"Why is this forest trying to kill me?" Hinata asked herself, running from another pack of dog-lizards. Yes. The world itself is killing her slowly and painfully but it seems this forest specifically, is targeting her.
Her attire has changed from when she arrived at this place three days ago, more of her short-sleeved mesh is in the open, her shirt torn from either animal's or being scrapped herself. Both sleeves had been ripped to the shoulder and made into makeshift bandages along her arms or other parts of her body. Her right pants leg suffered the same fate, becoming one half of an indecent article of clothing having to scrap it for a particularly large gash along her thigh.
Her left eye, covered in bandages as it was, made her even more blind.
She ducked as some sort of furry creature leaped at her from a tree, it barely missed her. She needs to move. Those furry things always came in groups and the dogs were beginning to surround her.
Seriously though, this can't be normal. Animals don't just work together. Not like this. They're too coordinated.
More and more of those furry creatures were popping out of the trees and somehow the dogs were getting faster, gaining on her. Hinata supposed she could be lagging, it was very likely she was actually. Her body isn't in any state to move like this, the wounds she'd gotten when she first got here haven't healed and impeded her movement, causing her to get injured more. Then it just kept snowballing from there.
At least the particle situation had gotten a bit better, she could still hardly breathe though.
One of the faster dogs actually caught up enough to nip at her heels. Not losing momentum in one fluid motion she spun under its attempt to dive at her neck, nicking its throat with her kunai and kicking it at another furry creature mid-leap.
That hurt.
All around her she could hear animals howling for her blood, more joining the chase, trying to pincer her, flank her, or hinder her in any way they could. The worst part about it was that, through it all, her vision was so blurred that she could only see shapeless blobs at this point. Just like the rest of her body, her eyes haven't gotten the break they desperately need. Her Byakugan hasn't been reactivated since she killed the second monster bear.
A root shot from the ground, catching Hinata's ankle and tripping her. Even the trees were out to get her. Not slowing down, and ignoring the pain in her everywhere as best as she could, she rolled with the fall, popping back up to a sprint smoothly, now with even an even worse limp.
Shoot!
Pumping as much chakra into her legs as she could spare, Hinata leapt upwardsto start darting from tree to tree with her. The branches were too small to use as platforms -and had murderous animals in them- so she just used the trunks instead.
Her ankle's going to be ruined after this, but she just chalked it down as future Hinata's problem.
Suddenly, right as she was gaining a lead on them, there weren't any more trees, nor were there any animals, but most importantly there wasn't any land.
"Eh?" It took a second for her to recognize that, yes, she just jumped off a cliff.
"AhAHHaHHHH!" Hinata's stomach dropped, or rose? As her momentum died and she started to truly fall, her screaming being overtaken by the increasing volume of wind.
Her shouting quickly died out, though, giving way to dread and realization. She was sure what she was seeing would be beautiful if she was extremely near-sighted right now but all she could see was a sea of green and an orange blob setting.
Hinata sighed… she was in open air with no way of slowing herself down. At least her death will be a quick splat on the ground and not through being eaten by strange animals. The thought was calming in a way.
Something whizzed by her ear, falling.
What?
"Oof!" Hinata's body folded when something impacted her already very bruised back, her spread eagle fall turning into a violent, disorienting, bloody tumble as the lizard-dog mauled her.
'Seriously?!' These things can't just let her die in peace?
Wrestling with it for a few seconds, she kicked off of it towards the very sheer wall of rock.
Hinata raged, "Oh, come on-!" only to be interrupted by something avian slicing into her after she'd used the lizard-dog as a platform making her spiral again.
Up, down, left, right either more than one bird was playing a cruel game with her or this bird was incredibly fast. Her fall was even stalled by its slicing, if only slightly. In just a few seconds she had seven new gashes to add to her rising collection of injuries. On the eighth go around, it messed up. Much to both of their detriment.
