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 3
It's been nearly three days since she's been in the hospital in the Land of Suna. Falling in and out of consciouness every couple hours. Under their Kazekage's orders, medic's have been checking on Hinata every hour on the dot to see if anything about her has changed. So far, nothing. It was late in the afternoon. The birds continuously chirped outside the hospital room as they soared through the high sky. As the continuous beeping sound kept beeping, the beeping seemed to have disappeared when Hinata stired in the hospital bed. As sweat beaded down her forehead, she continued to tremble and stire underneath the wooly comforter. Switching from side to side, you can tell by the looks on her face that she was afraid to wake up. Fearing that if she'd woken up, those pictures would attack her mind within an instant. Hinata tried for so long to keep her eyes shut in order for them not to get reminded of these images that keep swooping into her mind every chance they got. As she laid there, almost looking lifeless as she slept, the only thing that kept her calm was the beeping noise coming from the heart monitor.
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Just at the end of the hallway on the last door to the left was the Kazekage's office. It was early for him to be up, but then again, he had papers to look over. Ignoring every remark from his sibilings that he needed to get some sleep, he still went on with his late nights, with very little sleep, and early mornings just to finish his paperwork. As he scanned with his eyes, inked with his brush, and put the document in the other seperate piles on his desk, he reached to grab for another one to repeat the process all over again. He was down to the last 15, when he stopped. Without even looking up, he glanced to the clock to his left to look at the time. It was 30 minutes past the hour when a medic was suppose to come in and give him the details on the sleeping konoichi in the hospital room. Even if it's the same answer every hour, he still had to know due to his strick orders to the medics to keep an eye on her. When no medic's of some sort didn't come in to let him know about the female's condition, he puts his brush down and sighs. The sand from the gourd next to his desk expelled very little sand to escape. With his palm out infront of him, he brought his other hands index and middle finger to his closed right eyes.
As the jutsu Daisan no Me sounded in his head. With his other eye, he watched as the sand from his gourd encircled his awaiting palm. As the sand dripped from the circle, it uncovered his Third eye. As the Third Eye looked up at it's handler, the Kazekage clutched his hand, when he unraveled his clutched hand, it was gone. As he focused his senses, he was able to see through the Third Eye like he did with his regular one's. As he looked through his Third Eye, he can see that he was looking down at the restless konoichi in the hospital room. He watched her move around in her sleep. Sweat still covered her face as she stired in the bed. Whenever he was spying on her from time to time, he'd noticed that sweat would cover her face. He wondered for a couple days as to why she'd be covered in her own sweat. Just what was she dreaming about?
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Hinata continuously stired in the bed from side to side, not from discomfort, but, from her forcing herself to keep her eyes closed. Within doing so made it harder for her to stay asleep. As she curled her body into a ball underneath the covers, her mind threatened to play the images she could faintly hear deep in her head if she were to wake up. But to her, that wasn't the problem, the real problem was was that she feared the faint ringing sound that echoed off the walls of her skull.
The jolts of electricity continuously flooded through her viens, her screams becoming louder and much more sadder as the expelling of her Byakugan was almost complete. Sasuke stood next to Lord Orochimaru as he watch not in humor, but, in benevolence to the konoichi that was shackled to the chair. For some reason, the look that plastured on the girl's face didn't seem right. As he looked over from the corner of his eye, he watched as the smile on Lord Orochimaru's face grew even more sinister as the intense power of her Byakugan drifted through every vien in his body. Sasuke looked at him, then back at Hinata, then back at Orochimaru, then back at Hinata again. As her screams continued to bounce off the walls, with the swift movement of his hands, Sasuke snatched the remote from Lord Orochimaru's hands before he jumped to the back wall on the other side of the grand hall.
"That's enough." Sasuke said with utter disgrace, as he pushed the red button on the remote to stop the extraction to go any farther.
As the extraction stopped, Hinata slumped her head down as she fell into unconsciousness. Sasuke dropped the remote to the ground and stomped on it, shattering it into a million pieces under his feet. Orochimaru looked behind him not even fased with what he just did. With a smile, he reached his feet and chuckled in accomplishment.
