Coercion
Arc II: Bending the Branch
The roads might be different, but the place we end up is the same.
Orange
She never forgot the first day she started working with cadavers. Hinata was sick as she walked through the cool catacombs, her stomach turning at every sight. She looked to Kabuto for support, but even he seemed different. That façade of politeness had disappeared and it was replaced by something else far more menacing. Hinata dared not ask him if she could leave. Finally, she understood why Orochimaru worked with him: Kabuto was just as twisted as he was.
"I'm going to perform an autopsy," he explained. She nodded and shrunk back from him a little. He looked a bit too happy to tell her he'd be spending the next couple hours cutting open and dismembering a dead body.
"While I'm busy, I need you to categorize the bodies I have here. I don't have all their names, but I've labeled the body bags. All you have to do is carry them to the appropriate section using the gurney."
She watched him leave as her eyes grew wet with tears. She blinked to try and keep them back. Kabuto was just short of skipping to the autopsy room. Hinata swallowed once and that was all she needed to start crying. She sat down in the corner of the hall she was in, held her head in her hands and started bawling.
"Why the hell am I here?" she cried in between sobs. It was a good while before she stopped sniffling. She stared up at the body bag that was already labeled and laid carefully on the gurney. There had to have been at least twelve others sitting there. Each held a person. An image of Kimimaro's body flashed across her mind. She shook her head. With shaking hands she gripped the handles of the gurney and pushed the body bag to the appropriate section. She double checked the label and the sign over the door. Pushing open the doors with the gurney she was surprised by the blast of cold that met her when she entered. She rubbed her hands and pulled open the empty drawer farthest to the back of the room. As she shouldered the weight of the body she was struck about how eerily similar it was to the weight of the boy she had killed. She carried him all the way back and…
'You swore you would forget that. You must kill all the unpleasant memories, kill your emotions…' she told herself. She placed the body in the drawer and slid it closed. Silently she wheeled the gurney out of the room and went back to the place where the other bodies were waiting to be put away. Hinata stared at them blankly, trying to will the sick twisted feeling in her stomach. She ended up vomiting in a corner again. Hinata felt hot tears against her skin as she wiped her mouth. With a heavy heart she continued her work, "filing" away the bodies.
They would be cut open, dismembered, their secrets taken, not allowed to have death's reprieve. She had always known that her enemies were evil, but she had no idea they were this bad, this twisted. She now had a deep fear of Kabuto, but…at least he was capable of acting civilly toward her. What worried her about him now was that he expected her to become like him. Did he? No…he only said that he wanted her to have his abilities, to pass them on to someone else. Did he expect her to take care of Orochimaru in the event of his demise? She wouldn't do it. She would never care for him like that.
Finishing her dismal task, she sat down by the entrance in the cold catacombs and waited for Kabuto to return. It was hours before he was finished. Hinata tried to watch him using her byakugan, but a glimpse of what he was doing only shocked and scared her further. She shook violently and curled into a ball. She held her chest, knowing there was a scar there. He had cut her open once and fixed her. He was cutting someone else open, a large Y-shaped incision from shoulder to shoulder, from collarbone to navel. He was pulling out their organs, examining the poisons used to kill them, how his body shut down entirely. Knowing Kabuto, he was already recreating the lethal concoction in his mind.
He would also come up with the antidote and save people with it. He only knew how to fix her because he cut some body open and learned what went where. Books and theory were no good when you were dying. Still the nausea would not leave her and she closed her eyes and fell asleep trying to ignore it. Kabuto arrived finally and nudged her awake with his foot.
"We're done for today," he said. They left the catacombs together.
"I…uh…made a bit of a mess," she said softly.
"I know, someone will clean it up later," he told her. The reminder of the bile in her mouth made her nauseous. She bit her lip and all of a sudden she craved some strong taste to drive it away.
"Kabuto…do you have oranges some where on this compound?" she asked.
"Perhaps," he answered.
"I need some right now," she said. Citric acid was probably the worst thing for her right then, but she wanted the taste of oranges in her mouth. Anything other than what she tasted right then. He indulged her and let her get some. Hinata hurried away wondering all the while just what Kabuto's motive really was in making her go through all of this.
Stupid
Aside from helping Kabuto and learning all she could about medical jutsu, Hinata had the assignment of monitoring the goings on of Orochimaru's ranks. This was the most relaxing job she had, she could sit in a dark room at the bottom of the lair and watch all above her. She saw Sasuke and Orochimaru training in a remote field above, genin training, Kabuto's experiments, prisoners and such.
What she didn't understand about Kabuto's plan was that in order for her to be effective in her job of taking out rebels was that she would have to kill some of them. The thing was she just had no desire to stop them. Let them kill Orochimaru and botch his plan, she didn't care in the least.
