Chapter 7: The bird's cry
Naruto decided to open the left door.
"Are you sure this is the way?" Sakura asked, stopping him with her hand.
She was surprised to see his serious face looking at her.
"I don't know…unless we split up," he said.
"No! Everything but that. I won't let you out of my sight," she said, eyes on the ground.
"I don't want to lose you. I thought I lost you once but I'll never let that happen again," she thought, close to tears.
"Then we have to choose one door," he said, his seriousness fading when seeing her worry.
"I hope it's the right way," she murmured.
"Sakura!"
She looked up to him.
"Even if it's a trap, we will find Hinata. You said so, remember? No trap will stop me and no Akatsuki member either!" he said with a smile.
Sakura remembered his fight with Pain and realized that he defeated him because of his strong will.
She smiled back - forcefully.
"What about Sasuke? Are you able to defeat him too?" she thought doubtfully.
Meanwhile Hinata was perplexed. She didn't expect him to try to get her to rest. Wasn't she his hostage? Then why did he want her to relax?
"Don't you want to get healed?" he asked suddenly.
"What?"
"Do you want your friends to help you? I'm sure you want to get out of here – away from me," he said and turned around.
"What do you mean?" she asked, seeing that his Sharingan was activated.
"Now is the chance."
"How could I? You placed a barrier around this room. I can't get out," she said.
Suddenly she saw him smiling, making her feel apprehensive.
"You can't get out but they can get in. You only have to let them know where you are and they will come," he said, taking some steps towards her.
She sat up, alert.
"How should I let them know?" she asked.
"Since you can't get out, there is only one way to make yourself noticeable," he said, a suspicious expression on his face.
She remained silent, afraid of his next move. She began staring at him, a sudden alertness keeping her eyes and ears concentrated on him.
"You have to scream for help," he said, no emotion when he said it.
"W-what?" she whispered, not understanding him at all.
"Do you want your wound to heal?"
Hinata said nothing. She knew now it was a trap and decided to give no sound at all.
"What's wrong? It's either you or them," he said and she realized that if she didn't call for help, he would kill her.
Her eyes stared angrily at him. She stood up, unable to listen to his commands anymore.
She stood in fighting position.
"I won't do anything without fighting first," she said, a determined expression in her face.
He smiled – at her useless attempt to protect herself and her friends.
She activated her Byakugan, smiling at her success.
"I got my chakra back. And now I will block his chakra network," she thought self-confident.
He took out his sword, shining in metallic silver.
"I will have overthrown you in less than 60 seconds," he said proudly.
She charged, her palm dashing towards him.
He ducked, taking hold of her wrist.
She dashed the other palm, only to distract him.
Meanwhile she approached his chakra hole on his wrist with her finger.
But suddenly she stopped due to pain.
His sword made a small cut into her palm when he tried to block.
It was of short duration.
She continued to try to block his chakra and was only an inch close when he shoved her against the wall.
She groaned in pain and grabbed her shoulder.
"I'll ask you nicely again. Do you want your shoulder to heal?" he asked, looking at her angry face with self-confidence.
"If it's the way you want it then my answer is 'no'," she said, feeling the pain fade slowly.
He stared hard at her – too hard.
Her hand formed a palm and she wanted to strike but his blade prevented her from moving.
She felt a sharp edge against her skin, making her not dare to swallow even.
"Is it you or them?" he asked again.
She turned her face away, the blade managing to cut into her skin.
She ignored the slight pain. She would ignore even greater pain only to make sure that her friends would be safe.
"Kill me! I don't care! I only care about my friends – unlike you," she thought and closed her eyes, ready for the final blow.
Suddenly she felt his hand on her chin, causing her to open her eyes in astonishment.
He pulled her face towards his, an odd look in his eyes – a mixture of anger and pride.
"Just look at me," he said, causing her to look at him surprised – and to blush.
She did as he said because she had no other choice.
The three drops in his eyes began to change slowly. She could see every change – every position in which they moved and every shape they began to form.
All of a sudden she heard a loud scream – that came from her mouth.
Meanwhile Sakura and Naruto noticed the scream and opened the right door in a hurry.
They dashed through another hallway, always expecting Hinata.
She stared at him with clenched teeth, angry at him for using force and angry at herself for letting him use it on her.
"Let me go!" she said angrily.
"So you don't want to be saved?"
"No!"
"Fine with me. Then…I am forced to kill you," he said.
"Do it! I'm not scared. If it helps me to safe my friends and the village, I accept death," she said in a low voice.
Suddenly his eyes turned dark and she noticed hate in them.
"Don't think too high of your precious village. The people of your village are all self-obsessed and care only about the village's strength and wealth. They are all liars and would literally kill for power. They would not even care if you died. What would be the loss of one single shinobi, if they have thousand who are even better than you?" he said, his voice bearing great disgust when he talked about it.
"Are you not just like them?" she asked.
She felt his sword forcing itself against her skin.
"Shut up! I told you already that you know nothing about me or my past. I was deceived by the village. They turned me against my brother. I thought it was his fault. I thought that he wanted to kill but he was forced. Now I will show them what it means to be forced to murder. They will know the same pain I had when I was little. They will know every detail of seeing your loved ones killed. They will share my pain. They will pay with death," he said, his voice low but filled with loathing and ill-will.
She looked at him with confusion but tried to show sympathy.
"Don't try to act as if. Nobody knows me," he said, his voice cold and hard.
She looked to the ground.
"Only Naruto does," she murmured, receiving a mocking laughter from him.
She looked up to him, angrily.
"You don't want to realize that some people are like you – that some people care about you," she said.
"You're wrong! If they were like me they would understand the reasons for my actions and not try to stop me. If they cared, they wouldn't listen to every single thing the stupid village tells them to do. They would try to act against them," he said, eyes narrowed in anger.
"No! You're wrong!" she said, trying to make him understand that his way of living is wrong.
He grabbed her by her shirt.
"Don't try to talk sense," he hissed and threw her towards the ground.
She tried to stand up when she noticed him standing over her.
"So you want to die?" he asked, his expression cold as ice.
She remained silent, trying to concentrate chakra. But she was out of energy. Somehow she used up all of her reserves.
Her Byakugan deactivated.
She stared at him.
"Maybe his Sharingan caused this. Am I in his genjutsu?" she thought.
"What happened?" she asked confused.
"It was more than a second," he replied.
Her eyes opened in surprise.
"His genjutsu! I looked at him… No, into his eyes for way more than a second," she realized.
She didn't want to look at him. She turned her eyes at the candles that lit the room.
"Just like a candle. My life is just like a candle. Is this the end? Am I going to die now? Am I going to fall into eternal darkness?" she wondered, unable to stand up.
She began to accept her fate – that death was now. Neji might have been right. Maybe you can't escape fate and that you're bound to it. Maybe fate decided that it was time for her to go – to fly into the other world.
She felt a breeze fly into the room and saw that the candles went out.
"Just like the candles, my life is going to extinguish now," she thought glumly and closed her eyes but didn't notice that one of the candles turned on again.
Suddenly she heard a familiar voice – a voice that gave her hope.
"Hinata!"