Unknown Story.
Information, Null.
The void is endless.
-
It's rather strange how the absence of one thing can change the feeling of a place so drastically.
Hinata understood this phenomenon. She understood it more than the thing that was absent right now. Hinata and Naruto's relationship was just strange in general. That's besides the point.
She often found herself frustrated, as someone who can never find any answers should be. It felt like everyone was conspiring to keep information from her, and everyone, except for her, knew how terrible his story was.
Relationships are confusing at times. Hinata's was one of the most confusing ones to date. She didn't have to deal with problems like, "What did he mean when he said this?" Or, "Why isn't he talking to me?" Naruto was pretty straightforward in that regard, and most of what he said could be taken at face value. To be honest, their meet-cute was the first time she had ever seen or heard of the boy. He kind of just appeared into her life.
"They say you are very kind," Hinata jumped. She turned and noticed a large man covered in birds.
"Who says that?"
"The birds. 'She is a truly nice person'."
"Do they usually- ano- swarm you like that?"
Jūgo shrugged, "More or less. Never usually this much," Hinata nodded, "I think they enjoy your presence."
"Hm," Hinata closed the book she was reading, "That's nice. I guess," Jūgo nodded, "Would you like to sit?"
"Is that usually what people do?"
"Sorry?"
"Sure... sure I'll sit," Hinata made room for him on the bench, to which he filled the space. As he sat, the birds covering him scattered, startling Hinata, "I need to ask you something," Hinata looked at him, "A... a favor."
"Sorry to sound rude, but, ano, I don't even know your name."
"Okay."
There was a pause, "So... what is it?"
"What is what?"
"Your name."
"What about it?"
Hinata sighed, "Sorry. What is your name?"
"Jūgo. You are a Hyūga, correct?" She nodded, "You can suppress chakra. Is that correct as well?"
"Yes. I think."
"You can," Jūgo stated. Hinata nodded, "I have a special," he looked for the right word, "illness. An illness that is very dangerous."
Hinata's heart stopped. She tensed up, "You want me to," her mind started to race, several different scenarios playing out in her head, "you want me to ki- ki-"
"No," Hinata deflated in relief, "My condition is dangerous to others, not my own health."
Hinata tilted her head, "And... why do you need me to help you?"
"The doc-" he winced. The memory of 'doctor' Kabuto and his actions still etched into his mind, "Medical ninja described it as an 'overwhelming absorption of nature chakra'. Whatever that means."
"So then I'll stop the chakra from flowing," Jūgo nodded, "Forgive me but, ano, I have some questions."
"Don't feel bad for being confused. Ask as many as you need."
"Thank you, Jūgo. What would happen if the chakra isn't... controlled?"
"Truthfully, I couldn't tell you. I don't have any memories of my state, and there are almost no witnesses afterward," Hinata looked down, "That is not good."
"Yes... I see... ano, how will I know when to block your chakra?"
"I have a sensor," he pointed to a small device attached to his hip, "It'll do a beep when I start absorbing energy."
"And... how do we know that I can stop that?"
"We don't know," Hinata gulped. That sure was a lot of uncertainty for something so grave, "There are other ways. I'm sorry to put this pressure on you. I understand if you don't-"
"I'll do it," she interrupted, "I can do it."
"Okay. You should talk to lord Danzō. It was his idea in the first place."
"Right," she stood up and began to walk. She stopped after a couple steps, "Shouldn't you... come with me?"
Jūgo sat in thought for a moment, "Yes. Yes, I suppose I should. Good thinking," he stood and began to follow, "May I ask some questions now?"
"Sure," Hinata answered kindly, "It would only be fair."
"What do you feed the birds?" She looked at him funnily. Jūgo motioned to a new bird on his shoulder, "They say you are quite generous."
"We have a bird feeder at home," she looked up in thought, "I usually fill it with seeds or oats,"
Jūgo nodded.
They continued to walk in silence for a moment. Hinata broke the silence, "Sometimes I'll feed them raisins as well," she paused, "Oh, and wet dog food attracts a surprising amount of birds too."
"And probably cats as well."
Hinata laughed, "Naruto has had to chase of so many street cats. If he didn't, I would have kept them all."
There was a small silence, "He says he likes the seeds the seeds the most," Hinata smiled. She was glad to change the subject from her crazy-cat-ladyism, "His taste isn't representative of them all, though. I would say that the variety is good."