"What's so funny?" Sasuke asked him in confusion as to why he was laughing.
With the swift movement of his hand, Orochimaru appeared before Sasuke, "There's no point in stopping it now."
With his eyes averted away from his evil yellow orbs, Sasuke asked him, "What do you mean?"
With a smile still on his face, Orochimaru leaned in and whicpered in his ear, "The extraction has been completed."
Without moving an inch away from him, Sasuke stood there and watched as Orochimaru straightened his back, turning around, and began to walk away with Kabuto by his side. Sasuke stood there in disblief, realizing that it was already to late.
Before Orochimaru left, he stopped mid-way to turn around to face Sasuke, "I already have what I wanted. Do whatever you want with her."
When Orochimaru and Kabuto left, Sasuke started walking towards the unconscious konoichi who was beyong limp in the shackled chair. When he arrived infront of her, he knelt down on his knee and grasped her chin in his hands, lifting her head up to where he was facing directly at her. As he stared at her scraped up face, he dropped her head as he reached to both of her wrists to unshackle them.
After escaping the random traps that were set up down the halls of Orochimaru's hideout, Sasuke; with Hinata still unconscious on his back, he walked out into the fog. After walking through the fog for a couple of miles, Sasuske stopped, knelt down on both of his knees, gathering the unconscious konoichi in his arms before he leaned her against the tree where he stopped. When he positioned her back against the tree, he reached into his pocket to grab her headband. While he grasped it in his hand, he stared at Hinata with content in his eyes. Sighing, he puts her headband by her side.
Before he left her there, he brushed strands of her hair behind both her ears, before he leaned in to whispered in her ear, "Until we meet again, Lady Hinata." with a determined smile appearing on his face.
With that said, he reached to his feet, and disappeared as the thick fog swallowed him, leaving the unconscious konoichi still leaned against the tree.
Abruptly sitting up, Hinata grasped her pounding head while pulling at her strands as the pounding pulsed harder with each ringing of the bells. With her eyes shut tightly, she curled herself in a ball again trying her hardest to relieve the pounding pain. After what seemed like hours; even though it'd been a couple minutes, her muscles finally relaxed, but, she didn't dare lay back down. As she still sat up in the hospital bed with her hands still placed to her skull, she settled her elbows down on her knees as the pounding began to disipate slower. When the pounding finally disappeared, she sighed in relief, knowing now she can finally think straight.
This ringing. Why? echoed in her mind as she rubbed her temples in an attempt to calm herself down.
Without warning, Hinata stopped rubbing her temple's by the sound of the creaking hospital door opening and closing. As her body remained hidden behind the curtain, she watched in confusion as a casted shadow of a figure stopped infront of the curtain she stayed hidden behind. But, this figure was different then to what she was use to seeing.
It was silent in the hospital room, that is, until the figure on the other side of the curtain spoke, "How's your condition?"
A male's voice? Another male medic maybe? repeated in her head as she stared at the figure she seen.
Hinata slumped her head at the blanket she was draped in before answering the unknown figure, "I-I'm doing alright. W-What happened to me? Why am I back in the hospital room?"
"You had a seizure during a CAT scan." answered the figure.
The figure can sense Hinata's fatique through her sigh, "But you don't need to worry. Everything is under control." the figure reassured her.
After a smile appeared across her face, she stared back up at the figure behind the curtain, "Are you one of the medic's coming to check up on me?"
"I wouldn't refer me as a medic, but.." the figure stopped before continuing, "I've given them strict orders to check up on you every hour on the hour."
Strict orders? her mind questioned itself Who is this guy if he's not a medic?
She watched as the figure began to move. From the corner of her eye, she watched as a hand grasped the curtain to pull it open. When the curtain was fully pulled open revealing herself to the figure, she glanced up at him in curiousness. He looked a couple years older than her, and was a good 5 inches taller than her with red spikey hair, his fair skin atoned to his black ringed, pastel blue eyes, while the kanji sign for "Love" was clearly visible above his left eye. It was none other than the Kazekage. Hinata couldn't help but keep staring at him. In her eyes, he was handsome.
