Three years after the sudden disappearance, in conformity with the laws of Konoha, Hyuuga Hinata was declared dead. The hopeless search stopped. There were not even traces of remainings of the girl, but surely the earth had eaten them in those five years and wild dogs found her bones to be fine treat. Officials did not know what the 'cause of death' section of the act should have contained. They were sure that the girl escaped the fire in the hospital, but there had been so many life threatening things from then on, for a blind girl especially, that it was unlikely to be able to stop at any of them. So that they scribbled 'died on the battlefield', writing down the date of the battle during which she had lost her eyes. Perhaps there was a right in that. Perhaps Hyuuga Hinata had died that day. As for her body, its location had been, for a long while, unknown even for the girl herself.
For a person who is born blind, learning about the world outside may be difficult. But becoming blind on the way is no longer about learning anything. It's about remembering it all. Our knowledge is conditioned by recognition. And recognition is conditioned by memory. You ask yourself the question 'do I know about this?' and then your brain responds to it, 'This is a vegetable called watermelon. And this is around how much it weights. Its shape is like that and it feels like this. Its inside has this colour. It smells like this and it tastes like that'. You learnt about these things already. You know them all. You only have to remember them. But without the eyes you can't see. So if you can't see, where do you get that first hint from, so the recognition could act? Well, that's it. You can't see. Then you'll have to learn to feel forms better, to smell better - that flower, can't you guess it by its scent? You'll have to learn to hear better - that bird, cannot you guess it by its song? You'll have to coordinate better your moves in space. Sense things. Project them in your mind.
There's no sight to help. Take that lemon in your hand. Measure it. Feel its tough coat. Cut it open. You can inhale its powerful smell. The smell already tells you it's sour. Taste it. Isn't it sour, as you recognized it to be? Then crush it in your hand. It feels juicy. Feel the acid liquid dripping. It is fresh. Somehow itchy. Sometimes, having one door closed can open many others.
After the incident, Hinata was caught in a world inside her, a strange kind of numbness settling on the surface. This was a numbness not quiet and not restful. And while the world inside was in a continuous movement and wonder and suppositions, so was the world outside. Because the indifference towards the world outside consisted in not controlling it at all, leaving the rage inside project. You cannot feel uneasy about your words and actions if you are not interested in what the outcomes may be. Hinata did not stutter any longer and her movements were not nervous. In the past, she had also had a problem with looking people in the eyes as she spoke - as for this problem, it was removed with her eyes.
Her usual nurse will never tell, because she did not confess it at the right time, but her patient used to be very odd.
One day, she required, "Can you give me the book on the third shelf on the left?" Was she supposed to response to respond to that with, "I'm giving you no book, you're blind"? Of course not. She gave it to her, without questioning how she had even known a book was there. Or how she had known of the shelves. "Thanks, I like its cover pattern," the young woman told her.
This other time, she said, "Can you please close the window and let the curtains down? There's too much light coming in". The nurse opened her mouth to say something, but closed it back again. After all, what did she know? She was no ninja - she was a simple nurse. The window was just across from the bed and, indeed, the rays coming in were falling right on the bed. Still...
The window closed with the lowest click. But even so, the click was followed by an immediate "Thank you" from the young lady.
She didn't know that the young lady did not spend all of her time in bed, where she'd mostly found her. She would also never know that the young lady started to become more than aware of anyone approaching her room and that's why she jumped in the bed immediately, not leaving it before she was sure she was alone - and she was very aware of when she was truly alone as well, no matter how quiet the people coming in may have been.
First time she got up, she tripped and hit her head in the iron rod at the bottom of the bed. A nurse passing by heard her and came in. That was an awkward situation and, next time, she was more attentive. She listened with much more attention, avoiding for her struggle to be noticed. She learned to move smoothly, guessing her surroundings by touch. She moved slowly and touched slowly, at first only because she couldn't otherwise, next because it was the safest and last because she learnt it to be simply the best. Two days into her staying, she knew the place perfectly. She could almost visualize it. Only that she didn't know colours, but hospitals were mostly while, so it was not that bothersome to live with it. After the place was well known, she occupied her time with both moving and listening. She heard conversations that came from rooms nearby or outside the hospital, music that seemed to be really far away, but the most interesting she found were the sounds of rain and the wind. One night, it rained for hours. The hospital was perfectly quiet and so she stood there and listened to the rain for hours. Intriguing, to find out the rain could be that loud. And it didn't even seem to be a heavy rain. Had falling drops always been that loud?
Speaking up her mind was suddenly too easy. Not that she suddenly started speaking a lot, but what she had to say, she could speak and she could do it without her voice to tremble, because she did no longer fear people may show disapproving looks - she could not see these disapproving looks; these could no longer scare her and bring down her confidence. She did no longer have to look them in the eye, in which her fear of saying the wrong thing could have been seen.
