Hello, guys. I'm back with the second chapter. It took a long while, to be honest. Translanting this it harder than I thought it would be. So, I'm sorry. By the way, thank you for the comments, they helped me in many ways, and it's always nice to know what you think about the story. Hope you enjoy this chapter! See you soon!

2.

"Delusions of a disordered mind"

Germany, 1943

July

To Naruto, sleeping was detestable, that's why he never did. After Hinata's departure, he was used to sitting on the floor and embracing his own legs or punching the walls. It was that or finally go crazy with those images inside his head.

Even though he was strong in an inhumane way and would heal without medicines, he still couldn't not sleep. At the beginning, he slept until notice the unwanted nightmares. He hated what he saw while in rest, so stayed awake, always. With effort, he got used to it.

The scientists, on the other side, loved the idea. They made tests, of course, and found that this was a result of a mental resistance made by Naruto himself. Even under heavy medication, he couldn't sleep. Stil, he could feel relaxed, like in a massage. His blood ended up being used in other experiments.

Naruto never talked about his nightmares to anyone, not even Hinata. To him, it was impossible to let her know all the insane, disgusting things inside his head. He also believed Hinata was too pure to even think about what he saw and heard inside. She was certain he had no memories of his beforelife; better this way.

He was punching the wall, sweat all over his body, when a group of scientists got inside his cell. Naruto knew them, the same ones that used to experiment in his body. Those people poked him and injected unknown substances in his arms, legs and neck. It was beyond him to understand this profession or how Hinata got there, since she was nothing like them.

— Naruto, time to your exams. — said the boss of the group. — Be a good boy today, will you?

At the beginning, Naruto would fight and killed some of them until he stopped and let it be. It came to a point when he could just lower his head and allow them to do whatever they wanted.

He stayed still while the man got closer. Naruto was taller than him but it went unnoticed because of the man's llong, dark hair. He's Madara, or was what he heard from someone. Naruto didn't like him or his ironic cruel smirk. He detested that man and would be a big pleasure to kill him, slowly.

The blonde was dragged by Madara, being watched by the others. Funny how they feared their own creation, acting like they had no business on this. For sure, if they were discovered, they would find a way to blame the victim and the new victim would be them. Using the right cards in the game and the game is on.

They stopped at the Blue Floor, the one for the tests. By the way, was the first place Naruto saw after the experiment. In that place, people worked like crazy, running around, screaming at each other, moving buttons, taking notes, talking, discussing. It went silent, though, when they noticed the 007 there.

Nothing different from always, as everyone looked at him either with surprise, disgust or satisfaction. For them, it was hard to see him as a person, since he was just a stupid laboratorie rat and object of this idiot war.

At some distance, he saw Hinata. She was taking notes on a desk and was so focused she didn't notice him. Maybe his staring made her look at him. He could see the surprise in her eyes, under the glasses he couldn't imagine she had to use. Her long dark hair was stuck in a ponytail. She smiled soft and nervous, as if she wanted to reassure him it was fine. Naruto felt his face relax after seeing her.

Madara kept dragging him to the center of the room. Naruto was lying, all the time, taking injections, watching his blood being taken and hearing really cruel things about him. His eyes were on the ceiling. Unfortunately, he could feel people's feelings and it was disturbing, like reading minds but worse.

Memories were not really the best option but were an option. The last few times he allowed himself to use them to forget the situation. A specific one would help the most.

Naruto remembers being on a run in a beautiful garden. There were a lot of flowers and some big trees and an enormous house close to where he was. Everything there was comfortable and smelled like home and love. No that he knew what was that but it looked like that.

Behind him was a person, a redhead woman. She screamed she would catch him and then laughed; he would do the same. They kept running for a while until they got tired. In truth, the woman got tired and laid down on the floor. Noticing, he gave a u-turn and threw himself over her. She complained he was too heavy. Even inside the memory, he could still smell her, not sweet but floral and he liked that. He wanted to stay like this for hours or days.

He saw all of this with open eyes and ears catching only the laughs from the memory. Somehow he felt good. He couldn't know much about those feelings but he knew it was truly good. He hoped, though, nothing would destroy this.

{...}

He stayed at the Blue Floor for five hours. His arms were full of holes and his body, heavy like a whole truck. Being this tired he would not resist and probably is going to sleep. He hated that but it was beyond his control.

A watchman took him back to the cell. Naruto learnt to laugh at how people feared him but he would get irritated eventually. It was ridiculous this habit they had of not looking at him. Even now, he would not kill anyone, not this weak. When they got to the cell, Naruto was thrown to the ground like a disease. The man didn't worry about his chains or if he hurt him; he just ran. Naruto couldn't care more about it, so he let himself stay on the cold floor. No protests, no one to say "good dreams". In any way, he had no plans in dreaming this time.

{...}

Strangely, he felt warm. There was pain in his body yet and he was pretty sure the holes in his arms would not heal so fast. Noticed, yet, he was not alone and unchained. For the first time he felt something close to happiness. Naruto wished to stay like that forever.

He opened his eyes after hearing a soft laugh at his side. It took a time to identify who it was but the long, blue-dark hair gave the person. She was smiling, with a fun glow in her eyes. Naruto liked that image in front of him.

— What are you laughing at?

— You. Naruto-kun, you look like a lazy cat.— she said laughing.

He mumbled something intelligible and closed his eyes. Then, he felt Hinata's hand on his face. She caressed him tenderness, one that was unknown but pleasant to him. Naruto couldn't understand Hinata, especially the way she treated him. He saw care in her gestures, delicacy in her fingers and softness in her eyes. Even scared, she would always be receptive to him.

