Her skin was numb against the cold, tiled, floor beneath her. Her eyes were open but the room was too dark to see. Previously she had been blindfolded so she had no clue where she even was. Her arms were bound behind her back and her ankles were chained to a wall rendering her unable to defend herself or escape.
How did she get captured so easily?
That guy was a freaking creep, that's how. Both Hana and Kiba were much better off without him. Hinata felt a migraine coming on and she laid back, not so comfortably, in the dark decrepit room. She was fighting back the urge to temporarily wallow in her own self pity. But seriously, why did it always have to be her though? Why couldn't she have just kept on going after running into Karin and those other two stooges? She probably wouldn't be in the position that she was in currently had she just thanked them and cut her losses.
She was too tired to groan, but she was even more frustrated at the pain in her chest as her heart sank to her stomach. This was hardly the time for that..
But what if.. she never saw Sasuke again? Had she just cut her losses and left in the beginning she would've never gotten to know Sasuke or Karin, and for some reason the lingering thought of that sent her heart slowly spiraling toward the pit of her stomach.
She bit her lip and purposely inflicted pain upon herself for being weak minded. Weak minded ninja were dead ninja. She had to find a way out of this place, but she wasn't so sure that was even possible with him around..
He was worse than a bloodhound.
For the most part, she had him figured out though. Unfortunately, he captured her before she could finish figuring him out. She had hoped he would share similarities with Kiba, her ex teammate, because then she could possibly handle him or at least put up a fight. But that wasn't the case, he was a completely different breed of animal. Hinata questioned whether or not he was even part of the Inuzuka clan.
She took a deep breath and moved her ankle slightly as it was fighting not to lose circulation. She was yet unsure of what her captor wanted exactly..
It didn't make sense that they would target Karin and then her. She was assuming that they were all working together at this point, the ninja from the snowy mountain tops, and evidently someone else on their small team has something they wanted.
She heard a door open and squinted harshly as light flooded the room. "Alright princess, lets talk." Upon hearing his voice, her captor, her immediate response was to look away. Look down, at the wall, the ceiling, or just anywhere but into his eyes. "What do you want from me?" She demanded as she glared intently at the wall to her right.
"You sound upset, even after I made sure to be gentle with the transit? You're just a little less than grateful you know? I could've been a lot meaner about it.."
"Or you could've just told me what you wanted instead of abducting me like some creep?"
"Ouch." He crouched down next to her in an attempt to gain her gaze at least. She wasn't having it, she made sure to keep her eyes away from him at all costs. "I really want to do this the easy way, so if you would just look at me or just tell me whatever you know about Sasuke. Either would be great."
"I don't know anything about him. We're teammates by circumstance, nothing more."
"I don't believe that."
"Why not?"
"Because of the way he looks at you. We've been watching your little group for a long time, you know? A lot longer than what your precious Uchiha believes."
"If you have business with him, go talk to him. I don't know anything, he's secretive." Hinata only partially lied, but there was no way she was giving anything up to him.
"Awl, that sucks..you guys must really hate each other, huh? Well I'm sorry to have bothered you then." She could hear the sarcasm in his voice, he was playing with her like some new shiny toy. "I guess that means he won't come after you then, right? Since you guys weren't all that close.."
"Probably not, you didn't really leave a trail to follow."
"I left enough." He smirked and stood up. "We'll give it some time though. I have some traps set up so if they do head this way and trip off one of them.. I think I'll kill you, that would be fair wouldn't it?" He nodded and agreed with himself, deciding not to wait for her input. "Yeah, I like that idea. Oh no, wait! Even better, I'll only half kill you and then I'll hand you over to him. I wonder what he'll do then? The poor kid has already lost so much.. it'll be interesting to watch him as he loses something else important to him. Don't you think?"
Hinata was disgusted to say the least. Did Sasuke really think they didn't know what he was doing behind their back? He couldn't be that stupid thinking he was playing the perfect double agent..
And now she was going to die for him.
"I'll turn the light back off for you, but I'll be in the other room if you need me. Waiting for your friends." As soon as he closed the door behind him, Hinata quietly began working on freeing her hands. If she was going to die it would be fighting.
