Maybe Innocence is a skin you must shed, to build layers resistant to the caustic Truths of the world.
-Héctor Tobar
When Hinata came back to her senses, the sun was steadily rising above the horizon.
For a second, she blearily stared at the sky, trying to recall what happened. She watched as birds from nearby trees started chirping, waking to the first ray of sunlight.
She shifted slightly, then yelped when sharp pain shot up her chest. As if a button had been pressed, Hinata felt pain erupt on every part of her body, as her head, immediately, fell back.
She hissed, feeling as if a weight had fallen over her, making it difficult for her to move. She shifted her head slightly, bits and pieces coming back to her.
What happened? Where am I? And why does my whole body hurt?
She closed her eyes, trying to trace back her memory to the last event she remembered.
She recalled going to that escort mission with Naruto and Sakura. She remembered that attack by the bandits. She remembered being called back by the Hokage. And then...
And the I was attacked.
She felt tears burn behind her eyes at the thought.
How could she ever face the Hokage now? Knowing what she had wanted to do to her?
But, before she could divulge deeper into her thoughts, another memory hit her.
How am I still alive? After being thrown around like that?
Form what she could recall, the ANBU had attacked her, and though she had tried her best, she had still been getting beaten around. She had been exhausted, and her Chakra depleted, due to which she had been unable to fight back.
She had been about to pass out, when she...when she...
I saw someone. Or rather, heard someone.
But, try as she might, she could not remember their conversation.
So, I survived. But, how? And what about those ANBU? Where are they?
Had they simply left her? It seemed highly unlikely.
She clenched her fists, trying to fill in the blank gaps in her memory.
However, she yelped again when she felt prickly pain in her hands. The sudden flinch made another stab of pain shoot up her side, and she groaned.
Slowly breathing in, Hinata tried to raise her head to take in her body. Her whole body had been aching so badly, and that coupled with her senses still waking up, she had yet to register exactly which part of her needed tending the most.
Slowly rolling to her uninjured side, Hinata hissed, before placing her elbows on the ground to hold herself up. It was at this point her eyes fell on her hands.
A horrified gasp escaped, then a cry at the pain that followed, as she took in her hands.
They were covered in burns, red and sore, prickling at her skin.
She whimpered at the pain, trying to move her fingers through the pins and needles digging into her skin.
Biting her lip, she pressed one hand to her injured side. Then with the aid of her elbows, she raised herself slightly. As slowly as she could, she pulled her knees up, underneath her body. Then, she relaxed her trembling elbow, before transferring most of her weight to her knees.
She then, raised herself more, until she was sitting up. As she blinked through the pain, she took in her state.
Her clothes were dirty, and torn from various places. Her skin was dusty, sporting too many cuts and bruises for her to count. Not wanting to pay too much attention to her state for the fear that she might find something she would not like, Hinata looked up again, blinking as her eyes watered.
Lightly placing a hand on the ground, Hinata dragged her right knee forward. Her other hand tightened slightly at her side to control the pain, as she dragged her left knee forward too.
Half-dragging and half-crawling to the nearest tree, Hinata leaned against it, sighing when the pain decreased a little.
Then, she looked up.
Her eyes widened, as she gaped at the destruction that had been done to the forest.
There were several craters in the ground, and in tree trunks, while some even had holed through them. Many were bent at awkward angles, their branches bare of safe for a few leaves.
What happened here?!
She followed the trail of destruction, one end of it going further into the forest, the other end extending a little to stop...
...right where she had been laying when she woke up.
She was dumbstruck, still processing the conclusion she had come up with.
D-Did I-Did I do all this?
The thought seemed ridiculous in itself.
Her? Capable of so much destruction?
Impossible.
Once again gasping and clenching her side, while at the same time trying to ignore the pain in her hand, Hinata began dragging herself to where the other end of the the trail of destruction led to.
Pausing several times in between, she, with great difficulty, finally made close enough to get a glimpse of the clearing in front of her.
At once, the stench of decaying blood hit her.
She keeled over, pressing the back of her palm to her nose. Reflexively, she gagged, feeling bile rise up her throat.
Taking slow breaths to calm herself, Hinata slowly inched closer to the clearing. She focused on placing one knee in front of the other to distract herself from the growing stench of rotting flesh and blood.
She felt another sickening twist to her stomach as she whimpered again, tears burning behind her throat.
She wanted to go back home. Back to Kurenai. She wanted to lay her head in her lap and go to sleep in her arms, safe from the wandering eyes and searching hands of the Shinobi World.
Why!? Why did the Hokage have to do this to me?
Slowly but surely, the clearing came into view.
She froze.
Blood was splattered everyone, termites and maggots feasting on the dead bodies in the clearing. As she took in the bodies of the dead, she noticed their insides laying across the clearing.
She felt sick, the burning behind her throat getting stronger by the second.
For the umpteenth time, she asked herself what happened here.
The ANBU had been in perfect health when they were fighting. So, what had happened to them now? Who had attacked them? And that too with so much ruthlessness, that despite knowing that they wanted her dead, Hinata could not help but feel sad for the fallen ANBU in front of her.
No sooner had she finished her train of thought that she felt it. As if she had been punched to the gut, her breath was knocked out of her throat as all the memories came back to her full force.