"I appreciate that," she smiled, "Naruto doesn't get the whole variety thing."
A puzzled look crossed Jūgo's face. As had been happening throughout the entirety of the conversation, another awkward silence occurred as Jūgo thought. "I'm sorry, but who is this Naruto? I feel like I recognise his name."
"We live together. I'm sure you've heard him if you've been around a while. He has blonde hair, he's just a little taller than me, and sometimes he wears this really cool red cloak-thing," she ogled the visage of Naruto in her mind.
"Oh, you are obsessed with him?" Hinata's face went blank, "I think I met him. I can't really remember. I was put in a coma after I arrived, so memories of little details are foggy."
Life filled back into Hinata's face. As did curiosity, "Coma?"
"Yes. My illness is very volatile, unpredictable. It was to control any outbursts."
"Doesn't an 'outburst' happen when your body absorbs too much chakra?"
"Yes..."
"Doesn't it happen automatically?" Jūgo nodded, "So it would still be possible to have an outburst while you're in a coma," Jūgo recoiled in shock, "Unless they somehow plugged up your tenkutsu."
"Then I suppose it was just very lucky."
"And it's very lucky right now," Hinata looked around, "Where is your sensor?"
Jūgo patted his pockets, "Not... not here- uhhh."
Hinata grabbed his arm and dragged him along, "Come on. Quickly. We need to find- oops," she realised she was quite literally dragging him across the ground and stopped. She helped him back to his feet and bowed, "I'm so so sorry."
"It's okay. You're right, we should look," Hinata nodded, "But it also might be a good idea to notify someone. Maybe Danzō?"
Hinata looked up in thought for a moment, "Oh, right!" She put her middle and pointer fingers in a cross shape. A second later, a second Hinata appeared next to her, "Go tell the Hokage to meet us in the park. Oh, and that Jūgo lost his sensor. Please hurry," the clone nodded and leapt off toward the village.
"Well that is handy. You can duplicate," Jūgo pointed out.
"More or less. I learned how not too long ago, but I'm pretty drained from it," she scratched her head, "Now I have to ask you a favor. Could you carry me while we walk? I kind of have x-ray vision, but I'm too tired to move while I use it."
"Of course," Jūgo kneeled down and motioned to his back, "You are doing a tremendous favor for me. It's the least I can do."
-
The newly formed duo walked in silence for a while. Hinata scanned the area for any trace of the scanner. A memory popped into her head.
"Hinata, lady Tsunade is on her way with a way of guaranteeing safety. Please make your way to Senju park." She felt a little rejuvenated as her used chakra re-entered her body.
She nodded, "Jūgo, can you go right up ahead here?" There was no response, "Jūgo?"
Hinata only heard heaving coming from the Man, and noticed he was shaking. He let out a loud cackle, and Hinata scrambled to her feet. A slight beeping could be heard in the area, "WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!"
Hinata acted quickly. She noticed a yellow coloured chakra entering through chakra points on Jūgo's neck, shoulders, wrists, hips, knees, and ankles. Jūgo continued to shriek as Hinata disabled the affected chakra points.
She took a step back, and wiped her brow, believing herself to be done. However, when she looked back at Jūgo, she noticed the yellow chakra entering through new chakra points. The sheer amount entering his body startled her. It would be enough to kill almost anyone else.
Her arms flew, tapping each inch of Jūgo's body. She could feel herself faltering , 'Just barely got that one,' she thought as she brushed the edge of a chakra point in Jūgo's shoulder.
Had the chakra points stayed shut, Hinata most likely would have killed the man. However, they did not.
The closed off points were like a corked wine bottle, and the nature chakra was like a cork opener with one minor difference. Instead of popping the cork and pulling it out, the nature energy was just bashing the cork until the bottle exploded.
She began to feel faint, her chakra running thin. She had to give Naruto credit. Making even just one shadow clone had depleted almost a quarter of her chakra, add onto that the use of the Byakugan, and she was absolutely tapped.
She swung her right arm towards Jūgo, but her body didn't respond. 'Uh oh,' she stiffened as lava hot pain ran throughout her whole body. She fell backward and shrieked through clenched teeth, "GRRRRK!"
It was a sensation akin to sleep paralysis. She could see and move her eyes, yet her body otherwise remains unresponsive. She could merely watch in horror as Jūgo began breathing faster and faster, his shoulders shaking wildly as he cackled.
