedly, the death of her father was set to cause a seismic shift in the shinobi world as every country, both great and small, knew of the Hyuuga clan, nicknamed by their enemies 'The Eyes of Fire'. This night would be universally known by morning.

It was a fleeting dream that when her name was mentioned alongside his murder that some might see her methods as a necessary evil, something that needed to be done in order to bring about change and restore the long forgotten concept of freedom.

She touched down on a rooftop two blocks from her destination and waited.

Nothing.

Alright then.

"Have you forgotten that I'm a Hyuuga? I know you've been following me since I left the manor," and she cut her eyes to the right, towards a tree with thick foliage that stretched up and over the building she stood on. "There are three of you. One real, and two bunshins. Did you really think you could fool"—she switched speed mid sentence—"I'm insulted."

On her word, there were to dull popping sounds and wisps of smoke escaped into the air signaling the end of the doppelgängers. Hinata watched as a solitary figure stepped from the haze of leaves and onto the roof. Almost at once, Hinata's eyes widened but neither spoke a word, the whistling zephyrs sounding like a storm in the silence.

"So it's true, then. When Neji came to me those many months ago and told me about your sudden urge to train, to better yourself...I wondered why he delivered that joyous news with such a dejected face, like it was something he deigned to do. I figured back then it was just his inbred hatred for the main branch and dismissed it. Everyday since, I watched you show up to our practice sessions, sometimes looking like you had just been dragged out of hell itself...but you kept it up, and so did we. None of us went easy, we kept pushing you. And why wouldn't we?"

The person looked up, their shaded glasses catching strokes of glorious moonlight as the corners of their mouth fell in the slightest of chastising frowns.

"We were teammates."

The words fell from Shino Aburame's lips like rocks where they thudded noisily in the silence that followed As she listened, Hinata lifted an arm, her misty eyes sighting a peculiar bug crawling just under the sleeve of her robe. As the mystery to how she had been found was cracked, she let the insect invade her peacefully then glanced up at Shino who stood there, hands comfortably in his pockets, exuding nothing but phlegmatic chakra.

He was...resolved. About what, she hadn't a clue. Not like it mattered. She was also resolved and nothing was going to get in her way.

"There's nothing you can say to sway me, Shino-kun," she told him softly. "I'm going to finish what I started regardless of the consequences."

To this, Shino merely inclined his head, a movement Hinata registered mentally before her eyes saw it; she was tensed in every sense of the word, prepared for whatever tactic the bug-nin might try.

"After coming this far, doing what you've done...there's nothing to reason over." His reply was casual. "I should have stopped you months ago, back when I first noticed your...change. But again, why would I? They were all good changes. You stopped stuttering, began to speak your mind more, you straightened that wonky little hunched-over posture of yours and began to walk upright, proudly, like someone might expect the heiress of a clan to." He pulled a hand from his pockets, the right one, and placed it over his chest. "But there was also change here. The warmth you used to so kindly show to everyone began to dim until it was no longer there...your smiles were cold, your laughs at Kiba's jokes—if you can call them that—were fake. I'm sorry to say I watched as the Hinata I once knew and cared for morphed into this—"

There came a little prick at the base of Hinata's elbow yet her face betrayed no hint of discomfort. Apparently his bug had ingested a touch of her chakra. As the pain subsided, she adopted a half-lidded expression, the rest of his words turning into a dull, weightless slur; her heart began to thud as a sudden revelation popped into her head and at first she wasn't all too sure whether it was her own thoughts or a byproduct of whatever toxin that bug carried.

"Shino-kun...you...what did you do to me?" she questioned through his rambling and she was slightly stunned when her words came out as a pant.

He was a smart boy and readily knew to what she was referring. "I just took in some of your chakra, for tracking purposes later." Cheeks flaring, she watched him push up his glasses. "I'm not sure where you're going or what you plan on doing but given the severity of what you've just done and the fact that I, as your former teammate, know some of your habits, I might be tasked with hunting you down in the near future. This just makes it easier."

Even though the night air swirled around them like a blanket of frost, those words ignited a fire just behind Hinata's chest and she felt her entire face burning. What was this...and why? She could feel the blood of her father dripping down her butterfly-print stockings and shivered; it was so cold, yet so….