He caught her staring at him in the corner of his eyes, without leaving her eyes, he asked the dazed kunoichi, "Why're you staring at me?"
After she had looked away trying to hide her pink tinted cheeks behind her bangs, she asked him, "If you're not a medic, then, who are you?".
Seeing that all she's going to ask is questions, he was prepared to answer any of them to the best of his abilities, "I go by different names here in the Land of Suna."
Hinata peeked up from inbetween the strands of her bangs to stare at him as Land of...Suna? repeated through her mind.
"Since you have no idea as to what I'm talking about, looks like I'm going to have to explain it to you." he insisted before he turned to look at her with his arms still crossed infront of his chest.
Seeing that he has her attention, he began, "To put it as simple as possible, the Land of Suna, also known as The Village Hidden in the Desert to the other surrounding villages, has it's fair share in what they call a reputation."
"A reputation?" she questioned outloud.
"To make a long story short, people in this village of Sunagakure feared me at first. But, after a certain amount of years when the village was in desperate need of a leader after the Fourth Kazekage had passed, I offered to become the leader to gain the villagers respect." he explained.
Hinata just stared at him blankly as she listened for him to continue, in which he did, "After a couple months, I was accepted as the Fifth Kazekage."
It was quiet between the, before he broke through the silence, "Like I mentioned before that I go by different names since I'm the Kazekage, but, I just want to be called Gaara."
Gaara... her mind spun by the sound of his name echoing like a record of repeat throughout her skull.
Silence surrounded the both of them as Hinata stared at Gaara, but, her gaze towards him was cut off by someone speaking out of the blue, "Kazekage-sama."
Gaara turned to face the medic who stood by the door to see him waving him to come out into the hallway.
He turned to face Hinata and told her, "Excuse me, but, I'm needed in the other room. I'll keep having my medics check up on you every hour." before he bowed and dismissed himself from the hospital room.
After closing the door to the hospital room leaving it cracked open, Gaara walked down the hallway as he followed him to the office. As he followed the medic, they passed a couple more going to opposite direction. Without even realizing it, both of them arrived infront of the his office. The medic soon stepped aside letting Gaara to be the first one to walk in since it's his office. The door creaked open, as Gaara lets himself in. Before he could even begin to walk to his desk, he looked up at the last minute to see that his office was filled with 3 people who were not from Land of Suna. By the look on their headbands, they were 2 of them were Jonin from Konohoa while the other one looked similar to the girl in the hospital room due to their eyes being the same.
"It's been a while, huh Gaara?" Kakashi spoke out amongst the other two with a wave.
Gaara answered with a, "Yes it has." along with a nod.
As the medic left the 4 of them alone, Kakashi spoke out again, "The Hokage got your letter and asked us to retrieve Hinata."
"Tell me..." said the man by the name Hiashi stood next to Kakashi, "Is my daughter alright?"
Gaara nodded, "Just 3 days ago, she had a seizure while we were finishing up her CAT scan." when he said that, he watched Hiashi's face tense up, so, he quickly added in, "Other than that, she's doing fine. I just finishing talking to her before I came here. From what I can see, it's like the seizure never fazed her."
With that said out of the blue, Gaara watched as Hiashi's face softened after hearing that his daughter was doing fine. Gaara can feel relief surround him as he walked passed the 3 men before stopping at his desk.
Kakashi asked Gaara, "Before we go visit Hinata in the hospital, what is it that you mentioned in the letter to the Hokage. She didn't tell us in full detail."
"Your daughter..." Gaara hinted towards Hiashi with a glance before looking at everyone else, "Is suffering from Dementia."
Seeing that the word got them confused, Gaara went on with explaining what it meant, "What I've researched in my books about it is that it's a change in brain function. For example, asking the same question over and over, not being able to follow directions, and getting confused easily."
"So it's similar to amnesia because of the lack of memory?" Hiashi asked out of curiousity.
"I wouldn't say it's similiar but then again I would say it is similar. Put it this way, it's a form of losing the brain cells to think and do basis functions." Gaara explained a little bit more.
As he bent down, Gaara opened the desk drawer, grasping the yellow envelope inside, before he places it on his desk after he closed the draw shut.
