Days passed, filled with incredibly demanding training that my body and mind were barely able to handle. Just as my body started to heal from strength training, new bruises and cuts were placed atop them. One day our mental training wouldn't seem so bad and then the next day we'd be forced into traumatic simulations.
Before I knew it, two weeks had come and gone.
In such a short amount of time, even if I didn't want to admit it, my muscles and fighting ability improved an incredible amount. Sakura, who'd just finished her first year of college to become a doctor, was sure they were putting something in our food to stimulate growth. We could all see the benefits from the physical training, but we couldn't fathom what could possibly be gained from the borderline torture that we were being introduced to during our mental training.
I was slowly starting to warm up to some of the other participants, while I became even more unnerved by others.
For example, it no longer made me anxious to sit in the dining room with the other members of Group B, but I also became more uncomfortable around Hidan. He didn't really do anything to harm me, in particular, he just gave me the creeps.
I also found out from Ino, who overheard some girls talking in Group A while showering, that it had been a guy named Kisame and some girl in the bathroom stall hooking up that night. Apparently she heard them gossipping about how good he was and how he'd done it with two different girls already.
He was strikingly tall and muscular with dark hair that had a blue-ish tint to it. I've never spoken to him, but I did meet his eye one time during breakfast and a jolt of fear shot through my spine. An aura of something dangerous surrounded him. Sakura agreed with me that we should do our best to avoid him.
What surprised me the most was that when we weren't having our training sessions, I honestly felt kind of happy to be around everyone. The feeling of friendship is one that I've barely tasted all my life and now that I was starting to get closer to others I was eager to feel more.
Of course I stopped myself from trying to reach out and do so. The fact is that I'm lying to each and every one of them. As far as they're aware, I'm just another applicant in The Program.
How would they react if they found out that I knew the true nature of this training camp, that they didn't, that I knew Madara and Masumi well before coming down to this underground bunker and I didn't tell a soul?
What if they found out I know the cash reward is a total lie?
"Truth or dare, Karin!"
I looked over as Ino addressed the redheaded girl. It was about half an hour until lights out and a bunch of us were either playing truth or dare or watching it be played. In a loose circle sat me, Sakura, Ino, Karin, Matsuri, Sai, Sasuke, Naruto, Kiba, and Tenten.
Multiple others were sitting loosely around us just watching in silence. Normally I'd consider that odd, but we weren't permitted books or anything else to pass the time down here so there wasn't much else to focus on.
"Dare, of course!"
Ino didn't hesitate to reply, "I dare you to go kiss the person you like the most that's here."
A few of the girls let out sounds of excitement as the redhead rose to her feet and surveyed the large bunking room. She seemed to decide who she liked and strode silently over to tap Suigetsu on his shoulder. He was sitting with another small group and turned to look up at her with a quirked eyebrow. She didn't give him a moment to react before leaning down and firmly kissing him. His eyebrows rose and he lifted a hand as though he wanted to pull her down closer to him, but she pulled away before he could.
Multiple people cheered and laughed as she fled back to her spot with a bright red face. His eyes followed her for a bit before one of the guys he was sitting next to threw an arm over his shoulder and distracted him.
I didn't realize I'd been smiling, too, until I heard my name being said and it dropped.
"Hinata, truth or dare?"
I could feel my ears and face warming as I tried to remain calm, "Truth."
"Describe your first kiss and who it was with!"
The group got silent as they waited for my response. My mouth dropped open and then reclosed a few times before I averted my gaze down to my fidgeting hands, "I, um, I've never kissed anyone."
Multiple sounds of shock and amusement filled the air and I felt my whole body get warm with the amount of attention being paid to me. Ino was the one who spoke above the rest and hushed the room, "Are you serious? I knew you were shy, but that's crazy!"
I quickly moved on, wanting to avert the attention away. My eyes scanned the room before landing on Tenten, who had yet to have a turn, "T-Tenten! Truth or dare?"
Her bright brown eyes widened and she smiled wide, "Truth!"
As someone with very limited experience with modern friendships, I simply asked something I'd want to know about anyone here, "What do you do for a living?"