Hinata suddenly felt a fierce burning in her stomach as the bird pierced her gut with a dive, stopping her spiral with a wet squelch. She could just make out the shape of a second bird above her.
An unexpected swell of rage flooded Hinata's brain. Why couldn't these animals let her die in peace? Why were they literally jumping off a mountain just to kill her? And why were these birds making it last longer!?"
With naught but a silent hiss in pain, Hinata, wide-eyed with a sneer you'd be hard-pressed to find her with before today, gripped the giant head of the bird and began pushing herself free of its beak still in her stomach. The wind pressure and the fact that its beak was buried in her gut made the task a bit difficult but she managed. She felt strangely empty without it, like there was a hole that needed to be filled.
Still gripping the head, she spun her body around onto its strangely long neck and pulled, making the avian jerk closer to the rock wall. Once she deemed she was close enough, she harshly twisted its head producing a cruel snap. She heard another "Squawk" in the distance and let go of the bird, watching the blur of its body fall, lifeless, below her while trying to stick to the wall with chakra.
It took a few attempts. Her trying to grip it with her feet left her tumbling down the wall a few times but eventually, with a trail of dust, she skid to a stop with her hands and feet.
She ignored the ache and pain of her entire body and stood, quickly taking out her last kunai to pierce the other bird's skull with a quick, rising stab. It tried to run her through by surprise. The beak was longer than the other one's for some reason so the sharp beak still impaled her shoulder a bit.
After watching it fall for a few seconds Hinata was reasonably sure that this surge of animals was over. Finally, Honestly, this was the worst one yet.
She put a hand to her stomach feeling a wet hole that was dripping blood straight to the ground.
Blowing the hair that got into her mouth, she reapplied her layer of chakra as best as she could while sticking to the wall, and thought about how she was going to go about this.
She's got a bleeding hole in her gut, not to mention her other injuries that are oozing blood, at least a few heavily fractured bones… well, it's a good thing that she's just numb at this point. All she feels is hurt.
Giving her right eye a break, she unwrapped the left's bandages to switch them over. Doing so she could see just a little better, everything wasn't quite as blended together.
Hinata groaned. How is she going to get down? She still has hundreds of meters to go somehow. How is that even possible? She'd been falling for a while.
Just more of this freaky place not making sense.
The real problem is that she's dangerously close to chakra exhaustion, combined with not sleeping for three days straight she might die from it even with running the bare minimum whenever she can. She has to keep her layer of chakra up though, and not just up, a set amount is being pushed through her tenketsu at all times, but she also needs to touch ground quickly because pretty soon she'll be falling again.
Three days ago she, admittedly, could have died and probably not minded too much. It'd be better for a lot of people, and even more would likely be happy she was gone. They wouldn't have a useless heiress anymore. Yes, she gave effort because of her little sister -and still is- but Hinata had no doubt that Hanabi would get over it. She's strong.
But that was before she had to deal with this stupid forest and its murder animals that don't behave properly. Now, on top of her other reasons, she just wants to live out of spite.
So that means she needs to figure out how not to fall to her death.
"Okay," Hinata breathed in as well as she could, but with the poison and her various injuries what came back was a coughing fit, "Bad idea."
How in the world was she-
She felt as the chakra she was using to stick to the rock flicker out for a few seconds. Hastily applying the chakra, she managed to jerk to a halt.
Hinata grimaced, "There's an idea I guess."
Thirteen minutes later.
'Why is this cliff so high!?' Hinata complained to herself. It was unnaturally smooth and vertical, almost as if it were a piece of cake someone took a piece out of.
She'd been constantly cutting her chakra off and reapplying it to let gravity do most of the work, it worked for the most part but all the jerking around has been brutal on her injuries. During this time she'd torn more of her shirt to press against her stomach. Now her midriff would be exposed if not for the mesh and even then it was sort of see-through.
An avian cry pierced through the sound of her heavy breathing. Looking up, she could just make out the shape of something flying toward her.
