To Be Strong.

A Naruto fanfiction

Chapter 2 - Healing.

Hinata gasped in shock as her gaze fell upon the horrible sight on the other side of the bush. It was a mole, a large one. A very large mole in fact - easily the size of a seven year old child.

It's rather shiny fur was a dark and dirty brown colour that was covered in patches of black fur which made a strangely beautiful pattern upon the mole's body. A pattern which, horrifyingly, was marred by a terrible rip along the side of the mole's body. The rip was oozing blood at a rapid rate, causing the fur to matt due to the sticky red liquid that covered it. Nearby a rather nasty looking piece of scrap metal lay on the floor, a blood covered jagged edge pointing upwards. Obviously this had been what had injured the mole and left such a horrible wound behind.

"Oh..." Hinata breathed, "You poor, poor thing..." the mole squealed in pain, an odd sound to hear from a mole but then Hinata had seen quite a few odd animals before so it didn't particularly worry her. The fact that it was hurt, alive and obviously in pain did. Reaching out she gently touched the creatures wound, and was rewarded with a violent squeal as her mere touch cause the wound to hurt the creature more.

"I... I'm sorry... I didn't mean to hurt you..." Hinata whispered, "B-but I have to make sure th-that there's n-nothing in the wound..." She reached out again, but the giant mole squealed and attempted to shy away from her hand - an action which only made the injury worse. Sighing to herself, Hinata thought about what she could do, nothing she could think of would work without having to actually touch the mole except... except...

Hinata hated her eyes but, like all Hyuuga family members, knew the ins and outs of them like the back of her hand. She knew that, with concentration, she could alter the vision of her eyes to pass though things - such as flesh. Hinata hated her eyes, but even she had to admit that they could come in useful sometimes. Her hands flipped through the simple gestures that unlocked the power of her eyes...

"Byakugan!" Her eyes flashed as she pushed her chakra through them, altering them slightly to - instead of seeing only the 'inner coils system' of chakra pathways within things - see metals and other dense objects but not living flesh. On her forehead her chakra pathways stood out as visible ridges that branched off away from her eyes. Almost instantly the colours of the world faded away, replaced with blacks and greys and a dull glow. It was impossible for her to describe the colour, it wasn't blue, nor red, nor green or yellow. It was all colours and none at the same time. It was chakra, and that was perhaps the only way to explain it.

Wincing slightly at the needles of pain that lanced into her forehead, Hinata looked down at the mole - seeing not a mole but a collection of mole bones surrounded by the chakra glow. Fortunately, that was all she saw. She had been half afraid that within that glow and collection of bones that she would see the dull - almost black - shade that would have been a chunk of metal trapped within the mole's wound.

Now, that was odd. The mole had completely stopped making any noise - apart from it's slightly laboured breathing at least. Hinata, worried, dropped out of the Byakugan state, her eyes loosing their shine and reverting to a pale matte look, along with this the ridges on her forehead and around her eyes faded slightly. It would take a little longer for them to fade completely, but they would fade in a short while. Right now, however, the mole was more important.

Looking at it now, she could see that the creature was staring at her. If she didn't know better she could have sworn it was in awe. No, that was just plain silly, it was just an animal - it couldn't feel awe, much less for someone like her.

Either way, now that she knew there was nothing stuck in the wound she had at least some idea of what to do. Unfortunately, there wasn't a nearby water supply - so she couldn't wash it out as she would normally do, but she could do the next best thing.

"Uhmmm... Thi-this is going to sting..." She warned, then felt rather foolish as trying to warn a wild animal. It wasn't' as if it could understand her, now was it? Reaching into a pocket she produced a fairly large container full of ointment, this one a light green colour. This particular ointment was the one she made the most of, it was a form of antiseptic that Kiba found to be absolutely wonderful in keeping wounds from getting infected.

Then again... This was probably because it was one of the few such things like that which he wasn't allergic to. Yes, Inuzuka Kiba had allergies, fairly serious ones, to most antiseptic medicines.

This time, as Hinata reached out, the mole didn't even blink. It did whimper slightly, as the thick oily medicine touched it's wound - burning away possible infection and leaving the terrible injury rather clean. Well, as clean as it could get under such conditions at least. That done, the shy girl reached once more into her jacket pockets and produced a roll of thing bandages, ones that she had treated by soaking in the same mixture that was eventually used to make her green ointment. After all, she may have respected the skills of the people who made most medical supplies for the rookie teams, but it didn't mean she had to trust them...

