I can't seem to load my story. Well, when I wrote this chapter :) lol.
So that's why I wrote it. Tell me how ya'll like this story :)
Do NOT own Naruto
~Signing in Skye~
Ch. 3
Found
*Naruto*
"From Sakura!" I jumped up to her desk. "Really? What is it, are they okay?" I was talking a mile a minuet until Saskue's hand clamped over my mouth.
"Shut up and listen dobe."
Tsuande sighed her thanks and looked at us, holding out the paper. Gingerly TenTen came over and grabbed it. No one protested as she read it then passed it on. Gravely silent. When the letter got to my hands, I held it with shaky hands.
To anyone out there, to konoha;
This message has been left to the care of refugees. I pray it gets home. We three are alive.
I gave a little jump at this. Alive. All of them! Then I read on.
But who knows for how much longer. It's harder to hold pretences around 'Him' and with her gone. Harder still. We are losing.
Losing what?
The new base we have been located to is in a mountain, very near the border of north part of the land of fire. We will try an escape, three weeks from now, today is March, 6 as I write. You remember bridge? We'll me-
"That's all!" I groaned. The letter was written with a shaky hand, someone scared and trying not to be found. The rest was ripped off.
"Did you see the date?" Saskue's red eyes scanned it over. "Today is the 25, so either we find her today, tomorrow or the next." He gazed at me. "Or we may never find them again."
The room gulped in whole. There was a possibility, if they were still alive now, that if they got caught they'd be killed or just gone again.
"But where would we find our youthful friends?" Lee cried out.
Kiba growled.
"They wouldn't be stupid enough to make a beeline for home." Shikamaru sat on the floor, assuming his thinking pose. "All of them are smarter than that, considering Sakura wrote the letter, maybe she will want to meet at a place only her team knows?" He suggested.
Choji spoke up, "But Hinata and Ino are there to. What if they chose…"
"No." Shino commented. "Sakura's hand writing was quick and shaky. She was terrified, that letter could cost her life. She's picking the spot. It's a right."
Shikamaru and Neji were nodding, even Sasuke was agreeing. "Then were would they meet? Where are the places you've been, it must be one that sticks out." TenTen asked.
"Well, she was talking about a bridge." Suggested Tsunade in thoughtful mode. I couldn't help but laugh. Sakura, she new I would never get a complicated plan. She had picked such an easy spot, and a spot no one would expect because everyone told me how stupid it was!
"This isn't a laughing matter!" Neji glared at me.
Sasuke smirked. "I know what she's talking about."
"The Great Uzumaki Bridge!" I laughed holding my gut. "It's so random no one would guess." (A/N: did I get it's name right?)
"Not the best place," Shikamaru looked confused, "but a memorable one to you three no doubt."
"Of course, with that stupid name." Kiba laughed and Akumaru joined in.
"Hey!" I protested.
"Naruto!" Tsunade warned me. Then she looked at everyone, "pack up now and get ready, Shikamaru, you lead the team."
He nodded and bowed his head.
"Alright!" I yelled, heading for the open window. "Lets' go get them eh?"
I rushed out straight to my apartment, it would take a day to travel there. 'Please be safe my friends.'
*Sakura*
"Hey, you got the basics in there right?" Ino's blue eyes gazed at me in the dark room, I could feel them. We should have left yesterday.
"Yes," I whispered back, "they know."
Neither of us spoke what we were thinking, 'if they got it.'
Hinata let out an inhuman scream in her sleep. Tossing, turning and crying out. From time to time, she would call a name but we couldn't hear her well enough. She had been like this since we first slept in here with her. It sounded like she was fighting someone and they were wining. The only good news about her in this unstable state was that even Orochimaru was having a hard time swaying her, turning her to him. Yes, he controlled her, but only so long as she was in the mood. Many things now depended on her mood swings.
"Sakura, I-Ino?" Ino let out a sigh.
"Cross you're fingers." She whispered to me from her bed. I did.
"Can I…" With a sigh and practiced movements, Ino and me moved our two beds together. With a joyful yelp, Hinata scrambled in between us and fell fast asleep.
"I like this mood better." I stated. I did. She was easier to deal with in this childish state, when she wanted comfort. It seemed almost like the old Hinata was back. Then she got bored and things went down hill.
"I do to."