Shino spoke again, pointing over her shoulder in the direction of the village front gates. "As one last act of kindness, go. You don't have much time before they—"

Hinata took only a single step yet she appeared in front of Shino and her heart delighted when his speech, usually so clear and sharp, faltered; they were essentially the same height except for a couple inches on his part. Still, it was no trouble for her eyes to find his, even when hidden behind those shades. Without a word, she gave the bridge of them a flick with her finger and it promptly snapped in two, the pieces clattered at their feet.

"All this time," she breathed, "you were watching me so intently?"

With his shades destroyed, the veil of mystery that perpetually surrounded Shino was shattered and she took in his eyes, flinching internally at how fierce his gaze was, and it slightly excited her to know he was far from the plane of glaring. This was his normal look, those slitted eyes belaying a ferocity that not even Kiba could muster up on his most piqued days.

"You were my teammate. Of course I watched you," he replied.

There was a certain roughness to his tone that hadn't been there before and she felt the hold on her katana slacken considerably, to the point where the tip touched ground. No one had ever said that before...that they had watched her...noticed all those different gears in her personality as they turned….Her throat was suddenly dry but she never broke eye contact, finding a certain security in his harsh gaze. He was chastising her with only a look, that much was certain, yet she found a twisted pleasure in it.

Someone was actually looking at her...and only her.

"What else…?" she questioned, all previous constraints of time thrown out the window in light of holding his stare for as long as possible. "What else did you notice about me? My...how I always tried so hard? M-my smile…? I—"

"Does it matter?" It was asked quietly, barely audible over the wind, yet Hinata heard it perfectly. And her heart sank. "I noticed a substantial amount about you, both as your teammate and as a man, but none of those observations are relevant, not anymore."

It was almost on the tip of her tongue to yell 'No!', to tell her everything he noticed about the Hyuuga heiress. She almost thirsted for such information but the look in his eyes...so cold...no...it really didn't matter now. Even if what he said did happen to tilt in the direction she hoped it would...what could become of it after tonight?

In her frayed mind she could see herself stretching up slightly, tilting her head back so as to plant a kiss born of terrible circumstance on his chin, just barely visible over the neck of his everyday jacket. She was rocked back to the present when something warm met her forehead, between her bangs, and only her eyes lifted, widening when she saw Shino giving her skin the warm caress of his lips.

"Take from that what you will," he muttered against her.

Hinata hadn't heard. She'd frozen...everything—her movement, her breathing, thought process—it all came to a grinding halt. 'Take from that what you will'...was that all? What was that supposed to…? Was that a 'Yes, I had feelings for you' type kiss, or a 'Friendly farewell forever' type…?

"Tell me," she spoke suddenly, her voice hoarse, the ends of her robes fluttering.

"You should get going, Hinata." He glanced over his shoulder, back towards the Hyugga estate, his expression static, not a flicker of care. "I attached some bugs to a lot of your cadet branch members on the assumption they'd come after you and it seems I was right to do so. They'll be here in—"

Exactly how long she had, Shino never got out. He was silenced when Hinata reached up, laying a hand over his cheek. In the center of all this wretched cold, her touch was the warmest thing he had ever experienced; the rest of his words died away into nothing along with his current train of thought. Hinata caught his reaction, however subtle, and felt her heart thud with renewed hope….

"Tell me," she commanded and her voice had taken a few steps back into the timid whisper of long ago, "tell me...that you hate me."

Even to her that question sounded more than a little strange, might even come off as crazy. Wanting someone to say that they hated you…? But Hinata had her reasons. She needed to hear that and was sure the desire gleamed in her pupil-less eyes. It would just make things so much more...easier, lay her doubts to rest knowing she was leaving nothing behind, that she had made the right choice, that her caged life couldn't have gotten any better—

"I can't."

Shino's response was quick despite her mental battle and she issued a sort of breathless laugh, disbelieving. "Then t-tell me you dislike me for my cowardice."

"You were never a coward, Hinata," he once again answered, on time to disperse any hint of deceit, "just held down by fate."

"Tell me you never thought of me as more than a friend!" she demanded, her voice growing.

"I can't."

Hinata faltered, settling down with a crestfallen face before bouncing up nearly onto her toes. She searched his eyes deeply hoping to see something—just a little sparkle even—that she could take as a lie. She saw only the same fierce determination as before; those slitted eyes betrayed no other meaning to his words.

Somehow, she managed to speak past the lump in her throat, her voice coming out cracked and hoarse. "P-please...don't do this to me."

"Do what?"

She ignored that as though not hearing it. "We…t-tell me we never...that we never could have been anything…."