"Uhmmm..." Well, this would be a problem. The mole looked rather heavy, and she'd have to wrap the bandage around it's body several times to be effective. To be completely honest, she wasn't too sure that she was capable of holding it up and wrapping bandages at the same time.

The mole, however, solved this problem for her by pulling itself half onto a rock, leaving a gap between it's belly and the ground. Obviously it was smarter than it looked, a fact which disturbed Hinata somewhat. Still, it was injured and she couldn't just leave it... So, disturbing or not she had to bandage it up.

Her hands moved quickly and carefully, threading the bandage under the mole, then reaching over to pick it up and loop it over the creatures back. She repeated the motion many, many times until the bandage was almost finished, then tied it off with a careful little knot. Smiling, she looked at her handiwork, it was a good dressing, she thought, one that any healer would be moderately pleased with.

Standing up she took her eyes off the mole for the briefest moment, and was promptly knocked flat as the animal made it's escape - digging into the soft earth under her feet and causing her to trip. She whimpered as her head banged against the ground, it wasn't serious but it did hurt quite a lot. Closing her eyes for a moment she bit her lip.

"I... I did all that a-and I still... still get no thanks..." Not that she had expected thanks from an animal, but it would have at least been nice not to trip her over after all that. Raising her head her gaze moved along the ground and past a scroll.

Wait.

Past a scroll?

Hinata blinked a few times to make sure she wasn't imagining things. Nope, the scroll was still there, it must be real. Pulling herself to her knees, the shy girl with a talent for healing reached out and picked up the scroll in both hands. It was, as scrolls went, quite a plain one - but it was large, twice, maybe three times as large as a normal scroll at least. As she picked it up a single scrap of parchment fluttered down from where it had been gently tacked to the scroll.

Picking up the parchment, Hinata saw that there was one single word on it. A single word that made her feel slightly warm inside.

'Thankyou'

Clutching both the scroll and the note to her chest, Hinata pulled herself to her feet and looked around. Obviously the scroll had been left for her, by whom she didn't know. For a moment she considered the mole, then she dismissed the notion as absurd. Moles were just animals, they couldn't carry scrolls - besides, where would a mole hide a scroll this size anyway?

Eventually, of course, there was only one real course of action. She had to go find someone who could help her understand the scroll. Smiling happily at her plan of action, Hinata set off to find one of the few people she trusted enough to ask such questions.

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"K-Kurenai-sensei?" Hinata's voice echoed slightly in the small room which had been set apart for her team to gather and plan things - such as missions.

"Hinata? Is that you?" Hinata was in luck, her jounin instructor, one Kurenai Yuuhi, was already there. This meant that she didn't have to go looking for her, it was a known fact to team eight that Yuuhi had a tendency to do most of her work in some of the most unexpected places. Such as up in trees, behind one of the nearby waterfalls, or - in one case - underground using an earth-type jutsu designed for hiding. The was all probably because she disliked being interrupted whilst she worked.

"Y-yes, Kurenai-sensei I... I have a question for you..." Hinata stepped up to where her instructor was working on a small desk. With a slight grunt of effort she lifted the scroll up and dropped it down onto the desk, causing the whole thing to shake under the weight. "I... I wanted to ask... if you could help me with this scroll..."

Yuuhi raised an eyebrow and glanced at the scroll. "That," she began, "Is an awfully large scroll. Well, I guess I'd better see what it is if I'm to help you."

Carefully, the jounin removed the ties that held the scroll closed and unrolled it slightly. As she saw what was written upon it her eyes grew wide, "Wh-where did you get this!?" She demanded, glaring at Hinata with a look that would easily see though any lies Hinata may have tried. "Do you even know what this is!?"

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Authors notes -

Nyohohoho... What could it be that's upon the scroll? And what the hell was all that with the mole? All will be revealed when I receive... one... million dollars!

... or when I write the next chapter, whichever comes first ^__^

Now umm x.x Hinata is a hard character to write, since she has such an odd personality. She's terrified and shy of many things, yet she has this strong sense of knowing what she should stand up for. ^__^ I think she's a fun character.

- Lackey H, who thinks Hinata deserves all the hugs she can get!