Strength
6
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Hinata had an hour or so left before she and her team were to report back to one another. If they failed in their mission they would have to pick up with it tomorrow, but Hinata didn't want that. She imagined seeing the grief in the lady's face when being told they could not find her cat, and even though the whole thing was a bit silly, Hinata still could not bear seeing such a reaction because of her failed efforts.
The day was ending. The street lamps had not come on yet, for it wasn't time, but the clouds were thick in the sky, casting everything into near darkness even though the sun had not yet set.
Hinata decided to scour the roads one more, hoping to hear a tiny bell jingle somewhere. Her Byakugan wasn't really of much use in such darkness; she had to improve more before it could be that effective, and so she had to rely on hearing. It would be much easier since everyone had gone home early because of the weather.
Just as Hinata was deciding on whether or not to report to her team, she heard a small tinkling sound nearby. Her heart swelled with excitement and relief. She rushed forward, straining her ears, hoping to hear the sound again. She did. It was a low tinkling sound, unlike that of a bell made from silver or copper, and she was certain it was the cat's bell.
The sound came from a dead end alleyway. It was wide with lots of worn crates and chipped boards lying about. There was trash littered in all corners, but nothing that would have attracted a cat. Perhaps if there were mice hidden somewhere then the cat may have--
"I understand you have been looking for something," someone said from behind. Hinata whirled around, immediately recognizing the voice. It was dark, but she knew for a fact it was the him. Gaara.
Hinata said nothing. Gaara reached in his shirt slowly and pulled something out that tinkled and reflected off of some unknown light source.
The cat's bell.
Hinata's mouth dropped open, horrified. No…"Y-You…" Hinata stuttered.
The boy tucked the collar inside his shirt and said, "You seem upset. Why?" His voice was flat and unemotional, but there was curiosity there too.
"Why would you do this?" Hinata demanded with less fear than she thought possible. Right now anger was overlapping that feeling, and her form was beginning to tremble and shake with it.
"It is just a small creature; an insignificant pest. Why would someone care for something so worthless?" he continued. "Tell me why."
"No…" Hinata whispered, straining for control. "Not worthless…not worthless."
Gaara raised his head attentively, and with surprise.
"Not worthless!" Hinata cried. "E-Exactly what makes the cat worthless? Because it's small? Because it can't talk? Because it can't fight? Y-You think that because it's smaller and weaker that makes it insignificant? S-Selfishness. Arrogance. There is someone out there crying right now because it's missing, because she loved it very much…"
The boy narrowed his eyes. Hinata continued. "Doesn't that all by itself make it something of great value?"
Gaara snorted through his nostrils. "Words," he whispered coarsely, but with a certain pain in his voice. "Groundless unsubstantiated garbage. You say that because you yourself are weak."
"I am," Hinata agreed instantaneously. Gaara made a slight movement with his head that indicated surprise. "I am weak. I stutter, I am timid, I love far too easily, and I cannot hate anything. Still…that does not make me insignificant. I am not worthl--"
"Enough!" Gaara exclaimed roughly. "Enough of your ridiculous ramblings! You are weak! Therefore you are insignificant; not needed. You can be bought and you can be replaced. You are nothing but a doll. A tool. A thing. Exactly like I used to be. A small…helpless…little mouse. My prey."
The boy reached behind him with alarming speed and popped the cork from his gourd. "I am tired of waiting," he said roughly. "I am tired of waiting to kill you."
Large amounts of sand began pouring from his gourd, springing up around him as if it had a mind of it's own. "Please die."
Gaara drove his hand in a straight line and a thick trail of sand responded to the movement. It rushed forward as if wanting Hinata's blood for it's own, gaining speed at an incredible rate.
Hinata spread her feet apart, taking battle stance, and thrust her palm forward, meeting the tip of sand with a large spark of blue chakra. The line of sand exploded apart. In the Huuga fighting style the hand did not have to make contact to inflict great damage on the opponent, but when it did it was deadly.
"What!" Gaara exclaimed.
"You will not kill me," Hinata declared, ignoring the violent stinging in her palm. "Any life is worth fighting for. Even mine. I will become strong one day, just like Naruto-kun, and I will not surrender my life to you."
Hinata put her other foot forward, switching hands, and squared her shoulders defensively. "Defend yourself, Gaara of the Sand."