Guy, who was on the left of Kakashi, stared down at the yellow envelope on his desk and asked, "What is...?"
With the envelope in his hands, he opens it up to pull out the picture, "It's the CAT scan we did on Hinata's brain."
As the 3 other men in his office gathered around, Gaara held the CAT scan of her brain infront of the window in order for them to see what he wanted to show them.
"What's that?" Guy asked pointing at the place where Gaara was going to show them, "Why is this area black while everything else is white?"
"Look over here." Gaara mentioned to them as he pointed to where her memory meter was to the left side of the scan.
"It's at 0%?" Kakashi asked while he looked closer at the scan before looking at Gaara, "Almost like her memories been erased."
With a single nod, "Hm." Gaara had put the CAT scan back in it's envelope before returning it back inside his drawer.
"Is it permanent?" asked Hiashi in sudden concern.
As much as Gaara didn't want to break the news to Hinata's father, sighing, he couldn't help but slump his head down for a split second before looking back up at them, "There's a possibility that it's permanent, but, weren't not too sure yet."
The 3 men nodded in unison as to the news that had fallen upon them about one of their own ninja. After Gaara was finished talking, he walked back behind his desk and folded his hands when he sat down in the chair to listen to the chatter that suddenly filled the room of what should be done. As the 3 sensei's looked back at one another in wonder on what to do next, Kakashi jumped out of the chatter.
"Gaara..." he spoke making Gaara interrupt his deep train of thought, Gaara looks up at him from behind his desk, "You said that dementia is slightly similar to amnesia right?"
"Yes." Gaara answered the copy cat ninja before him.
"If it's true that she lost her memory, then, she's bound to not remember much or probably nothing at all." Kakashi thought out loud.
Hiashi asked, "Where're you going with this Kakashi?"
With his pointer finger on his chin, he tried to put his answer into a sentence that even a child could understand, "If her memory is gone, then, not only will she not remember any type of jutsu that she's learned from the academy, but, she won't know what hand sign's to use to begin with, along with not knowing how to use her Byakugan either."
"Almost like..." Hiashi's face cringed in anger just the thought of, "She would have to be taught from the very beginning."
"Along with Dementia, her ability to think will be affected as well." Kakashi noted after, "Making it at least ten times more harder in order for her to concentrate."
Guy and Hiashi nodded in unision as they stood there not knowing how else to deal with situation. The one that should be most worried about Hinata is her father. He looked more emotionally disturbed than anyone else in the room.
It was quiet for a split second, that is, until footsteps sounded at the door, as it opened, in walked a medic, "Kazekage-sama."
Gaara; without saying a single word, looked at the medic infront of him, "I checked up on the girl as you ordered. What else is there for me to do?"
As Gaara stood to his feet, he reached inside the drawer to grab the yellow envelope. As he held it in his hand, Gaara came out from behind his desk to face the medic, then, back at Kakashi, Guy, and Hiashi, "I'll take you to her."
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"Aren't you going to eat your apples?" the female medic from the CAT scan room asked as she began to peel the last one with the peeler.
With wandering eyes, Hinata eyeballed the place of freshly sliced apples that she held in her hands. You could tell that she wasn't in the mood to eat anything.
"You haven't eaten in two days..." the woman told her before she began cutting the peeled apple into slices, "Just try and eat something, okay?"
Seeing that she wasn't going to win by ignoring her requests, Hinata delicately picked up a apple slice, and took a bite. It was crunchy, sweet, and very juicy as it slithered down her throat. Her stomach grumbled in excitement as Hinata smiled. After eating a few more, the female medic grabbed the empty plate from her to set it side on the table next to the hospital bed. From the corner of her eye, Hinata watched the female medic turned to the computer and began typing on the keyboard. As Hinata sat there and watched her, she turned back to face the front of her. As the clicking of the keys continued, they seemed to fade in the background as Hinata stared at nothing. Almost looking like she was trying to concentrate.
With her eyes fixed on nothing, she noticed that the things that surrounded her started to dissolve around her like water What's going on?