Gasping, she keeled over, strangled sounds escaping as she tried to breath properly. She cried out, partially due to the pain, partially due to the realization she had come at.
It was her. The cause of all this destruction. It was her.
She felt black dots appear in her vision, as she head began to pound.
She felt sick. Sick.Sick.SickSickSickSic-
She wanted to die.
But, she didn't die, like she wanted to. She didn't pass out, didn't throw up.
Instead, she screamed, startling the birds and other animals as that immediately scurried away.
Though her lungs burned and her throat ached, she screamed.
She screamed and screamed and screamed, until she couldn't anymore.
After that, she simply collapsed to the ground, and sobbed, occasionally letting out a cry.
Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?Wh-
When she had finally exhausted all her tears, she simply stared at the sky, eyes devoid of all the light they had once carried.
An eternity seemed to pass before she, once again, felt the exhaustion claw at her.
But, she didn't give in.
She couldn't give in. Not after everything that had happened.
She wanted answers, and she was going to get them regardless of the means she had to use.
But to do that, first she had to get back.
For a second, she wondered if she should send a message back to the Village. She immediately banished the throat from her mind.
She didn't trust the village.
Not anymore.
Clenching her eyes shut, her mind ran.
She needed to go to someone who would never betray her, who she knew would give her undying support. Someone who would demand answers along with her. Someone who was close enough to reach her before Konoha did.
A single name came to her.
Naruto.
Though she didn't trust the village, she knew Naruto and Sakura were people who would never turn their back on her. She would go to them and tell them everything that had happened. They--especially Naruto--would definitely be on her side when demanding an explanation.
He was someone she could wholeheartedly trust.
Making up her mind, she made a seal with her blood.
Her Dove appeared.
Without thinking twice, she pressed a blood-soaked hand to its back.
"Get me some help." She croaked out, her voice hoarse and rough, "But, not from Konoha."
The Dove shot into the sky.
Naruto...Please be quick.
Unbeknownst to her, her Dove--having misunderstood the message--did not go to Naruto, instead choosing to land on the arm of a certain raven-haired Uchiha.
THERE YOU DUMBASSES GO WITH THE NOW-WEEKLY UPDATE!!!!
So, how was it?? To your liking??
What do you think will happen next? What will the raven-haired Uchiha do when he finds out?? What will Konoha do when Hinata returns?? Is she going to return at all??
Gotta wait to find out!!
NOW FOR THR QUESTIONS:
Q: So, did Kakashi know that Hinata was pregnant or not? He knew that she wouldn't be 'alone in her thoughts', so I'm assuming she was pregnant at the time? She was already pregnant during the Sasuke retrieval arc? I know that are 24 right now, and Kazue is 4, so instead of being around 14/15 during that arc, the Konoha 12 were closer 20? And why is Kurenai mad at Kakashi? What's wrong with saying "choose the ones you love?" If this was wrong (assuming because it means she ran away), than what was "right"? An abortion? Admitting to the pregnancy?
A: To begin with, Kakashi did not know Hinata was pregnant. He was with her when she went to the doctor while returning from the Sasuke retrieval mission. So, when she came back after the checkup, Kakashi noticed that she looked pale.
The 'alone in thought' was Kakashi linking in his mind, that (since he now knows that Hinata was pregnant at the time) that was the time she found out she was going to have Kazue. And he realized that was the reason for her paleness.
"Kakashi swallowed again, suddenly realizing the reason Hinata had looked so pale after her meeting with the doctor.
They told her. That from that moment on, she would never be alone in her thoughts"
That whole sentence was just Kakashi realizing that the reason she had looked pale at THAT time was because the doctors had told her that she would be having a child(since he now knows that she had Kazue)
It would most certainly make more sense when that part comes up.
Next, I think I mentioned this at the beginning, but either way. The Konoha 12 are 19 in this fic.
Lastly, Kurenai was mad at Kakashi. Though, what he told Hinata was right, it still ended up in Hinata leaving. So, in a sense, to Kurenai, Kakashi also played a part in letting Hinata leave the village, even if he did it unknowingly.
He might have thought he was right, and there is nothing wrong in telling people to choose those they love. But, imagine what would have happened if he hadn't said that. Maybe Hinata wouldn't have left.
So, it was "wrong" to Kurenai. In addition, she was under so much emotional stress, there was so much confusion over what happened, that when she heard Kakashi, it all kind of snapped.
Kurenai knew that Hinata was in bad shape before she left, but she never would have thought that she would leave the village. So Kakashi telling her to choose her loved ones was like he had not only known she was going to leave, but he had also indirectly encouraged it.
This is another point that would make more sense when it comes up.
Q: I was a bit confused by this chapter because Kakashi revealed the truth about Itachi and the Massacre to Kurenai, buuuuuut I thought Sasuke did that earlier? When you said he told Kurenai everything he told Kazue?
A: Firstly, Sasuke did not tell Kurenai about the Massacre. Earlier in the chapter, Sasuke tells Kazue to "Give him some time to figure things out."
Later, when Kurenai confronts Sasuke about Itachi, I wrote,
"He told her what he had told Kazue, "Give me some time. I will figure things out.""
Here, the 'told her' refers specifically to the single sentence Sasuke said to Kazue, not the whole conversation.
Sorry for the misunderstanding :p
So, that's it for now!!
Until next Monday, ENJOY!!
-Your smartass author.