She seemed stunned that I hadn't asked a gossip-y question like Karin had, but answered nonetheless, "I work at my family's shooting range as an instructor."
Everyone had a similar reaction as I did, which was to look at her in shock. The brunette was bubbly, klutzy, and extremely nice so it was hard to picture her shooting guns, much less teaching others how to. She rubbed the back of her neck with a sheepish grin, "Let's move on. How about…Naruto!"
He grinned widely, his white teeth standing out against his tan skin, "Dare!" I knew he'd choose that.
She basically exploded with excitement, "I dare you to give Hinata her first kiss!"
The room erupted with reactions, mine included as I immediately tried to argue, but my words were lost in the chaos. Not only was I way too nervous to kiss anyone yet, much less Naruto, but it wasn't fair to ask him to do such a thing.
His blue eyes danced over to mine and I clamped my mouth shut. He looked amused. Things between the two of us teetered between being close because of how vulnerable we have to be with one another and wildly tense for the same exact reason.
We knew things about each other that we never would've told anyone else at all. For example, he found out that I'd been considering suicide the day after my father's death. I'd only thought about it seriously for a few hours amidst the intense grief I'd been experiencing, but he knew all about it whether either of us liked it or not.
I also had information he didn't want to share. An example was the fact that he grew up in the foster system and had been abused in multiple ways by multiple different people from a young age. After that training session, we couldn't look each other in the eye for a whole day.
Naruto stood from his bed and leaned down to give me a short kiss on the cheek, flipping off the rest of the group with both hands when they let out sounds of protest. I stared down at the floor with a bright blush, grateful that he'd opted not to kiss me on the lips. He undoubtedly knew how hard it'd be for me to keep it together if he didn't.
Soon after, the lights clicked off and everyone gravitated to their own beds. I did my best to calm my anxiety, but found it hard to fall asleep.
For hours I lay there with my eyes staring up at the ceiling before I restlessly climbed out of bed and went to the washroom to splash some water on my face. I hoped the sleeplessness would wash away down the drain.
"You come in here a lot at night, don't you?"
I looked up to see Kisame standing casually behind me, his back against the wall. The blood left my face and I fumbled to reach for some paper towel to dab it dry, not letting my eyes leave his. "I haven't been sleeping well, I guess." I tried to come off nonchalant, hoping he couldn't tell how on edge he made me feel.
The corner of his lips turned up and he shrugged, "I know a way to help you relax, if you're interested."
I tossed my paper towel in the bin before putting a hand up dismissively and inching toward the door, "N-No, that's alright. I'm going now. Good night." I didn't wait for his response before dashing out through the doorway.
A nasty taste formed in my mouth as I flitted back to the bunks with my mental alarms going off at full capacity. Luckily, he didn't try anything and I dove into my bed safely.
On the two week anniversary of our first physical training session, Orochimaru addressed us all with a wide grin, "We'll be having one on one matches today so I can measure your progress!"
My stomach sank. The injuries I'd gotten from fighting with Suigetsu were the worst ones I'd received. I've definitely improved since then, but so has everyone else so the fact didn't bring me much comfort.
"Let's see Sai and Sasuke, first."
Everyone started whispering excitedly because this was the first time we'd be seeing the brothers as adversaries. They've stuck together since the beginning of The Program so much so that it was rare to see one of them without the other. I guess Sakura and Karin were always together, too, so it made sense. If I had a sibling here, I'd probably not let them out of my sight either.
The two faced each other on the mats a yard or so in front of the group, eyes locked. Even if they're twins, the differences between them are jarring. Sai was more lean, polished, and composed while Sasuke was more bulky and uncaring.
Orochimaru blew his whistle and the two immediately connected hands, wrestling for dominance. After grappling for a few moments, Sasuke gained the upper hand and landed a hit to his brother's stomach before the two jumped apart. I'd been too busy trying to keep it together to see Sai's fight last time, but I could tell his brother was showing improvement. They moved around as they tried to calculate the other's moves, only for Sai to look over at the doctor all of a sudden, "It's been a minute. Are we finished?"