Sighing, she judged the distance to the ground, and shrugged, It's probably good enough, and jumped at the bird flying towards her.
It squawked as they both fell to the ground. It wasn't that far of a drop and the trees broke most of the fall. She'd probably need to finish the job of killing it if only to put it out of its misery.
Snapping branches with her living landing pad she finally hit the ground. Hopefully, she'd be able to rest… or not.
One hand was on something soft and pillowy.
This is not a bird.
It groaned, sounding very similar to a human.
Hinata squeezed again just to be sure and her hand sunk into the breast even more.
Nope. Definitely not a bird.
"Oww…"
Oh no. That sounded like people.
A high-pitched squeak came from her mouth.
The only thing stopping Hinata from throwing herself away from the female thing was that she physically couldn't, it was still very near to it with her stumbling and tripping to get off of the girl.
Hinata had faced all sorts of hardships since arriving here. Murder-animals. Murder-plants. Bugs. Falling off a cliff that was stupidly high. Using the restroom in very undignified places. She'd hardened her heart to survive this murder forest, forcing herself to ignore the aches killing anything caused, until she was free from this situation.
Even with all of that, with a body giving out, tasting blood, and still coming down from her last near-death experience. She felt her face flush, heating up to the point she wouldn't be surprised if it started steaming, making her dizzier than she already was.
She'd just been getting used to her own, changing body. She was not prepared to touch another one, least of all one so womanly.
She wasn't used to much physical contact in the first place.
Taking in what she could from the groaning shape of the thing, she noticed it seemed to have wings for arms and bird legs attached to a female human torso. That's all she could really make out with her being as blind as she currently was so no details.
It groaned again, sitting up. Spooking Hinata.
"I'msorrygottagobye!" She took off as quickly as she could. Which, now that things were calming down, was rather slow. But still, she didn't look back.
Yes, this forest is trying to murder her, but she is absolutely not ready for social interaction. Even less, given that the thing was still hostile.
Stumbling away from the bird woman, and again, still calming down from the chase brought her back to the fact that her body was even more damaged than before. A sudden wave of dizziness passed over her, the lurching in her stomach causing her to stumble into a tree.
One hand against the tree, the other holding her hastily wrapped stomach, she coughed. She hacked up blood and bile which made her throat burn more than it already was.
Oh.
Hastily reapplying her chakra coating, Hinata realized she was going to need to be more observant in manually applying the chakra across her skin for a while as shepushed off from the tree.
She didn't want to face the bird woman.
Losing track of how far she walked, probably at least a little delirious, time seemed to slow and speed up at the same time. Now that her body truly settled, it slowed to a near stop, weak. If the forest wants to kill her now would be the time.
Nearly falling into a river made her senses come back somewhat. Hearing the running water made her realize that her throat and mouth were dry, her lips cracked and likely bleeding from the lack of moisture. How long has it been since she's had a drink? It had to be yesterday.
She faced the same issue with water as she did with everything else, poison, she couldn't not drink though. She'd die much quicker without drinking than eating, however, even then her stomach is at its limit too. All this running and fighting hasn't exactly helped conserve energy.
Leaning down to drink from the river, she found, was not a good idea.
Her vision swam, and before she could catch herself falling, she'd already been swept up in its currents.
An unknown amount of time later
"You think she'll make it?"
"I don't know dear, she seems to be deteriorating fast. She's burning up and with the extent of her injuries…"
"We caught her in time, don't worry."
"Mommy, look she moved!"
Hinata heard three distinct voices as she regained consciousness. Male, female, and a child. She was laying on something soft, fluffy, and warm, nearly falling back to sleep with how comfortable it was.
Then her brain caught up. She was being looked over by strangers, in an unknown area, while injured and severely weakened.
With a burst of motion, triggering three yelps of surprise, she tried shooting up to get away from the situation. To give her time to think. She didn't want to deal with people right now.