She closed her eyes and heard a scream from behind her, "YEEEE-HAAAW!
She opened her eyes to see a long, flowing white mane atop a red garb. The figure swung a large object down atop Jūgo, who immediately slumped over, back to normal, seemingly exhausted himself. She let her eyes close in utter relief as she lost hold of her consciousness.
"Why did you shout like that? You sounded like an idiot."
"A handsome, gallant, strong idiot," Jiraiya belly laughed, "It was a dramatic entrance. We don't all have battering rams like you do," he gestured in front of his chest, "So we have to figure out other ways to break the door down. Get it?"
"Yeah yeah, whatever," she waved him off, "You're lucky these two need to be admitted to the hospital, otherwise you would be a perv-pancake right now," she hoisted Hinata onto her shoulder.
"So leave the heavy one to me? Even though I did all the work? Yeah, seems fair," Jiraiya pouted, receiving a kick to the back from Tsunade in response.
"I'm going to be doing more work than you did in a second here," she grunted, "And you'd be surprised at how heavy she is. Hell, it's hard for me to carry my own around, now double that? You're the lucky one."
Jiraiya glanced over at Tsunade, Hinata's head resting on his teammate's bust, "I'd say she's the lucky one," he muttered as he hoisted Jūgo up, "To the hospital then?" Tsunade gave a thumbs up, "Right. Almost forgot my stick."
"You know, I'm surprised that thing actually worked."
"Thing??" Jiraiya rushed and caught up with her. The two walked side by side, "Why this is an ancient artifact of Mount Myōboku! The land of toads! The home of harnessing nature energy!" Tsunade chuckled without breaking stride, "It was created for this purpose exactly."
"Really?" She gave a him a questioning look, "This one? This one exactly?"
Jiraiya squinted back, "Oh shut up! You get what I mean."
"And mount Myōboku isn't technically the land of toads. At least according to that map you found."
Jiraiya rolled his eyes, "A home is a people, not a place. Same goes for mount Myōboku. Even though it's not called the land of toads, it's a land of toads," he paused. Tsunade looked forward with a slight grin, "To me, it's the land of toads."
"For someone so stupid, you sure are wise."
"Glad you're finally warming up to me," they both chuckled, "Y'know, I'm really glad to have you around again. It's nice."
"It is. Thank you," they walked for a moment in silence, "But there's always that feeling... that something's missing-"
"I'll never forgive him," Jiraiya added quickly and coldly, "Orochimaru is dead to me."
Tsunade looked down and frowned, "Yeah... Sorry to bring it up. It feels like every time we cross paths we end up talking about him."
"And the outcome is always the same," Tsunade looked at him, "That's what matters. He will be forgiven when he deserves to be."
"Right. So likely never."
"Right. That's why I said I'd never forgive him."
They walked for another silent minute, before Jiraiya spoke, "And good riddance." Tsunade nodded solemnly.
-
It's rather strange that the absence of one thing can change the feeling of a place so drastically.
Even stranger is the feeling of being completely alone. For some, the solitude and tranquility of the deep silence is a calm sanctuary to rest and recharge. For most, silence and loneliness is a deep and sad pit. Denial of the pit's existence and frantic attempts to escape usually follow the realisation that one is alone.
Everyone has felt that way. Hikari feels this way. However, his loneliness is not rooted in the absence of one thing, rather, in the absence of all things. He didn't necessarily feel comfortable in the loneliness, yet he had no choice. The extremes of old-world politics have barred him from ordinary life. But he didn't know that was the reason. The extremes of his loneliness have destroyed his heart and soul.
He means nothing to no one. He lives in a land where the silence echoes, and loneliness chokes out the weak. For lack of a better term, Hikari is nothing. He is forgotten. He has no destiny, no future other than his current, bland, bleak, boring, lonely life. His name means "light" yet he knows not of what that is.
He is void.
-
Hey all!
A new chapter is finally here! This isn't continuing in the Jeremy/Naruto detective story, but it's going on at the same time. Expect the next chapter to be in this same storyline.
Yesterday marked officially my last month of summer vacation. So, in one months time, expect updates on this to be much slower. If I am my old self, and procrastinate heavily, there's a good chance updates will be heavily irregular (not that they weren't already). Sorry in advance if I'm slow uploading, but that just how it be sometimes.
Hope you had a good day/night (or else!)
Jerry out