She observed the genin and their teachers the closest. From what she could tell, both teacher and student were talented, the students usually just needed refining. Orochimaru tolerated no "losers" in his organization, which was probably why he so desperately wanted her out. She wondered, were the Four Sounds considered losers because they lost to mere Konoha genin?
Sasuke was without a doubt a genius. All her observations of him proved this true time and again. She was no such thing, but so far she was proving to be useful and caught on fast. After all, she had perfected her own form of impenetrable defense. She remembered the Hyuuga defense that would cause a whirlwind of chakra to deflect all enemy shots. She could perform this jutsu perfectly after just a few days of practice since she merely had to refresh herself on its execution. That form of defense was convenient if all the enemy's projectiles were thrown at once. However, it consumed a lot of chakra and left the user rather spent.
What she devised was a defense that could be used over a longer period of time and used less chakra. All projectiles in her sight range would be blocked instantly by channeling chakra to her hands. Her reactions were instantaneous and resulted in what appeared to be a chakra bubble. In reality it was just her hands moving that fast. She was a little proud of that accomplishment. Still she was no Sasuke Uchiha. Speaking of which, she saw him coming down the hall toward her. Reading his lips she saw him grumbling something about being an errand boy.
'He's going to open the door and tell me something that Kabuto asked me to do,' she thought. Sasuke opened the door and leaned on the door jamb indignantly.
"Kabuto wants you to give me a physical. Orochimaru and I are moving to another base and he wants you to clear me for travel because of some accident I had or something," he said. She didn't move, pretending not to see him. He sighed, crossed his arms and rolled his eyes.
"Hyuuga. Hyuuga, are you listening?" he began. She didn't respond. He narrowed his eyes and activated his sharingan. It took everything she had not to laugh. He probably thought he was in some sort of elaborate genjutsu and he just had to be certain. "What the hell are you doing?"
"Ignoring you," she said nonchalantly. He snorted and walked over to her ready to strike.
"You hurt me and I can't clear you to go with Orochimaru," she told him. He gritted his teeth and growled. Sharingan met with her byakugan. His hand fell to his side and he folded his arms and she stood up and dusted off her pants.
"If you weren't actually useful, I would have killed you right then," he said.
"I know," Hinata answered dryly. She had come so close to being killed in that place that she just got used to the feeling. Sasuke, while she knew he was stronger than her, had better things to aspire to than to pummel her into submission. Besides, she had a feeling his bark was worse than his bite. He wouldn't kill her.
"Just don't be stupid like that again or I will kill you next time," Sasuke snapped.
"I'm sure you will."
What?
There was a time when every girl in Konoha would kill to be in Hinata's position. She had a shirtless Sasuke on an examining table in nothing but boxers. Hinata was too numb to care and she had seen so many men in various states of undress and stages of death in the past month and a half that she no longer cared. She took his pulse, checked his eyes, ears, blood pressure, heart beat…
"Hyuuga?" he said.
"I can't hear your heart and lungs if you talk," she said, in a strangely maternal tone. Her beside manner voice had been turned on she supposed. She had the stethoscope pressed against his back. "Breathe."
She nodded after she was satisfied she had heard enough.
"You may get dressed," she said, writing a few notes on his chart. He pulled on his pants and she knew he was staring at her.
"Hyuuga?" he began again. She ignored him and continued to write.
"Hinata?" he said finally. She stopped and turned to face him, her expression blank.
"Why are you here?" Sasuke asked squinting.
"What?" she whispered.
"I know why I'm here. There is someone I must gain enough power to kill and Orochimaru will help me get that power. But what about you? What are you doing here?"
"I…" she faltered. Hinata closed her eyes for a while but looked at him directly when she gave her answer. "I was captured during the Sound's attack on Konoha. I don't want to be here. I can't escape, and I no longer want to go home." She left out the part about how empty the ninja way seemed now. She hated it, she hated it every time Kabuto brought up being a shinobi and killing her emotions. "I am Kabuto's project and I will see how far this will take me."
He raised an eyebrow and pulled on his shirt.
"That's pathetic. You've never had a strong feeling about anything in your entire life, have you?" he asked. She didn't know why that statement enraged her.
"That's not true! That's not true! I loved—" she fell short of mentioning the name, realizing who she was talking to. It might have an adverse reaction.
"Look at you. You can't even say his name around me. Pathetic. You don't feel for him at all. I'll bet he doesn't even know you exist."
That last phrase shot through her chest. He really didn't know anything about her…she only watched him from far away…
"Am I cleared for travel?" he asked. She directed her attention to the chart.
"Yes. All your vitals checked out. The seal seems to be having the appropriate effect and will not hinder your travels…" she said in a distant voice. She signed it and dipped her thumb in some ink. She put her thumb print on it and handed it to Sasuke.
"Show this to Kabuto…" she said. He nodded and closed the door behind him. As the door slammed shut, tears began to fall.
Yes, yes I am evil, thank you. I'm waaaaay behind in writing this, but I'll update as often as time permits. Please review if you've got a minute.