Emphasis on tried.
All at once her entire body was wracked with pain. White hot agony pierced her gut, it felt like someone used a katon jutsu point blank against her.
She flopped back down, groaning, her body completely failing to listen to what she wants it to do.
"Woah now! You're safe. It's safe now," the male voice reassured. She tried looking at him but all she could make out was a blurry brown-haired image with no details.
She felt a dainty hand gently rest on her shoulder, "Yes, you can relax. You aren't in any danger now," the blond-haired blur continued.
Hinata blanking stared at them for a few seconds until she let herself calm down. She can't move anyways, so what's the point in struggling? If they wanted to kill her they'd have already done it by now. So she has at least some time if they're going to do something nefarious to her.
If they truly are helping her… Well, she hasn't had that much luck lately.
"W-where a-am I?" Her voice was weak and scratchy. Even in this situation, Hinata felt incredibly nervous talking to people. Just surviving was much easier to deal with.
The woman answered, "You're in the town of Cansa, our house to be more accurate."
"Yep, you were drifting down the river. Had to jump in and fish you out myself." The man added.
Hinata closed her eyes, the light was irritating them and giving her a headache. When she was about to ask another question like, no really, where am I? She had another coughing fit. Each cough that shook throughout her body brought another wave of pain through her body.
She sent another flush of chakra through her system. How long was she unconscious? Why is her layer still up? She should be dead already. No, the layer wasn't perfect but it never was in the first place. What's happening?"
"Young lady are you all right?" the woman asked, concerned, "No, what kind of question is that? Of course, you aren't."
When she came down from her fit, the man asked, "So miss, what's your name? Mines Zackery. And this is my wife, Miya."
She heard a quiet, "Dad." And Zackery chuckled, "And this is James, our son."
"Hi!" the young voice was loud, making her flinch.
"James, quieter please."
"Sorry, Mom."
She felt them all staring at her, somehow, and it sent another shiver of nervousness down her spine.
"I-I'm," she stuttered, trying to form words. The forest was much easier than this.
"Take your time dear," Miya, the mother, soothed.
"M-my n-name is H-Hinata." She managed to squeak out. Why are people so nerve-wracking?
"A beautiful name," the woman told her, "Now here, drink." A glass of water touched Hinata's dry lips. Noticing she was rather parched, she drank greedily. Not caring for the fact that she'd no doubt have a horrible stomachache after this, "Could you tell us what happened? My husband had to fish you out of the river himself.
"I-I fell in?" Hinata coughed, hating that it sounded more of like a question than anything else.
"Yep," Zachery chimed in, "Was fishing when I saw you floating along, almost got swept up in the current myself getting you out."
"Oh…" Hinata bowed her head as well as she could, "M-my apologies."
"No worries, I'm happy to help. Now, why were you in the river in the first place? More importantly, how did you get all those injuries?"
Hinata opened her eyes to glance at her arms for the first time since waking up, finding that most of her make-shift bandages had been replaced with white gauze that was stained red. She tried lifting the blankets that covered her chest and found that even that was out of her reach.
Miya must have noticed what she was trying to do, "Zack, James, go into the other room while Hinata and I talk for a bit okay?" She politely ordered them.
Zackary, or "Zack" was quick on the uptake while James was just a bit slower to move. Having to be dragged out of his staring back by his father.
"Understood dear, let us know when it's okay to come back in."
A beat of silence passed after they heard the door close, "I won't lie, I thought you were dead when we found you. Your intestines were nearly spilling out, not to mention your other wounds," Miya spoke as she gently lifted the blankets holding Hinata, "To be completely frank, I don't know how you're still alive."
Once the blanket was out of the way, Hinata could see that her chest was exposed, partially covered by bandages. Her overshirt and mesh armor had been taken off most likely for easier access. They were also filthy. Her stomach was thickly wrapped in bloody bandages while her shoulder had the same treatment.