She slept soundly as me and Ino climbed back in. We were her caretakers now, that was the job assigned to us. So this taking care of her and keeping her pleased was part of the job. But I'm not sure for hold much longer. Me and Ino were losing it, and going insane fast. Anyone would, living in here, watching death again and again, and helping a psycho Hinata was the blood off her. Off of yourself. We've had to kill as well.
I could feel it. We've watch Hinata kill like it was game and laugh at it. She enjoyed it. And I watched as Ino began to smile, like something was amusing about the blood. And I knew that I did to. Nothing was amusing at watching her kill, nothing was amusing about helping in sick experiments. But when they bleed, it told me I was still here, and that was almost laughable because death was a blessing in a place like this. I wonder if that's why Hinata liked blood so much now, to make others bleed and hurt. It told her she was alive. Or maybe she was just so far lost in her head.
Ino and me remain fighting off that. The insanity threatening to take us over. It was scary, blackouts happened to us now, and I was afraid that I was finally going over the edge.
I grabbed Hinata's hand in her sleep and she squeezed in back.
"Hey Hinata, tell me what you remember. Are you still there?" I didn't want to brood over my thoughts and wonder if we would die tomorrow.
"What are you doing?" Ino yawned. "We'll need our strength for tomorrow."
"An experiment." I said sarcastically. "I remember hearing that if you talk to someone in their sleep, they'll tell the truth."
"Oh."
"So Hinata, are you there?"
"Mmmnnm," She mumbled then began to speak. "maybe. Something's g-gone."
"What's missing?" Ino asked now into it. Maybe we could find her.
"Lig-ht."
"Light?" I questioned.
"Mmmnn. It's dark. Really d-ark." She started to shiver.
"Maybe we should stop Sakura." Yeah, we didn't need her to have another breakdown, not now. Tomorrow was the big plan.
"Yeah. Night Ino, night Hinata."
And I closed my eye surrounding to the blankness of my mind. Where I hoped dreams didn't find me.
*Next morning*
Hinata was twitching. Well her hand was. That wasn't a good sign. That meant she was bored and I could see her hand itching down to her kunai holder. Boredom was a bad phase of her mood swings, no rephrase that, every mood she had was deadly.
"Ino!" I hissed between my teeth.
"I've got it, I've got it!" She snapped back digging through her bag. We were always watchful of her moods.
We had been walking since early morning. The point was to follow Kabuto. Orochimaru thought he was being used, controlled, or willingly a spy. We stopped following him hours ago and walked to the bridge. And Hinata was bored. She didn't really care where we went, as long as she got to hurt someone or have some fun. And 'have some fun' can fall under a number of categories. Literally from games like hide and go seek-with a deadly twist- to killing -deadly implied-.
"Found it!" Ino cheered, grabbed Hinata's hand and thrust a mind game in her hands. It was a maze with eight small balls in it. You had to get them all to the end. But it was a well designed maze and would keep her mind busy for a while.
"What's this one?" She asked, satisfied to have something to do. She was like Naruto who couldn't ever keep still, a bundle of jumpy nerves that had to do something. Though she enjoyed games and things that you had to think over, thank heavens for that or me and Ino would have a tons more bandages from her.
"Maze." I commented bringing her in-between us.
"Hhmm," Her brows twisted in confusion as she rolled the balls along. "It got stuck." She said one last time before she became lost in it. I wonder if her mind was like that maze and she was stuck.
"So." Ino said suddenly making me jump. Dang, I was a twitchy paranoid mess, but at least I wasn't the only one, I could see it the Ino kept darting her eyes back and forth. We were also a mess. The three of us were thinner.
"What?"
"You think Tsuande can help her?"
I started to laugh hysterically. I was insane now wasn't I? "Can she help us." I laughed and pointed to my head. "I don't think you and me are all here either."
She laughed with me, eyes brimming with tears. "No, I don't think we are."
Hearing our laughter Hinata joined in to with her own crazy laugh. Sounding as hysterical as me. Then she stopped.
"What now?" Ino sighed, grabbing her gut taking in deep breaths to calm down. I'm angry to say that I didn't calm down as fast.
The pale eyed girl smiled, but it never reached her glazed dead eyes. "Done!" She threw the maze aside and with great accuracy pinned it to a tree. "How many points is that?"
"10 out of 10." I commented finally able to breath. Turning some small things into games to amuse her wasn't hard. "Bulls-eye."
"Yay!" She jumped for joy and took off in front of us doing cartwheels.
"Well," Ino walked beside me, "at least she's happy?"