Hyuuga Hinata was too human to him.

The blonde opened his eyes. She seemed surprised but didn't stop. The caressing made him close his eyes, again, and drown in unknown sensations. However, he could not avert from those bright, attractive, pearl eyes of hers. Not at the moment.

— Why are you doing this?

Hinata smiled at him. She took a few minutes to say anything but was too busy drowning in those blue eyes.

— And why not?

— As far as I know, the Little Red Riding Hood runs from the bad Wolf.

— Who told you I'm Little Red?

Naruto didn't say anything. They stayed in silence, but still looked at each other. For a while she stopped the caressing to look at him: his long hair almost to the middle of his back and the beard. She liked to admire him like that, lying, quiet, enjoying this moment of calm. And he still was a beautiful man, despite his anger.

— I hate what they do. — she said. — It doesn't matter what you think or what they say… this is terrible. They invade your body, inject destructive things inside of you but nothing hurts more than hearing you saying you are a monster. — she paused to hold his hand. — Naruto-kun, you're not a monster. Some humans are way worse than you imagine. They are conscious they are not enough so they do experiments. You would never harm anyone or anything just for pleasure. Now I know that because I can see through your fury. It doesn't matter if they say otherwise.

She smiled even though her eyes were tearful. Naruto had no words to her, so he held her hands and let her know how glad he was with her words. He didn't know if he was that good but believed her. If he was ever sane, it was because of her.

— Thank you, Hinata.

She was surprised and cried. But more than that, she allowed herself to hug him, like she hadn't had for years now. It was clumsy and they were both shy; at the end, Naruto could only hug her back. It was also warm and comfortable, just like it was with the redhead woman in his dreams. Hinata smelled as home.

Naruto tightened his arms around her, pulling her to him. Hinata laughed, moving away enough to look at him. Her bright pearls were happy and proud. He was still not used to it, especially this look she gave at him: one of promises of a life and better days.

— You're welcome, Naruto-kun.

Hinata changed her position to lay her head on his chest. She was not tense at all, he noticed, but her heartbeats were vigorous and strong. He didn't know what to do however turned his head enough to smell her hair. Even though he knew nothing about this, his mind gave him flowers' images.

Suddenly, Hinata hugged him tighter and covered his chest with tears. This time was harder to identify her feelings, because it was all confusing and chaotic.

— What are you feeling? — he asked, scared.

She didn't answer, but the tears kept falling. He did the same gesture as her and caressed her face, making an effort to not hurt her, which seemed to work since she smiled at him.

— I'm happy and proud of you. And I am hopeful that, one day, you'll never have to bear these chains no more. It may seem idiot or impossible but I just know. It's the only certain I have now. You'll be free.

Hinata didn't wait for an answer or a question; she closed her eyes and lay down her head on his chest again. Naruto stayed quiet, digesting her words. To him, it seemed impossible to get out of there. He could never cogite being free. Still, in front of those words, he understood the meaning of what they called hope.

As he observed Hinata in his arms, he imagined what it would be to know the real Sun. It would be just as warm as hugging her? He wanted to ask her but she was asleep and he didn't want to wake her up. Maybe she would have good dreams.

{...}

This time was different: he was alone and all around him was white. This was snow, white, cold and slippery. He thought if he was supposed to be afraid of something like that.

Naruto stayed still for long minutes, waiting for something to happen but nothing did. Then, he heard something, a low painful cry, coming from someone hurt. He didn't know the right direction to take, so he just followed the sound until he found a small, skinny child. She was hugging her own legs, squeezing them, as a way to relieve the pain.

He got closer but before him appeared another child, just as blonde as him. In fact, was him. He watched as his younger version moved.

— Hey, don't cry. — he said, crouching to look at the other child.

The little one raised her head and Naruto saw it: the pearl eyes, the red face, the pain. It was Hinata. She was surprised by this presence, and tried to say something, but the tears got stronger and she could not speak because of them. So, his younger version held her hands.

Naruto could not believe what he was seeing. Of course this was a dream, it had to be a dream. He didn't know Hinata and that scene couldn't be a memory. So, why was everything so familiar to him? Why did he have the sensation he knew that moment?

— Why you cryin'?

— Kaa-san… she died. — she said, her voice hoarse. — I think I'm alone forever.

The little blonde boy widened his eyes. It seemed absurd to him what he heard.

— My otou-san died too, but I'm not alone. I have kaa-san, oji-san, baa-chan, the Sasuke-teme, Sakura-chan and Iruka-sensei. — he paused to smile. — I am sure you're not alone. If you were, now you're not. I'm here, 'ttebayo.

The little Hinata widened her eyes. Naruto saw how thankful she was. Suddenly, she smiled through the tears that insisted to fall. It was a broken, hurt, smile but not less beautiful because of that. The little Naruto started with the jokes and made her laugh. As always, her laugh was low and shy and really good to hear.

They were interrupted by a tall man, with long brown hair. He had eyes just as pearl as Hinata, even though they were different. The redhead woman appeared too. The adults talked about something he could not understand but he gave goodbye to Hinata. Quickly, she hugged him and he could still feel the warmth. She always smelled like home.

They got separated and each went home. Naruto stayed there, with the snow, and the scene that could not leave his mind. It was weird how everything was so familiar and how Hinata could make him feel so safe. Why does that happen? Why every time he looked at her he knew she was the place he wanted to come back? Why could he not imagine a freedom without her? Why did he want so much she go away from that place and forget about this filthy world he lived? Why did he want to keep her safe?

He was a monster or a human? There is any difference between them?

{...}