"We went through an awful lot of bandages trying to get that hole in your stomach to stop bleeding. It was touch and go for a while, your heart stopped twice and my husband manually pumped it until it started back up both times. "
Hinata, the further she got to her explanation, felt guilt and awe fill her the more it went on. She'd known she was injured, extremely so, that wasn't too surprising. What surprised her was that these strangers went through so much effort to keep her alive. They could have just salvaged her eyes to sell to the highest bidder. It'd have been much easier.
"Why?" Hinata interrupted the woman, knowing it was incredibly rude but not caring either way.
"Why? Why what?" Mina asked curiously.
"W-why would you go through s-so much trouble?" this didn't happen. It just didn't. These people must be naive or thick in the head or something. Even if they didn't know she was a Hyuga, she was still a stranger. It was too much. Hinata could never be this lucky.
Hinata had closed her eyes again, so she failed to see the woman smile, "Because it's our job, my husband and I are the village physicians. We couldn't abandon a child in need."
"Oh…" Hinata was thankful that the woman didn't comment on the tear sliding down her cheek. It was a sign of her sheer relief, and although she was still rightfully weary, she stopped trying to figure out a way to escape for now.
They had plenty of chances to harm her, yet they didn't.
"Now," Miya chirped, "You aren't out of the woods yet," she felt Hinata's forehead with the back of her hand, "Your fever still hasn't broken, so I recommend lots of bed rest and to take it easy for a few weeks. Oh! And we'll need to switch out those bandages and replace the herbs…"
Hinata tilted her head, "H-herbs?"
Miya stood, "Yes, medicinal herbs. They're supposed to slow the bleeding and pull out bacteria from your wounds, though they didn't work too well with you…" she trailed off.
Hinata's eyes shot open and, with dread pooling within her, tried to force her body to move to no avail. Now it makes sense why the agony in her gut seemed to be getting worse. She quickly scanned herself and found her body was trying -and failing- to fight off the poison in the herbs with the help of chakra.
"G-get them off!" she shouted, startling Miya, causing her to jump.
"W-what?"
Hinata managed to force her arms to move and started clawing at her bandages, "The herbs! P-please!"
The woman grabbed Hinata's arms and easily forced them down to her sides, "Tell me what's wrong first! What happened?"
Hinata's head flopped back down "J-just get them away from me, please…" pleaded Hinata, out of breath and suddenly very tired. Now that the short bout of energy had worn off, she didn't have any left. She felt weak.
The woman stared at her for a long few seconds, before deciding. "Fine."
Hinata's eyes widened when she saw a glowing circle materialize over her bandages, she couldn't make out any detail, and unfortunately, she couldn't activate her byakugan to really study it but that didn't change the fact that it was a floating, one-dimensional circle.
She felt cool air on her midriff, the bandages being precisely cut away.
"W-what was that?" Hinata asked, frightened.
"What was what?" Miya parroted, frightened.
"T-The circle." What else would Hinata be talking about? What kind of technique was that? She'd never read about anything like it and she read a LOT.
Miya started the process of gently removing the herbs from the wound in her stomach, "Oh that? It was just some magic," She said casually, almost dismissively. Like it was normal to have floating circles appear out of nowhere, "You… you've seen magic used before right?"
Hinata, still trying to wrap her head around someone thinking "magic" actually exists, quickly nodded her head. "Y-yeah, o-of course! I just never saw it up close!" Between them helping her as much as they have and now this "Magic" Hinata was slowly starting to think these people were crazy.
"Alright then…" she finished up removing the herbs, the same circle appeared over Hinata's wound and the bandages quickly retired themselves, "I'm going to let the boys back in, we have some questions we need answered, okay?"
Hinata nodded as well as she could as the woman lifted the blanket back up to cover her chest. Already feeling better due to the herbs being removed
"Mrs. Miya?" Hinata got her attention before she opened the door.
