So I have most of this little arc written. And can I just say? I have AMAZING timing. I am like SO DAMN COOL. These themes? Easy, peasy, bullet to the kneesy. No I've never played Resident Evil, what are you talking about? :cough: I haven't! I just watched Berkie's boytoy go at it like he wasn't getting any and had to make up for it somehow. Because he wasn't and so I guess he did. Whedon moment! The Bible. Somewhat fuzzier on the subject of kneecaps.
26 tears
She can feel the skin of her palm blister with how much chakra she is forcing out of it, but even that is barely enough. She feels the blade shoving against her, trying to dig past the cushion of chakra and remove her fingers. She pushes it away as hard as she can, sending it into a tree and pressing the small opening into a victory. She hates that she can kill with 'surgical precision' because isn't that supposed to preserve life, not cut it off ruthlessly quick?
She doesn't realize Hanabi isn't here until after she loses her last senbon to someone's eye. A frantic scan reveals she has somehow been forced away from her team again, and more shinobi are converging on her. The sight of her sister on one knee, hand bright with chakra, driving her final blade into the tree behind her tears a cry of horror from her throat, and she doesn't even realize her legs are moving, eyes fixed on the people taking her sister from her, palms and fingers are slick with blood, but even so she can pull out yet another kunai and wield it with a steady hand and all that matters is getting to Hanabi who is farther and farther away, as she has been all her life, and she can't do anything about it.
She gets to the tree and finds Hanabi's last stand is a bloody hitai ate, pinned to the wood with a finely crafted kunai that only a wealthy shinobi family could afford to throw away at every turn. Her vision swims in tears and crimson waves, so much so she can't even tell what village it's from, or maybe that's because there are streaks of red all over it where the black line of steel isn't tearing metal.
-vovovovov-
She doesn't see the rest of Team 8 arrive, the most important member is gone, stolen, and it doesn't matter that she's wide open and vulnerable, because suddenly she knows what the desire to kill feels like, and it's not bloodlust or inhuman rage, it's a gaping hole in her existence that burns away at everything she's ever told herself she could be. She can't protect, she can't be strong, she shouldn't be a kunoichi, she shouldn't be a sister, she shouldn't be allowed to exist.
The only thing that will make it better is her Hanabi, her firecracker, her bratty miracle of a sister, and while she's at it, all of their lives ended by her hand and this is hatred and it hurts but losing Hanabi hurts more and being a ninja means enduring, so she'll do just that. She's not the first.
She meets Sasuke's eyes and somehow she sees a flicker of understanding in his flat black gaze and she notices for the first time that Kakashi has summoned his pack of dogs, and that's Hanabi's hair in his hands, dull with blood, a terrible tangle torn from her head.
Hinata faints.
Sasuke thinks he's been spending entirely too much time catching her.
-vovovovov-
Hanabi is in pain. A whole hell of a lot of it, so much so she's not even sure which parts hurt more. Her body is a mess of shallow cuts and bruises, wounds from odashi, hanbo and other people's feet. The hurting doesn't affect her hearing, except for the stuttering hum inside her head that she thinks might be from the blood in her ear.
Still, she can hear them talking, all their strongmen were taken down, apparently it was Hinata that kicked half of their collective asses, and she's unreasonably proud her half dead sister princess did so well, although the being kidnapped and tied up and unable to get rid of the buzzing noise is kind of a damper.
She shifts a little, to maybe shake the blood out of her auditory canal or something, and the wall discovers the part of her scalp that's missing and she lets out an undignified yelp. If she weren't closer to half dead than Hinata, she would be taking care of these guys, because they were the 'fetch' part of the mission, not the 'reduce all ninja you can into pulpy blood but keep the Hyuuga alive until we figure out the best way to be stealing other clan secrets'. Which totally means they pretty much suck at being ninja.
She wonders if they're stupid enough to believe she needs to be healed because she might die of blood loss while she's in this box, carriage, thing. She needs to be optimistic, and sarcastic, because she may just die of boredom or shame or anxiety or sheer utter frustration if she doesn't think uncharitable thoughts.