The trail was taking the four of them back further inland, away from water country. Sasuke was at the front of their formation staring ahead intensely. He was angry. In fact, he couldn't remember the last time he had been this angry. "Watch your step, when we get close their will be traps so be weary." He instructed as Karin called out directions as fast as she sensed the offending chakra.
Suigetsu stayed close to her as they followed Sasuke's lead. He extended a worried expression toward Karin and shook his head, "This guy is a real loon, Karin. Keep your distance from him and don't look into his eyes."
"His eyes?"
"He has this crazy hypnosis-like technique. I've heard some pretty nasty stories about it."
"Hypnosis? Really, Sasuke?" Karin called to him and he glanced over his shoulder. "He's said to have been a valuable Shinobi to the Leaf at one point but after the fox attack he lost most of his sanity. He was banned from the village after being caught up in doing experiments on clinic animals and is believed to have tested some on himself. Regardless, he's still a genius, don't underestimate him. Suigetsu's right, keep your distance."
"Gotcha, I'll just worry about helping Hinata.." He returned his gaze to the front and clenched his jaw tightly. He had a horrible feeling deep down that something was going to go wrong..
"On the right!" Suigetsu dodged and narrowly missed a thin wire. If Karin hadn't called it out to him he would've surely nailed it. "We must be getting close, Sasuke!"
"Try not to trip any traps..!" Sasuke directed as they cut through the wooded area. He felt a few drops of rain on his shoulders as they pressed on, and before long it was a full blown downpour. "We can't keep going like this..!" Jugo yelled from the back of the group. "If you want the element of surprise you're going to lose it as soon as you hit one of these traps and we can't see them very good in the rain!" He strained his voice over the loud downpour.
"Jugo's right, Sasuke, we have to stop!" Karin hesitantly agreed. She wanted to find Hinata just as much as he did, but Jugo had a point.
"If we stop now and he moves her we will never find her again! Suck it up and keep moving or stay and I'll take care of it myself!" He continued without falter. Suigetsu planted his feet firmly and gripped Karin's arm tightly, "Let him go by himself then."
"No..! He's right also, we should go as far as we can, we stand a good chance of losing her, His chakra is hard to track!" Karin pulled away from him roughly and continued after Sasuke. Suigetsu groaned and followed after her with Jugo behind him.
"This is so boring.." She heard a familiar voice as light flooded the room once more. "It's taking them so long and they haven't set off a single trap.. oh geez.." Hinata blinked to eliminate the floaters in her eyes, before straining to look at him. "I don't understand the point of me being here?"
He clicked his tongue and pulled up a chair next to her. "Well, truth be told, I was supposed to deliver you to one of my...clients.. but, I figured that Uchiha kid would follow and I really want a piece of him."
That was a shocker to her. She assumed since he was with the crowd on the mountain that they would be acting as a group in retaliation to Sasuke's betrayal. He just admitted he was acting independently.
"You're not taking me back to the mountain?"
"What for? That place is practically abandoned. Besides, I only work for pay, sweetie."
"Someone paid you to take me? Who?!"
"An old friend of mine, we used to be neighbors once upon a time." Hinata's eyes widened as she remember being neighbors with Kiba at a very young age, before he and his mother moved to the other side of the village. "My dad paid you to bring me home?! Are you kidding me?!"
"Nope, apparently you've caused him some problems and he knows that I do work much better than the Leaf Village anbu. I mean, I ran that place once upon a time." He snorted and relaxed back in his seat. "We aren't in a hurry or anything and..he didn't say I had to bring you back unharmed. How riled up do you think that Uchiha kid will get if I put a few scrapes and bruises on you?"
Hinata tried not to laugh, "He probably won't even care. I doubt they even come for me."
"Oh yeah, he cares. I've been watching your lot for a few days now, maybe longer, ever since you left the mountain. You're an odd little family of rogue ninja. Honestly, when Hiashi offered me the job I declined but that was before you came walking through the door with that Uchiha. I didn't think I would find you but you came right to me." He laughed loudly and shrugged. "They'll be here soon."
"You're not getting paid to fight Sasuke, so why start something like that?" He gave her a toothy grin and shrugged his shoulders, "Because it's fun, princess."