Akane patted down her kimono in front of the mirror, admiring how svelte the young girls body was. It was a pleasure to have a body and looks that would lure many men.
'Why are you doing this?'
Ugh, the little girl was talking. 'I wish she would just shut up.'
'Why?' she asked again.
"Ugh!!! FINE! Hinata is your name, isn't it?"
'Yes…' Hinata replied carefully.
"Well Hinata, I wanted a body that would be strong enough to do my bidding."
'I know that, but what are you going to use my body for?' she enquired cautiously, she didn't want to set off the extremely volatile woman.
Akane laughed almost hysterically, " Wouldn't you like to know!"
'I would actually. If I'm going to be stuck in here forever, then I'd like to at least know what's going on.' Hinata put on her best acting performance, trying to sound like she felt defeated already. But of course that wasn't the case. She wasn't going to give up. Ever. She would persevere till the very end.
She could feel Akane searching her mind for a weakness that would tell if the girl was lying. Hinata cleared her mind, holding on as long as she could.
"Well, I suppose you have a point, girl. Alright, I'll tell you."
"I've been around for thousands of years. I used to roam this land in a time long forgotten. But then you annoying, interfering humans got in my way. Sure, I stamped out communities, but more and more of you came. I kept a low profile, until 100 years ago today, I couldn't take it anymore. You all need to die, so I started cleansing the land. And cleanse I did. It was beautiful! The earth and water were all stained red with your blood!"
"But I came up against someone very strong. If I didn't hate you humans, I might possibly have been impressed. It was she who sealed me away, then she hid me from prying eyes. But it didn't work for long. The people here knew all about me and tried to free me. But they failed, instead they had to confine me to a brooch."
Hinata had figured it out already. That the brooch had been a connection between the two of them. She just had to figure out a way to sever the connection. But that was impossible at the moment.
"Well, I'm afraid we will have to end our little chat now. I have important things to be getting on with." Akane walked to the door and opened it.
The little man from earlier had just been about to knock on the door, he looked up startled.
"Oh! I was just, uh, just about to come get you. If we could now discuss our agreement." He smiled and rubbed his hands together.
Akane brushed her hand through her hair and sighed.
"I won't be doing anything for you." She pushed past him and walked down the corridor.
"But, but….!" Spluttered the man, hands outstretched to her, he grabbed onto her kimono, stopping her.
She slowly turned round and her eyes burnt with a ruby red. She fixed her stare on the man, who froze on the spot in fear.
"You could have just let me go in peace. Now, you PAY!" she screamed the last word as she raised her arms.
Hinata knew something awful was going to happen, but she could do nothing. She couldn't even close her eyes.
Using Hinata's very precise skill and her unfathomable power, Akane released one fine chakra strike across the man's abdomen. Hinata covered her mouth in shock.
The man's eyes were wide in fear and immense pain. He let out a strangled cry before his eyes glazed and he fell to the floor, blood pouring out of the open wound on his stomach.
Tears fell down Hinata's face in rivers. She couldn't believe what she had just seen.
Voices shouted down the hallway. They had just seen what Akane had done and were coming to attack.
She placed one hand to her head in exasperation.
"You could have been spared, but it is too late now." She raised her ruby red eyes, burning with even more intensity.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The team had arrived at their destination. Kiba was sure this was it. Hinata's scent was here and there were no other houses for miles.
Naruto was struggling to stay calm. Every nerve inside him was telling him to go rushing in, to save the day. He knew the only reason he wasn't doing this was because Kurenai had a death grip on his shoulder, and he knew she wasn't going to be letting go soon.
"Shino, send your best bugs in to scout the place out."
Shino nodded, and raised his arms. A few larger bugs flew at speed out of his sleeves towards the residence. He looked toward Kurenai.
"I sent in my seeing eye bugs. I will see whatever they find."
"Good." Kurenai answered simply.
Turning to look at Kiba she opened her mouth to speak, but the words caught in her throat.
Kiba was bent double and Akamaru was in visible distress.
Kurenai found her voice, "What is it? What's wrong?"
Kiba was struggling to breath but managed to squeeze out a few words.
"Blood…Smell it…Everywhere! Just…need…used to it." He started to breath more calmly, the pained look disappearing from his eyes.
"I'm fine now, but my tracking ability is no use now. There's just so much blood in the air. It smells like a massacre."
Kurenai's brow furrowed slightly, she too could sense that a mass slaughter had just taken place. But she knew Hinata was still alive. She could just tell.
Shino drew a sudden breath, his mouth dropping slightly, before he clutched the side of his head, hissing in pain.
Naruto moved out of Kurenai's grip and put a hand on Shino's shoulder. "Shino…" he quietly asked.
"My bugs. They saw something horrible. Then they were all eliminated. All of them. Kiba was right, there is blood everywhere. We must move quickly." He looked earnestly into Kurenai's eyes.
Kurenai knew the situation was dire so she had formulated a plan.
"Naruto and eye will sneak up to the gates and take out any guards we see. I need you two to stay in the clearing here, I'm going to try and draw out whatever is in there. We need it to be in an open space to attack effectively. Don't take unnecessary risks. Come on Naruto."
She moved swiftly along the tree line and made her way towards the gate, Naruto close behind her.
Halfway there, a body was flung out of the gate with tremendous force. What was let of a body anyway, it was just a torso, but what was most disturbing was that the skin had been torn clean off.
Kurenai flung her arm out to warn Naruto to stay back. They took out their kunai and froze on the spot, listening.
The birds had stopped singing and nothing was stirring in the bushes. It was deathly quiet.
Then footsteps came, light but deliberate steps, slowly advancing towards them. Naruto tensed, ready to fight.
But he faltered when the owner of the footsteps came out of the gate and stopped.
It was Hinata. She was covered in blood. Her hands, her kimono, even her face was patterned with blood spatters.
She turned her eyes to Naruto and Kurenai, her face blank.
Kurenai didn't act in time. She should have known this would happen.
Naruto streaked past her and ran towards Hinata, almost reaching her, when she broke into a manic smile, eyes burning a ruby red.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Wah! Almost at the end. Bet you can tell the big fight scene is coming up. Gonna try and get it up in the next few days. Work is getting busier! Enjoy!