"Yes?" she answered.
"Where are my clothes?"
Hinata could see the blurry silhouette of her arm pointing to the corner. "Your supplies are over there, I won't question why a child had weapons such as those but my husband might. Our son most certainly will, so be prepared."
As soon as she opened the door the boy, James, dashed in, "Hey girl, are you okay? You got cut up pretty bad you know? What are those sharp things in your pouches, I cut myself on one of them so they must be really sharp. I know my parents would never let me play with stuff like that." He rapidly spoke. His loud barrage of questions quickly overwhelmed her.
"I- Well- No, um-" Hinata's soft voice was overtaken by the boy's excited rambling.
"James. Enough." Zackery's deep grumble cut him off. "You can ask your questions after your mother and I. And only if she's up for it. Look at her, son." He nodded towards the bed, where Hinata, red-faced, was still stuttering. Trying to organize her response.
James must have seen what his father was referring to and looked down. Pink dusting his cheeks, "Sorry…"
Zackary dipped his chin, "Now, Hinata was it? We have some questions to ask you. And please answer truthfully, they could be of dire importance." The slightly carefree-sounding voice was gone, replaced by a deep, serious tone.
Hinata, unable to say anything yet, merely nodded. "M-m-may I ask my own questions also?"
"Sure."
"T-thank you."
"Now," the man clapped, "Let's begin." He pulled a chair next to the bed, only to remain standing while his wife collapsed in it instead, smiling gratefully at him. He smiled back, "How old are you?"
"I j-just turned eleven sir." Hinata figured that this was her best chance to get information about this place. If these people were naïve enough to do everything they have, then they'd likely tell the truth. Unless this was an elaborate plot to get information from her, but then why not just torture her? Regardless, she might as well tell the truth to harmless questions. Who knows if these people have ways of telling if she's lying or not?
"I see, that's awfully young…" he trailed off, "Could you tell us why a child so young would be in possession of something like this?" he held up her last Kunai, "It doesn't seem to be used for hunting, I may be wrong though."
Seeing the blade comforted Hinata just a bit. "I-it's a tool. N-not a weapon."
"Hmm, what would you use it for then?"
The answer flowed past her lips before she could catch it, the answer her instructors had drilled into her for years, that she'd told her little sister for years.
"K-killing mostly."
The room was silent for a few, long seconds while Hinata mentally berated her loose tongue, only snapping out of it when she heard Zackery loudly clasp of his hands. "Well, first let's hear the story then, why you were floating down the river, how did you get those injuries, the basics."
Hinata nodded, figuring that wouldn't be too bad to answer, it might help her clear her mind, and told them an abridged version of the events from waking in the forest to when it got hazy and she woke up here. Obviously leaving out the important bits, like how literally everything is poison to her, her eyes, and the sheer amount of animals she killed.
She'd gotten incredibly fed up with the forest and forced herself to stop caring about their deaths.
After she was done, the two parents looked shaken, white as sheets even. Both from what this child, barely older than their boy, had been through and what it told of her upbringing to even survive it.
But most of all, from what it told of the state of the forest.
"Are you sure the animals were actively targeting you? Think carefully now." The husband asked almost frantically.
Hinata only nodded, put off by his sudden nervousness.
He took a deep, shaky breath, "I see," he looked down at his wife, "I'll warn the chief immediately after this. He needs to know we might need to evacuate."
Miya nodded, a grave look in her eyes, not that Hinata could see. She'd closed her eyes partway through the explanation.
"I'll start packing just in case, dear."
"Thank you."
Hinata, lost and not picking up on the seriousness of the situation, decided to ask her question. Well, her question that superseded every question she just recently thought of.
"If I may…"
The two were broken out of their moment, "Go ahead." Zackary allowed.
"Where am I?"
James, quiet until now, suddenly spoke up, "We already told you. You're in Cansa Village. Well, it's a town now I guess, but still."