Her blue eyes looked me over and I shook my head. "Guess so."
Hinata came back mad about something. Great. Angry mood. Grabbing the two of us I realized she had kunais hidden in her jacket which were now digging into our arms. Ino yelped and I bit my lip.
"What happens if you push som-eone off a bridge?" She said suddenly, that twisted smile on her face, more of a smirk. "Hu? What happens?" She jumped up and down. Happy again. Thankfully, it wasn't another mood.
"They fall." Ino pulled her arm away.
"Why?" I pried her hand off my arm and studied the deep gash.
"There's a bridge. I want to push the bo-ld one!" She giggled hysterically. Blond one? Naruto? No, it couldn't be. But maybe.
Ino was also excited, swaying back and forth on the balls of her feet. She grabbed Hinata in a hug who instantly started to cry. "It's okay Hinata!" The blond girl laughed. "It's all okay!"
Hinata stopped crying and looked at me, lavender to green. "Can I push t-he blond?"
"Hold on okay?" I couldn't hide my smile. "We have to see who he is first. K?"
"K."
Ino let her out of the death grip and grabbed out hands, running to the end of the forest. When the green grass met the dirt road, I felt ecstatic and turned to the bridge. For once the sun was bright and sitting down at the edge was a bunch of people. People I recognized. They sat there waiting.
"Shika! Choji!" Ino sqeezed our hands and ran forward to them. There were our teams minus our sensei's but that was okay. Even Gai's team was there to!
I felt the tears falling down my face. But my happy moment was soon gone. As soon as they saw us and ran to us, when they were close enough to touch Hinata started to pull back.
"Hinata?" Ino questioned the girl. She had one hand desperately clawing at Ino's hand.
"L-let me go!" She yelled in frustration.
"Sakura!" Naruto reached us first but fell silent when he saw us. Wonder what we looked like to him. Then he looked at Hinata. "Whats-"
The other rushed up. All stopped when they heard the girl cry out.
"Let me go, let me go!" She yelled. Finally when she couldn't get out of Ino's grip she grabbed a kunai and rushed to stab the girls arm.
"Hey!" Kiba yelled surprised. No one else seemed able to speak.
Skillfully I moved in and grabbed her arm with one hand and the other the kunai. I let out a small sigh. Thankfully, I didn't grab the sharp end, I didn't feel like being cut again today. Hinata gazed at my hand before she began to cry and fell to the ground. Ino let go and I threw the kunai away before reaching for her kunai holder. I grabbed that and threw it away too, while Ino found her hidden ones.
"Hey, Ino, Sakura, Hinata," Naruto sounded behind us with a confused voice, "What's going on?"
I pulled Hinata up by her arm, she was suddenly calm again. Ino sigh and came up to.
"How bout a hello?" She asked with a nervous laugh, which quickly turned into hysterical crying.
"Ino?" Shikamaru said with concern, his brows knit together. Ino waved them off with a hand and calmed down some.
"We're fine." I mumbled and walked closer to them. "I guess."
"Hey Sakura." Hinata asked, I looked at her. "You never sa-id I could or not."
Hinata did a lot of things without our permission, but we managed to convince her that if she was to kill she had to get our permission. That was only crossed out if it was an order from Orochimaru.
"No." Ino said flatly. Hinata pouted before her hand began to twitch again.
"But I'm b-bored. Let me?"
"No."
"What's happened?" Neji asked, he looked angry.
I sighed. "We'll tell you at the village. Not here. Cane we please just go home?" My last sentence came out begging. I just wanted to go home.
They nodded but gave us weary looks.
"Come on guys, we don't look that insane." Ino tried to joke, but it didn't work. Not with her twiddling with the hem of her gray shirt, me looking around constantly and not to mention Hinata whose hand was twitching.
She sighed to and wiped away some stray tears. "Shika," He looked at her. "You got one of those cubes you always carry around?"
They all looked confused. "Yeah. Why?"
Ino held out her hand. "Can I see it?"
"Why?" He asked again digging through his bag.
"If you don't want to get hurt, trust me." I commented solemnly. Hinata giggled slightly. Even without her weapons, she was still deadly. And I'm sure she still had a hidden one somewhere.
Shikamaru handed over the cube, all the twisted colors of the rubix cube shined in the sun. Ino thrusted it into Hinata's hand.
"There." I let go of her arm as she began to absentmindedly turn the cube, turning it this way and that to solve it.
"What?" Shino asked, pointed a figure at the cube and then to Hinata.