The instructor shook his head, his lips pulling into an even wider grin, "These matches have no time limit and won't end until there's a clear victor. Continue."
The group got silent. I looked between the brothers who were looking at each other uncomfortably and Orochimaru.
The two boys went back to wrestling and it went on for nearly ten minutes without either of them pulling ahead. Both were breathless and still sporting hesitant attitudes. The doctor spoke loudly in an annoyed voice, "If you two don't take off the child gloves you'll both be punished. Now fight!"
I heard the boys say something to each other, but it was too quiet for any of us to hear. We all gasped when they suddenly collided with much more vigor and seriously started to fight. I wanted to vomit. Obviously they didn't want to hurt one another, but they had no choice.
By the end of it, Sasuke pulled ahead when he was able to pin his twin to the mat, but both had freshly forming bruises and Sai even had a bloody lip. Orochimaru spoke after the two rejoined the group, "Splendid! Let's move on. How about we see Karin and Hinata!"
We wordlessly headed out and when I met her eye I frowned apologetically, to which she responded with a similar expression. At the blow of the whistle, she lunged at me, but I dodged her quickly and landed a small hit to her shoulder before taking several steps back to put some distance between us. Once she reapproached, we exchanged a few hits before she seemed to give up on the formalities and tackled me to the ground.
My breath left me in a huff when my back hit the ground and I squeezed my eyes shut as I tried to roll us over. We struggled on the mats for what felt like forever before I landed a hit to her diaphragm that knocked the wind out of her and I took the opportunity to pin her down. The whistle blew and I quickly released her, offering her a hand.
She accepted it and gave me a smile as we both walked over to the rest of the group while we tried to catch our breath. I felt relieved that neither of us seemed too injured this time around.
"Great work, you two. I can see you've improved by leaps and bounds!"
The matches continued until finally, only two people remained: Sakura and Gaara. The horrified look on the pink-haired girl's face said it all. Orochimaru was surely getting back at her for her interruptions the first time around by having her face the scariest male in our group.
The room was deadly silent as the whistle sounded and she narrowly dodged a punch aimed right for her face. Her skin was pale and even I could tell her hands were shaking. A few of us gasped when she landed a strong-sounding kick to his stomach, only for him to grab onto her leg and swipe her other one out from under her.
If the mats weren't underneath them, her head would've busted right open when it hit the ground. Luckily, that didn't happen, but the impact still looked like it hurt. Karin was standing at my side and I could tell she was struggling to keep herself from intervening. Tears rose to my eyes when I saw Gaara straddle Sakura's waist and started landing hit after hit across her pretty face.
Her elder sister couldn't take it anymore and shoved past everyone else with an angry face, "Stop!"
She shoved the young man off of her sister, only for Orochimaru to kick her away with studied precision. My mouth fell open in shock at his lack of restraint. She was knocked so hard that when she fell, she was no longer on the mats. "When I said I won't tolerate interruptions, I meant it." The doctor's voice was so different than usual and it made me want to run far away, but that's not what had me covering my mouth in shock.
That would be the small puddle of blood starting to form around Karin's head. She'd landed with her back to us all and her head had hit the linoleum with a sickening crack. No one moved as he walked over to her unmoving body.
Sakura rushed over to her with tears in her eyes. Her poor face was showing signs of swelling and bruising as a result of fighting Gaara, but there's no way she could feel it with what had just happened. Ino shoved past me to approach as well, but Orochimaru raised a hand to silence the panicked whispering filling the air, "I'm taking her upstairs. I want you to continue training while I'm away."
Sakura ignored him and shook her sister, "Karin…?"
Her voice was weak and wavering as she started to cry. Her older sister didn't respond in any way. Ino continued over and pulled Sakura away from the doctor, obviously worried he'd do something to her if she didn't back off.
The older man pulled out a cellphone and seemed to send someone a message before picking up the girl and heading out of the room. No one moved or said a word for a few moments, but Kiba eventually did, his voice low with disbelief, "Is she…" There was no response as the truth sank in.
She was most likely dead.