Hinata fell quiet, not knowing how to truly ask the question. People are hard.
"Hinata dear," Miya gently asked, having an inkling over what was troubling her, "Where are you from?"
Hinata was silent for several seconds, debating over if she should tell them, but ultimately decided to answer truthfully, but not too truthful, "I'm from the Land of Fire."
"Land of Fire? I've not heard of that." Zackery spoke up confusing Hinata.
Dread slowly filled Hinata's soul, clouding her mind slightly, she could only answer with a single word, "What?"
"I'm afraid you're in Fiore. We've not heard of a Land of Fire." Mira chimed in.
Hinata started to breathe rapidly, oddly enough feeling like she wasn't getting enough air, poison-laced or not. These people had to be dumb, right? Just ignorant of the outside world. But that wouldn't explain why they've never heard of the Land of Fire. It's one of the major nations, fighting and winning every shinobi war. This doesn't make sense. Where's Hanabi? Did she get sent somewhere else? Is she safe?
"Hinata. HINATA!" Miya snapped her out of her rising panic, "Honey, you're hyperventilating. You need to calm down. Deep breaths." She breathed with her. Even if the air burned at her lungs, it helped.
"Now, do you know how you came to be in the Forest of Dettith?"
Hinata shook her head, not knowing where that was in the slightest.
"I see. Well, I'm afraid there isn't much we can do about your situation. HOWEVER-" she interjected as soon as Hinata was about to start up her panic attack again, "We'll help you as much as we can until you figure this out. You'll be okay Hinata."
This calmed Hinata down enough that she wasn't at risk of another panic attack, "O-okay." She strongly doubted the woman's words but realized she couldn't freak out. She had to remain calm even if she didn't remotely think she'd be "okay".
Zachary softly interrupted the moment, "Hinata, are you up for a few more questions? Or would you like to take a break?"
"…A break would be nice," Hinata squeaked out.
"Alrighty then, James let's give her a break. Miya, start packing while I go speak with the chief."
"Yes, dear/Okay dad." They said in unison, he turned to her, "Hinata, do you need anything? A plate of food will be brought to you shortly."
Hinata was silent for a moment before answering in a voice much smaller and softer than usual, "M-may I have a blindfold…"
Zack, puzzled by the request, answered, "Eh sure. Can I ask why?"
Hinata closed her eyes tighter, "I-I overused my Byak- Magic." She corrected herself, thinking on the spot, "I focus it t-through my eyes, and now they need a break. I h-haven't been able to see in a while and the lights i-irritating them."
"I see." He said simply.
Miya gulped, "How long have you not been able to see?"
Hinata, worn out physically and emotionally, didn't think to save to not keep the fact she was partially blind to herself, "I don't know… around three days I think. How long was I unc-conscious?"
"After we found you? Around seven hours." Zackery answered, "How long did you say you were in that forest?"
"A-Around three days." Hinata didn't know why they seemed so concerned, she was embarrassed though. She'd already told them of her incompetence and they'd found her at her worst.
She could feel her face flushing again.
"Huh," The man said simply, "That's… huh." He paused again, "Well, we'll get you something to cover your eyes so just relax." he told her as he walked out.
Miya slowly stood and took her son's hand, "Let's go, James. Hinata, I'll be back with your food and blindfold."
"Hey, Mom when can I talk to her?" James asked.
"When she's feeling up for it. She needs her rest," Hinata heard their voices growing fainter until the door closed. Leaving her alone with her thoughts.
She tried flushing her system. She was right.
Her stomach hurt terribly.
"I'm a horrible Ninja."
AN: Damn, got this out fairly quick huh? Well, that's what happens when the author wants the MC to meet one of their favorite characters already. But alas, plot.
It's a free weekend so that helped a lot. Plus I'm having a blast. Sadly, I don't have a lot of these so don't expect such quick updates too often.
Tell me what y'all think, please.
As always thank you RedKing96