As she turned to look at the medic, she watched as the female medic at the computer shattered like glass, Hinata spoke, M-My voice is gone, as everything evaporated away right infront of her. From out of nowhere, ringing.
"You're even cuter when you're scared." Orochimaru spoke as he smeared away her tears with his sinister hands.
There was nowhere to escape from his wicked stare. Just seeing him staring at her the way he did sent shivers throughout her body even though she was pinned by the kunai knives. With his own hand, she watched in fear as he brushed her hair from her face to reveal her porcelain complextion as it luminated off of from the sun that casted it's shadows through the leaves of the Forest of Death. With a gaze like his, so full of determination and clamity, Orochimaru cascaded his hand down her cheekbone, letting his index finger brush across her whimpering lips. Hinata shuttered before pulling her face away from his touch. A chuckle sounded through him from her reaction.
"Have you remembered anything yet?" the female asked after she finished up her typing.
When she didn't hear the kunoichi answer, she turned to look at her. As she did, she seen that Hinata was slumped forward with her head between her knees, with her hands to her head, as her fingers grasped her delicate strands.
In concern, the female medic reached her side with her hands on top of the shaking Hinata's shoulders, "Hey, are you alright?"
"What's wrong?" a sudden male voice interrupted. She looked back to see Gaara with 3 other men behind him.
"I don't know. I just turned away for a second." she answered with her voice now full of worry.
His glare lingered everywhere and anywhere he pleased. Her trembling made him smile. As he stared deep into her pastel purple orbs, he licked his lips. Almost like he can taste her horror. Her delicious horror. Hinata watched his every move as her vision blurred with her tears. Her gaze was lost deep inside his. Almost like he was taking the very life she had. She could feel his hand snake up her neck. Her vein throbbing with anxiety as his hand lingered more up her neck.
Leaning in, with his lips just brushing over the skin of her ear, he whispered, "You'll be the perfect host." before he let his tongue glide against her skin, tasting her sweat, taking in the taste of it's delicacy.
"..ata?" spoke a voice over the ringing that palpated through her skull.
Who is this I'm hearing? her mind spoke out in curiousity.
Then, she heard it again, louder this time, "Hinata?"
Who're they calling out too? echoed through her mind as she tried to figure out who was calling out to this unfamiliar name.
Seconds passed after the ringing had finally disappeared, making her able to open her eyes. Upon doing that, she released her hands from her tangled strands before looking up to see faces with concerned eyes looking down at her. She recognized two of them, but the other three she didn't.
"Thank goodness you're alright." spoke the female medic, making Hinata look in her direction, "You had me worried."
After the medic gave her a simple smile, she asked, "What happened?"
Hinata looked at the medic in confusion, "What do you mean?"
"By the way you looked, it seemed like you were being hypnotized." Gaara asnwered, resulting in Hinata to look up at him from the hospital bed.
"Hypnotized?" was all she asked before looking away from Gaara after he nodded.
Silence surrounded her as Hinata couldn't help but stare at the other 3 unfamiliar faces who faced her.
Without trying to sound rude, Hinata asked in hesitation as she stared back up at Gaara, "Who are they?"
"They're from the Village Hidden in the Leaves. They've come here to take you home." spoke Gaara nochalantly like always.
"To take me...home?" she answered with even more confusion in her voice while Gaara nodded.
After a split second had passed, Kakashi spoke out of the blue, "How do you feel Hinata-sama?"
Hinata-sama? Why are they calling me that? questioned her mind as she couldn't help but shrug her shoulders without answering.
Seeing that she's not going to answer, Hiashi stepped forward to look at his daughter, "I'm so glad that you're okay." as a smile appeared on his face.
Hinata looked up to see the man before her, His eyes...they're the same as mine.
She looks so confused right now, and, she doesn't understand why. I watch as the men make movemts towards the girl, while their mouths moved a mile a minute. I wish I could read lips. But, what I don't understand is that constant ringing. So loud, sinister, and never ending. And those pictures I see. They're so scarey. Why do I keep seeing them?
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Reviews'/Comments are greatly appreciated.
Stay tuned for Chapter 4 of Painting Reminiscences.