"Given my background as heir to the Aburame clan and yours as heiress to the Hyuuga I'd say, even though yours is far more strict on such proceedings, we would have had a chance."

It was if a plug had been pulled. Everything drained out of Hinata at a nauseatingly quick pace until she was hollow, finally feeling the biting sting of the cold air swirling around them in the darkness. The corners of her mouth twitched up in a smile that held no humor, simply a husk of something joyous that might have been.

"So you loved me then."

Shino nodded. "Did, do, it's all the same, Hina—"

Hinata felt something blindingly bitter fill the spot in her heart twice trampled over. It brought a physical pain to her senses and an almost animalistic growl climbed up her throat. Her father had denied to give her love, to give her even the time of day...that had been the first drain...and now, Shino...he chose now of all times to say that he...that he 'loved' her when there was absolutely no chance of exploring the feelings she had longed for….

Blood dripped to the rooftop, droplets collecting into a puddle.

"No, you don't...you don't love me," she suddenly spat, twisting the blade she pushed steadily deeper into his midsection. She heard him gurgle on the fluids filling his throat, watched as his face, once so calm and unperturbed, morphed into a state of utter anguish. And that delighted her more than anything. "If you truly loved me...you would have said something sooner! You wouldn't have let me go through this—through all of this!"

In the back of her mind, she recognized the irony of telling someone else they should have spoken up when she herself had borderline stalked Naruto for many a year, never saying anything. But she ignored that. She was raging, screaming at the top of lungs in a tone that caused several lights from the apartments they stood atop of to flicker on, the patrons inside wondering just what sort of creature was both in the village and capable of such a noise.

She could feel the bugs that dwelled within Shino's shivering body buzz to life with an almost desperate urge to save their host; she twisted the blade the other way, felt them stutter, and lifted a hand, her palm swirling with an ominous blue charka.

"You saw me suffering! You say you loved me yet you watched me suffer day in and day out! You said nothing—you never say anything! Why are you always so quiet? You could have...if you'd just told me sooner then—" She subsided into a roar of rage that caused many a bird to take flight and she struck him over the left pectoral, rupturing the skin and forcing as much chakra into his system as possible. She felt the bugs surging underneath shudder and then there was stillness….

"WHY?" she managed to cry out, tears beginning to blur her vision yet she could make him out perfectly, the way he managed to open one eye to stare at her, his lips, overflowing with blood, working to form words that would no doubt cause her further grief. "Why did you wait so long to tell me?"

Something heavy landed atop her head. It was his hand, feebly lifted then dropped, and she felt his fingers coursing through her dark blue hair. His lips parted in a violent cough that spattered her face with blood and it took him a few tries to get anything coherent out. "I waited...b-because I wanted to know whether you'd...whether you'd g-go right or left…." Blood was sliding from his nostrils, his breathing was growing shallow...and yet Hinata couldn't detect a single trace of anger in his tone, no sign of regret. "R-right...would have led to a happy life t...together. Left...I figured I'd d-die and that...my death would be your punishment...your cross to b-bear…."

And as he fell into her at a slump, Hinata felt his lips land next to her ear. "Your punishment...for being s-so stupid…." It was breathed out deliberately, meant to tickle her, to soothe Hinata even though it was the last breath in his body. The heartbeat weakly thudding against her died away with crushing force and she remained still even as Shino's corpse slid off her shoulder, off her blade, and thudded to the rooftop. Her eyes slowly lowered, siting the blood escaping the wound that had claimed his life; little black insects, long since dead from her chakra pulse, were being washed out….

She blinked.

The expression over Shino's face. Although saturated in scarlet streaks, that serene smile was hard to miss...he almost looked like he was sleeping.

And maybe he was.

No. He definitely was.

Something wet rolled down Hinata's left cheek. She didn't wipe it away, allowing more tracks of water to follow the elegant curve of her face and drip off her chin. Twice she almost lost it, her face scrunching up with a mad desire to scream her throat raw, but she held it in, turning instead to stare back towards her former home. She could feel a mass of chakra approaching. From the sheer scope she wagered on...seven cadet and two main members.

She flicked her sword at the ground to relieve it of blood, feeling her heart tear as she did so. At her feet lay the body of the boy who had always watched her from afar...waiting to see if her plans would lead to him, or self-destruction for both of them. She blinked, felt a fresh deluge of tears escape, and firmed her jaw.

The night was still young and there was still one last piece of business to take care of before she could rest. She spared Shino's body one more painful glance before ceasing all thought. A horde of stress-relievers were en route and she planned to give them her full undivided attention….

