Chapter 4 – Part II

10 months, three weeks, six days

The liquid that had been injected into her bloodstream forced her Byakugan to activate despite the ridiculously low levels of chakra. One glimpse and she began cataloguing her injuries.

Torn biceps femoris muscle, severe bruising on left thigh, three broken ribs, two on the left, one on the right, dislocated shoulder, lacerations on left arm, second degree burns on both shins and third degree burns on both feet, without mentioning the internal bleeding. Minor bruising on wrists, biceps, hips, knees and neck along with a sprained wrist and ankle. Consequences: impossibility to run or bend knees, ability to run or attack: neutralized, would probably die from internal bleeding in approximately 36 hours without treatment, not enough time to get to a secure location with medical staff. Probability of escaping the base and reaching Konoha alive: 3.4666%

(Her cousin may be the genius but the heiress is no fool.)

They'd been injecting something in her eye every day. She didn't know what it was; all she knew was that it burned a path from her left eyeball to her brain, leaving it sore for the next 23 hours, dulling to a faint ache in hour 20, only to begin again with the next dose. From the reflection of the silver table with syringes and vials and dear God, was that a human head?, she could see her left eye had darkened to a dull gray, the fain outline of the pupil more visible than in the other eye.

Every day, after they left her in her cell, she ran her fingertips around her eyes and could feel the bulging veins around her left eye socket and the deep, still sensible scars around both. The vision from her left eye often left her dizzy. It had begun after 26 injections, a dim mix of colors that disappeared when she blinked. It had grown steadily until it was as clear and solid as the people it surrounded.

Everyone was outlined with an undercurrent of color but she didn't know what it meant. Civilians were outlined with dull colors like dark blue or light grey but ninja had such a wide variety of colors ranging from light blue to an impossibly pale gold, almost silver. She tried to find a discernible pattern and every day a new hypothesis was dismissed. They did not change according to chakra levels, because two ninja with almost the same levels of chakra had very different outlines. The Hyuuga thought that maybe personalities were involved but she was not about to begin talking to her captors just to see if that was a main factor.

If she was in a room with more than five people at a time the blur of colors would give her a headache and she had to close her eyes for a few minutes while her brain tried to process information she hadn't been able to see before.

Unlike the chakra paths, the colors were always visible, ignoring her chakra reserves and remained unchanged when the Byakugan was activated. Her all-seeing eyes were suddenly far more seeing than they used to be and Hinata was torn between being absolutely terrified and interested on the new data it provided.

(It went unsaid that they would not do something to her eyes that they could not use in the future.)

When she was first led to the 'lab' they had severed the muscles behind her knees and broken both wrists. She couldn't stand; the thought of attempting to escape didn't even cross her mind with both hands useless and her eyes blurring from the infection.

They had slashed their merry way through her cheekbones and then allowed them to get infected, withholding treatment until she was a shivering mess of tremors and puss running down her face, barely capable of breathing from the sheer pain of it, the skin red and swollen. (Possible septicemia.)

She had been keeping a careful count of the days/weeks/months she had spent trapped there but lost count when the fever began. It couldn't have been that long or she would've died but she estimated ten months and decided to only count the months, the (309) days were just too depressing.

(Tsunade had probably already written their names in the memorial.)

Another syringe approaching her eye, she vaguely wondered if they knew how far she could see with her Byakugan. She supposed they didn't for they kept activating it and each time she learned something new.

Underground base, seven floors, currently in floor five, five possible escape routes, all guarded, route #2 with only three guards (two chunnin, one jounin), Sakura in floor six along with Tenten (cell third on the right and last on the left), approximately 138 people on the base ranging from civilian to ANBU level, no sign of any Akatsuki member, other prisoners kept on floors two, three and four, surface level empty.

'This time I'll count the ANBU level ninja.'

She had made the math and estimated that it would take from three to four months to catalogue all the ninja in the base. That was alright, she had all the time in the world.

(Another 309 days.)

Or more.