I sighed and started to walk and the others followed, crowding around us as we walked. Hinata followed on instinct.
"You don't want her bored." Ino said looking at her feet. I twiddled with my hair nervously.
"Why not?" Kiba growled slightly and Akumaru was sniffing at us.
"Trust me." I said back in a tired voice. "She's busy for now, it's good to keep her busy when she's bored."
"Your," TenTen coughed and pointed at our arms. "bleeding." Unsure of what to say after that.
Oh. Forgot. I reached into my bag and quickly wrapped up our arms. All better.
"Sakura." Sasuke said. I turned to him and his knowing eyes. I wanted to cry, no I was. I could feel the tears running down my face so I turned away and looked at the cube twisting and turning in Hinata's hand. "What happened?"
I didn't answer. Ino didn't answer. We just walked in silence. And in silence, we walked for a long time.
"Don't know." Ino finally said after almost an hour of silence on our part. Naruto and Kiba had been talking the whole way nervously. TenTen suggested they check out wounds. They knew we were different. Scared, paranoid, and I wasn't sure what they thought of Hinata.
"How can you not know?" Shikamaru asked.
"Well," I thought it over. "he separated us when we arrived."
"And?" Lee asked, looking at me kindly with a friendly smile to reassure me. He was a sweet kid.
"When we came out from our separate places, she was gone." Ino pointed to Hinata. "just, she's gone." She looked down. "I'm not sure where we stand either." She laughed nervously.
"Gone?" Neji glared again, I jumped at his glare and he softened up. "What do you mean?"
"Look at her, does she look the same to you?"
"So the cloths cling to her body some more," Kiba shrugged, but I could see he knew what I meant. Staring at her, lost in the cube, she just wasn't Hinata. She never even said 'hi' to them, she didn't know us. "you mean her mind." He said with realization.
The two of us nodded glumly. "And that snake wouldn't tell us what he did. Tried to do the same to us, I'm afraid we are really close to breaking to." I spoke fastly, pinching my arm to calm down. The faster I spoke meant I would soon black out. I figured that out when I was talking to Ino, panic making me speak faster and faster till the world was black and Ino had locked me in the closet. She never told me what I did. She didn't need to, I saw the bruises all over her. Ino also had her starter for blackouts. I've seen her blackout to. I had my fair share of wounds.
Akumaru barked and Kiba looked at him with wide eyes.
"What he say?" Ino jumped nervously.
"He says he knows why you three smell different now." Kiba stopped walking and we stopped with him. Hinata sigh as she tired to get every color to one side. "He says you three smell like blood."
I gulped and looked down. "Look, can we tell you everything at the hokages'? Not now, please?" I begged.
"Besides, we need to watch-" Ino began but was cut off by Hinata's happy squeal.
She threw the cube to the side having finished it and with a quick flick of the hand lodged it into the tree.
"Ino." I glared at her.
She shrugged. "I thought I got them all."
Hinata turned to us with her smile. "How many?" By now everyone was giving us that 'wtf' look.
"10 out of 10." Ino said. Hinata looked confused then angry. She walked up to us and grabbed our arms again before dragging her nails painfully down our arms leaving scratches here and there.
"Hinata?" Shino sounded confused at his teammate's violent mood.
"You s-aid that last time." She giggled and squeezed our wrists coming face to face with us. I shuddered. "You're not lying to me?"
"Would we?" Ino said buying time. The others looked ready to pull her off but I shook my head.
"You're supposed to please me. What if I'm n-ot please by you telling me lies?" She glared a deadly look. If only looks could kill.
"Caretakers don't lie." I mumbled to her. We couldn't use the word friend, something about it set her off and she would breakdown again. Not including the fact that she didn't remember us like that. "You hit it in the middle. Bulls-eye." I tried to keep the shiver from my voice.
She laughed and turned around walking ahead of us. "That's g-good!" She turned and grinned. "Lying is bad right?" She laughed. "Don't look so scared! I like you two, sadly you can't die." She grinned and came back to us. "We don't want that yet right? It's to fun to play with you two."
That left everyone speechless. I could almost hear their thoughts. 'What happened to Hinata?'
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Seriously, I have no idea what the heck I'm writing! Lol. But I'm having fun with this.
Please review. I wrote this chapter because fanfic wasn't working and I can't seem to upload. (when I was writing this) tell me how you like and I'll keep it coming:)
~Signing off Skye~