XXX

She was blind in her left eye, the end result of choosing whether to dodge a fatal attack or suffer a kunai to the face. It bled scarlet, pulsed relentlessly with an ungodly pain, and was covered by a ripped off strand of her robe in a style reminiscent of how Hatake Kakashi wore his headband. A little over an hour had passed since confronting and summarily dismembering the members of her clan on that rooftop. Hiashi's body had been found...the alarm had been risen...the entire village was ablaze with light...and almost every single ninja on duty was looking for the culprit. Shadowy figures flitted through the skies and skipped over rootfops, all of them...searching for her.

Forced to run an uncountable amount of search-and-destroy exercises throughout the village, training segments that more often than not left her out in the cold for many a night, Hinata probably had better knowledge of Konoha's backends than Naruto himself.

Naruto….

Even as she rushed through an alleyway, the tall walls on either side placing her in an undetectable darkness, Hinata could quite clearly see a visage of that laughing blonde in her mind. He was handsome...with a smile that made her heart stop. Whenever she saw him, regardless of whether he saw her, she always came to a screeching halt to take an almost obsessive peak into whatever he was doing. Because what he found interesting she made it a point to like as well.

But he never turned around. He never saw her watching, never noticed how someone was always cheering him on in competitions and during class exercises, he never thought twice about why she would sometimes bring an extra bento of food for him. At times, she figured he was just dense, happily oblivious, but as the days wore on she came to the conclusion that this boy was either being willfully ignorant, or he was really that dumb. And if he was really that dumb she had to question what in the world drew her to him in the first place.

He cheered for me during the Chunin exams.

She took such rare praise and held it dear until she realized two days before seeking Neji out that that was just Naruto's way. He cheered for everybody...about anything….He was just the sort of person to bring other people up. It had never been anything special. At least not to him….

For someone who hailed from a clan with one of the most powerful eye-based kekkei genkai's in the known Shinobi world, she had been ridiculously blind. Terribly, horribly blind. While she had been watching Naruto...another had been watching her, taking note of all the subtle changes in her attitude….

As she peeked around the corner of a bakery shop, her only good eye strained to its limit by the Byakugan and zipping everywhere, the image she had of Naruto was overshadowed by one of Shino without his glasses on to hide the fact that he had always been watching her….

Why didn't I ever look back…? That person I was looking for to be in my corner...he'd literally been in my corner….

Seeking proper treatment for her eye was out of the question. Wrenching out the kunai emptied her stomach and even now she could feel a steady stream of warm fluids running down her cheeks, turned ice-cold by the night before it dripped off her chin. She couldn't feel her toes and her right arm was starting to tingle, which in turn rattled her katana.

This is your punishment...for being so stupid.

His last words floated so soothingly through the wind and from her good eye dropped another tear, her bottom lip trembling, but she scrunched up her face and buried those feelings. Soon she would—

A ninja, Chunin-ranked from the look of him, dropped down from the sky itself at the alleyway's mouth and lifted a small flashlight, sweeping it left then right. He hadn't expected to find anything way over here, so close to that demonic brat's quarters, but his superior had ordered him to scout the sector. When his light washed over a girl no older than fourteen and clothed in a blood-drenched robe, he blinked. And in that blink he felt something blunt puncture a spot just to the left of his naval; it broke the skin easily and dug inside with a pain so pitched his eyes flew open. He tried to scream and the girl delivered an open-palm strike to his chin—he felt blood overfill his mouth as his teeth were violently knocked against one another, chipping and tearing into his gums—

It was almost instinctual, what Hinata felt herself doing to this poor man. She only remembered taking a single step and she was all over him, delivering a barrage of Jyuuken strokes that punched literal holes into him. She was not trying to stop his chakra flow at this point. She was trying to kill him, and three seconds later that task was complete and she stared down at his body hanging half out the alley. It looked perforated by a series of snake bites, feebly squirting thin stripes of blood. She glanced at her hands, so soaked with blood she feared it'd never come off, and then back to that nameless chunin's corpse.

He didn't look like he was sleeping. He didn't look peaceful. There was clear agony frozen onto his face and, unlike Shino who managed to look tranquil even in death, this guy's mouth was all sorts of messed up, teeth poking up through his top lip, his chewed tongue lolling out….

"Disgusting," she uttered dryly.

XXX

A/N: One more to go! Go, Hinata!