"So you would choose to fight…" he questioned in statement form, but with a slight trace of reverence. "Very well."
More sections of sand propelled forward at the boy's command, attacking Hinata from all sides, one by one, then multiple times per second.
Hinata whirled around to meet them all, countering each attack with a burst of chakra.
The Huuga fighting style used large concentrated amounts of chakra to cut off the flow from others, thus impairing their ability to use jutsus effectively. Hinata realized that it was nearly the same with Gaara's sand. Without the assistance of chakra, the sand would not be able to move at all, so cutting off it's flow was most nearly the same as cutting off the flow from the limbs of a person.
The only problem was that a human's limbs did not regenerate as sand does.
The attacks were relentless. They came one after another, in random processions and from all directions. Hinata was not sure she'd be able to keep up for very long.
A rush of sand shot underneath her legs and attacked her from the back, thrusting her into a wall. Hinata recovered as quickly as possible and dodged a mass of sand that slammed into the wall where she would have been hit, had not moved.
Hinata backed toward the street, making way for the mouth of the alleyway, and sent a tremendous wave of chakra at three intersecting masses of sand, causing them to explode apart. Hinata straightened her posture, preparing for an entirely different attack.
Gaara recognized the stance.
Hinata, exactly like before, produced several quick hand signs and sliced through the air with her palms, directing an alarming flash of incomprehensible movements with her arms.
At the end when the metallic green light appeared under her, Gaara rose both hands, uplifting an absolutely massive amount of sand into one thick element, and projected it toward Hinata. The sand mass split apart into dozens of different sections, attacking Hinata from all sides, but she blocked every single attack.
Hinata, though immensely proud that her defense mechanism was working, began to tire and lose control over her jutsu. Within a matter of seconds the whole thing disappeared, coming apart, and a wave of sand struck her in the stomach every bit as hard as a wrecking ball, and slammed her against a stack of wooden crates which exploded on contact.
Hinata tried to move, but was completely incapable.
She had put up the most impressive fight of her life…but still failed.
Everything was quiet for a while, and nothing could be heard except the crunching of splintered wood as Hinata made fruitless attempts to shift from her position.
Gaara approached her with slow and casual steps. He stopped in front of her and raised his hand toward the sky. A large section of sand responded, lifting into the air behind him, preparing to strike on command.
"You did well, mouse," the boy congratulated. "But not well enough. Now die."
Just then an ear-splitting crack of thunder erupted into the air. Both Hinata and her attacker were stunned. Only a split second after did rain start to hail from the sky, washing through the streets and the alleyway, rinsing the blood and dirt from Hinata's limp form.
She was doubly surprised to see the large section of sand floating in the air crumble and fall apart, dropping to the ground like…clumps of saturated sand.
The boy dropped his hand to his side, glaring up at the sky.
He stood that way for what seemed like ages, then looked down at Hinata. Slowly he took the cat's collar from his shirt an lowered it into her unmoving hand.
"One day," he said, walking away. "You have one more day."
Hinata watched him go, vision blurred by the heavy rain down-pouring onto the scene. Just as his silhouetted form made it's way to the mouth of the alley, the street lamps came on. He was no longer there.
Hinata let loose a shuddering breath of relief and fatigue.
Something soft and wet touched her stinging hand. It felt strangely comforting. She looked down and saw a small cat pawing at her damp skin. It stared at her expectantly with wide green eyes and meowed. Hinata gasped. The cat edged over to her jacket and crawled into it, sheltering itself from the rain.
The cat poked its head out of the top of the collar of her jacket and meowed, curling up against her body.
Hinata grasped the collar Gaara had lowered into her hand and fastened it onto the cat's neck, giving the golden bell a slight tap with her finger.
"So he can kill mice…" Hinata whispered with a weary smile, "but not kitties?"
//***************************************//a note from moi//**************************************//
'Sup? This is Stitch, finally making an A/N.
Now I know the last two chapters have been short, but that's because they were originally one chapter. In fact, you could probably tell, but since I posted chapter 6 right away I don't think it was any big deal. (As a matter of fact, I promised my friend who loves this fic that I would post chapter 6 quickly if she signed up at a tetris website. Haha)
To the people supporting me thus far;
You kick ass.
I appreciate and love absolutely everything it is you have to say, so your reviews mean a lot to me.
Please keep supporting me no matter what.