The day of the arson she was up at the window, listening, as usual. She could not feel the warm light of the sun rays any longer. It must have been evening already.
Suddenly, she heard movement around. It was a weak sound, like the sound of a leaf falling, but she was sure it had not really been a falling leaf. Something was going on. Something must have been going on, because she got a chill. And then she heard a different sound, the sound of burning fuse. The weakest scent of burnt wick was in the air and she left the window immediately, a chill running down her spine. Knowing the way too well by now, she walked directly to the door and opened it. The low click of a walking stick announced her that there had to be someone - and the sound came closer. And she could sense another person walking by the one with the walking stick. The person with the walking stick seemed to have a slow pace - probably an elder. Surely there was a nurse accompanying.
She spoke about what she heard out loud, being sure there was someone to hear her. The nurse agreed, but Hinata could guess she was kind of sceptical from the way she spoke. She heard the nurse go inside the room. Around two minutes later, she heard the nurse coming back, too, saying there was nothing to worry about, inviting her to get back in her compartment. Hinata refused. She was not imagining things, that was impossible. And she had a really bad feeling about it all. More than that, she was sure she could still hear it, the burning wick. How could that nurse not hear it inside the room, where the sound was louder?
In the end, the nurse finally agreed to at least let her speak it further with the director - Shizune had to believe her; Shizune would surely be capable to hear it, too. And, agh... the smell of burnt. It was coming closer, too. She felt intoxicated and, also, in more danger like before. What was that feeling? Where did it come from?
And in then silence of the moment, a new, loud sound came, the cause of her restlessness finally revealed. It was not an usual explosion - it did not sound like an explosion, no, but... Unnerving heat followed the sound - fire. The next very moment she felt herself being pulled in a hurry, far from the sensation of heat and light. And she could occasionally feel the touch of skin and fabric - the place was getting crowded. And noisy. And soon she was somewhere out, somewhere cold. She was out. Outside. Outside the hospital. More noise. More fabric. And more skin. She hugged herself, with coldness and uneasiness coating her. People were constantly moving around, but she stood on her place. In what direction was she supposed to move? She did not know where was this place where the hand that had pulled her outside and afterwards abandoned her out there, in the middle of a maddening crowd.
Breathing in loudly, she tried to concentrate. She reached out her hand, just up enough to sense if she was about to hit something, but low enough to not stand out. Anyway, it was not a very necessary precaution, because the people around were too concerned about their loved ones' and own lives to notice anything else. Luckily, it was also dark enough for her impairment to not get noticed. As far as the others were concerned, she was just another confused one, touching around to just make her way out or check if the ones she passed were ones she looked for.
And so, unknowing to her or anyone around, she left the crowd and hospital's surroundings behind. This was happening right at the time the Hyuuga teams were spreading through the hospital, to be sure the heiress had not been caught somewhere in, before going to look for her outside, where they at least could be sure to find her safer.
There was clear chaos and hectic movements at the hospital, but otherwise the village was quiet and peaceful. It was already late at night. So people did not notice the girl walking in straight line, her hand still reached out for possible obstacles. And if they did, it was a night too dark to notice the bandages around her eyes and so there was nothing anyone could find wrong about her wandering around. She did not even wander chaotically, as to make it seem odd and draw attention to it. Just in straight line. In straight, continuous line. And so she reached the gates. But the gates watchers were Water Users, so that, at the urgent call, they had left the post and rushed to the hospital without having the time to call for replacement. They'd be back soon a minute later - a minute too late, because the girl would be lost through the woods, out in the dark night.
But why didn't the girl remain in the crowd, where she would have been easily found? Or why didn't she stop after a while, away from the suffocating crowd, but close enough to be found just as easily by a skilled Hyuuga? Because, the moment she had hugged herself in the middle of the chaotic crowd, she had also made up her mind and decided she would not stay, remembering right then and there about the eyes she was supposed to receive from someone supposed to sacrifice for the heiress.
But where would she go? What to do if she got caught? She did not know. And she did not know anything really. And she did not even think about anything. She did not give herself the time to think. She just concentrated on walking straight. And kept walking ahead.
Hours later, she fell down, exhausted. Someone who had been following her no longer straight walking finally came closer and picked her up. At that time, the search outside the village was starting. But it was too late for them to find her. She was no longer somewhere on any surrounding grounds.
A/N: Ah, I cannot tell you how much I love writing Hinata's POV in stories. She appears to me as a character with so many possibilities! And I cannot help but give her the chance to present every side of her actions and thoughts. So I hope you don't mind the many details - writing them is a pleasure I can't be denied. :)