Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Notes: This is for DateMe, a group on DA that centers around Hinata pairings. I'm trying out a new style of writing, let me know what you think. Also I used The Hunger Games as my literature, credit for The Hunger Games goes to Suzanne Collins.
Stay Low
I could see her every movement on the large screen inside my private hotel room. I could see the sweat beads forming and falling down the side of her worn and dirty face, I could see her eyes surveying the flat green plane of grass before her. Supplies littering the ground.
I could watch as her pale, dry cracked, lips sucked in the possibly poisoned air that the Village Elders had used. And yes, I could her youth. The round of her young face, she was barely thirteen. Nothing but a child, only just starting her life. And now all of it is ruined, burned. For years to come if she survived the horrors of the forest will stay with her.
I hated that she had to go through this. I had been there once before, all shinobi have. It's a test of skill, strength and survival, all the basic skills of a strong Leaf Village ninja.
The bushes around her shifted ever so slightly and she was ready, her body twisting in one fluid movement. Her makeshift dagger at the ready for any opponent. The leaves rustled, her breath quickened, beautiful pale lavender eyes narrowed.
The rustling stopped, her guard stayed up.
'Good girl' I thought to myself. I had been chosen to watch over her. It was not something I enjoyed. But one look at her and I could see it.
Yes it was deep and hidden under her sweet personality, but she was strong. She was a survivor.
I looked at the food sitting beside my bed on a large metal cart. The lavish meal of tender roast lamb and the finest vegetables had been brought to his room. He couldn't eat, not yet.
The room was extravagant, the floors a plush white, the walls painted slight off egg shell, but the bed was a deep green, embroiled with a large tree and falling leaves. I had my own bathroom and kitchen. I was not to leave this room until my charge had either gotten to the temple, which was far off in the distance beyond the grass plane. Or she had died.
I watched on the large screen as her small hands shook as she debated about running across or staying low.
I feared for her, I feared for all our students, there are many experienced shinobi in there for other villages ready to bloody their hands. They are put there to push our young ones.
My eyes were sore, the blinding vivid colour from the screen had burned into my mind. But I couldn't tear myself away, if she was to die, I don't want her to die alone. To die unseen. I want it sketched into the deepest corners on my brain and remember this is why I stopped being a shinobi. This is why I drink. To forget the horrors that goes on inside that large forest of hell.
My eyes stay glued to the screen, sunset had started to come in, to blind Hinata's eyes from what was in front of her, but she stayed low and kept her eyes open, her ears open, her mind focused.
I knew what she was planning, to move through at night, it was smart and risky. Other's would have had the same idea, some would even be ready to strike her down.
My long white hair was as dirty as her long indigo mop, my blue eyes are worn as her pale ones. I didn't want her to be the only one to suffer. I couldn't let her be the only one. While I sit her in this cosy room she fights against bitter cold nights and burning days. Every second is dangerous.
The sun was almost down, at any moment a person could charge out to the fields of grass and be shot down.
The phone on the bedside table rang, the shrill sound shaking his mind for just a moment, he walked over and lifted the receiver up. I dreaded this call."Yes?"
"Rin, Tomo and Gato are dead."
I nodded, though they can't see me, I knew what this was. I hanged up. It was simply an update. Three more young people have died.
I remember what I had told her just moments before she went in, I grabbed her petite shoulders and looked into her teary eyes, 'Stay low. Do you hear me? No matter what! Stay. Low. And you'll survive!'
'Ok Jiraiya Sensei.'
I lied. No one ever truly survives.
