Killer
Chapter 4: Hide
Things are different after Hinata hurts Neji. Hinata is going to talk to Neji, someday.
Things are different after Hinata hurts Neji.
Maybe it's because Neji had posed as the picture perfect image of an angry, oppressed clan member whose wants and concerns were ignored, that Haishi is mad at her for silencing him. That she put him in his place, just like any of the elders would have done, just like anyone that had been so personally insulted would have.
There's definitely more tension in the house now; Hinata can taste the iron on her tongue, the prickles on the back of her head, watchful gazes never quite reaching her.
The seal is taboo and she'd used it.
The other branch of the family aren't happy with how she resolved the fight between them. Her branch of the family aren't happy because she's caused this upset.
Hinata is going to talk to Neji, someday.
When his temper has cooled off and she can look him in the eye without feeling the urge to hurt him.
Tell him that this shit happens, and that it isn't any of their fault for being born, and that nobody has any control over that. That they need to talk this problem —the two branches— through, to comb all the kinks and knots out between the both of them, so that one day the both of them can stand head to head and look each other right in the eyes and be able to say "we are equals".
But not today, no.
Today Hinata can feel the invisible prick on her skin of anger and betrayal and shock.
She's going to go train today. Off in the woods and find scents and bugs, so that she can find some sense of comfort.
She strolls out of the house with a roll of body drawings wrapped under her arm, and soon finds herself pinning them on different trees, looking at the blue chakra coils in her hands as she smooths the paper out.
She gives herself a minute, two, to unwrap the bandages on her right forearm and gently prod the raw red dots with practised skill, unblocking her chakra spots, instantly feeling a steady, natural flow go through her arm to the rest of her body.
To Hinata, or possibly as a Hyuga, there is not greater sensation than the satisfaction of unblocking a chakra point and feeling the flow return to normal.
The ripple flattens out, calm is restored to the ocean, flow and balance is restored. Twii and La, push and pull.
It's something important and fundamental that every Hyuga understands, so it should be possible for Neji to understand why she had snapped at him after enduring years of torment at his hands.
By the time that Kiba finds her the body targets have craters in them, others tiny pinpricks. One has a thinly sliced wrist where the artery lays right next to a chakra point and another has a caved in torso, drawn on ribs bent. Hinata's fingers have blisters and her arms ache.
Kiba stares at the targets, notices a slice in the paper in one of the targets, the thigh has a scratch where a mayor artery is and another has one above the heart. Countless pinpricks litter the chest and lower torso. Akamaru whines at Hinata.
Kiba gives her an odd, unsettled look. "Going for a more violent approach?" he asks, chucking her a grey hand towel, which she catches and uses to wipe the sweat off of her face with. "Thought that you were more into cutting chakra flow than blood flow." He says, giving her a serious frown.
"I'm mimicking Neji's style," is all she says, because the sixth target Kiba was staring at is caved in at the torso, where Hinata knows that if those blows had hit a real person the person's stomach wall would have been punctured, their gut would have ruptured and (if they had an) appendix exploded. It's the moves Neji had tried to use on Hinata during the prelims.
Kiba gives her an uncomfortable look, seems to squirm in his big hoodie. Akamaru licks his ankle.
"Hey, Hinata, ..." He starts, awkwardly scratching his head, eyes flitting to her and then to her paper targets. "Kurenai told me to check up on you, but I don't really know how stuff is run in your family, ..uh, but urgh I dunno, —" he gives her an unhappy look, as if he's being sad for her. "Surely it's not —?"
Kiba leaves the question hanging.
Hinata stares at her hands, looks at her trembling fingers, raw and red, scratches at her knuckle joints and left pinky finger bent painfully. She sets it right with a bit of a grunt, hears the click of the bone sliding back into place. She instantly feels the chakra run better through her finger.
The grey towel is set around her shoulders. "Kiba," she starts, sadly. Yes, her family is that bad. Hinata has lost her purpose of living in that family a long time ago and hasn't found it back. Her only sibling is afraid of her, and previously used to treat her like a welcome mat. Her father can't look her in the eye, stares at the space of air and dust motes above her head when he speaks at her, eyes remote. All she feels as she walks the halls of her house are resentment and the prickle of eyes following her, feels the copper and iron tang in the air as the branch members call for her blood.
She looks up from her hands to him, Kiba with his concerned unhappy face. She feels sadness solidify somewhere in her throat and her eyes prickle as if she were using the Byakugan.
"all I want," she starts, voice cracking slightly. "today, is to hide."
Kiba's eyes widen, and then that unhappiness becomes like a vice in his voice, colouring with a determination to provide her with a form of release, of escape.
He calls Akamaru to him, who had wandered off a few minutes ago to explore. When Akamaru is sat obediently at his feet, he gives her a serious look.
"You get a two minute head start, miss Chunin Exam Participant." Kiba smirks, but something in it is dampened, but it's enough for Hinata to quietly thank him and then jump off into the trees and try to forget how it will feel like to come back to the compound later.
This chapter is (sort of*) for an anon by the name of anonnie, who wanted a chapter with someone
else's perspective. I've sort of done that**- I included Kiba! :v
*I've had this chapter lying around ever since I made the first chapter for Killer, but it just wasn't finished yet.
**Hell no I haven't. xB basically anonnie had asked for Sasuke or Naruto's view about Hinata's relationship with the
Team 7 boys, but all I really did was make a fic about feels!Hinata and include Kiba and his dog.
If anyone would like to make a request for a Cutthroat AU just leave a review!