For those few who were following this story (or intended to do so), sorry for the very, very, very late update!
WARNING: there will be hints of lemon in this chapter. Don't like, don't read.
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DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN NARUTO OR ANY OF IT'S CHARACTERS!
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Chapter 2: Turning point
A shiver runs over Hinata's spine, she wraps her arms around herself while trying to suppress the feeling of worry and uneasiness. Something is wrong, she knows some of the others can feel it too.
She looks sideways over to Momoka, the older woman with whom she and the few other orphan girls from Konoha live. The woman looks more disgruntled than worried whilst she sits stiffly in her big chair. As the mistress she always behaves like, she overlooks the little living room. The other girls, at the most ten of them, quietly sit scattered around in the room. Every now and then they would ask each other on whispered tones what possibly could be wrong, but anything that might have ended in an actual conversation was abruptly ended by Momoka's stern and disapproving look. And so they all wait in the candlelight as ordered, as the clock implacable ticks away the seconds.
Hinata exchanges glances with Kirin, one of the two girls she shares a room with, and they smile an encouraging smile to each other. Then Hinata continues to look at the clean, but worn-out floor and tries not to let the tiredness get to her. She can feel something is off and it keeps her busy. Just when she wants to sight out of sleepiness, everybody looks up at a noise in the distance.
Hinata frowns as she concentrates on the sounds, it obviously comes from farther away, from the city center and it seems as if… Her train of thoughts are broken by Kirin, who came to the same conclusion just seconds before herself.
"Are those… people screaming?" Kirin asks worried, her freckled face turning in one of worry and unbelief.
...
It hadn't been more than over an hour ago everybody had been woken out of their sleep by one of the warning bells Konoha used in case of an emergency. Hinata had woken slightly confused, not able to place the sound immediately. As usual when she woke up, either in the morning or in the night, she was a little disoriented en felt the need to cuddle her blanket and ignore everything else. Yui had woken her completely with her loud, piercing voice: "What's going on? Is that the emergency bell?"
Hinata opened her eyes and sat up in bed looking slightly dazed around in the dark room. Kirin was sitting as well and they looked at each other questioningly. Kirin was obviously annoyed by Yui's loud manners as Hinata heard her sight irritated.
"Keep it down a little Yui!" Kirin whispered harshly, "If that really would be the emergency bell, they would loud more than just this one!" She sighed again. Hinata didn't comment, as she always tried to avoid conflict. She didn't like it when people had words, Kirin had said more than once that Hinata was to gentle for her own good and should stand up for herself more. Now Hinata concentrated on the sound as well, it confused her, because just as Kirin pointed out, there was only one bell.
Then the sound abruptly stopped and the last tone echoed softly in her ears. They exchanged a look with each other as the silence of the night washed over them. The bell hadn't rung more than ten seconds and the abrupt silence of it, predicted something morbid.
"Hnf…" Kirin snorted, "probably just an error". She let herself fall on her pillow and closed her eyes again. Yui however, always more eager to know everything about everyone at every time, got out of bed, grabbed her gown and opened the door.
Hinata sat undecided, on the one side she didn't want to leave her toasty warm bed, but on the other side she was curious too about what was going on. She heard some whispering noises on the hallway indicating that they weren't the only ones up and about. She glided out of bed and grabbed her robe.
Just as Hinata walked out of her room, Momoka walked past her with firm steps. "Quiet girls! Everybody back in their rooms!" With rough movements she walked down the stairs, then abruptly turned around, "and put on a morning robe, this isn't a brothel!"
Eventually it had taken around ten minutes before Leaf ninja's had come by in the streets and quickly ordered everybody to get back inside and wait for further instructions. So there they all were, all dressed in warmer clothes, waiting for the message which would tell them it was all a mistake and everybody could go back to sleep. Nevertheless, after the ninja's had left, there had been an atmosphere on the streets which was heavy with the prospect of something eventful.
Now, after hearing people scream in the distance, everyone sat in silent shock, their eyes wide with horror. Hinata had risen, her hand pressed over her mouth.
"Oh kami, what's happening?" "Why are those people screaming?" "What is going on?" "Who are tho-"
"Everybody, BE SILENT!" Momoka hissed the words to the girls, while her hands gripped her chair convulsively and her face grimaced. Her stance gave away her agitation and with half closed eyes she concentrated on the softening sounds. When the noises started to fade, she decisively walked to the window and peeped through the curtains down the street.
The half hour before the point where they could even grasp how bad the situation was for Konoha, was charged with anxiety and everybody just sat there, waiting for whatever faith was bestowed on them. They heard the noise of marching people coming closer, the noise of rough voices giving military orders, the noise of confusion. It was as if unconsciously they had known something would've come and when they heard the hard knock on their door and a harsh voice call out, they accepted it as if they had known it was inevitable.
There was a second of complete silence before the door was opened with brute force. It was as if for that second Hinata's entire world stopped moving, it was as if she was in a vacuum and had all the time to take in the situation. The slightly seedy living room, the candles which only lighted the center of the room, the ghost like faces of her fellow orphans, Momoka walking to the door with a glint of fear in her eyes Hinata had never seen before. Hinata would look back later and would always be able to remember that moment vividly, she would know exactly where everybody stood, the expressions on their faces, the smell of her clothing. That moment, the marking point of on the one side her innocent, predictable and safe life in her home city and on the other side a dark, painful and lonely existence in a foreign place, represented such a sharp contrast, that it would hurt her later to recall.
As soon as the door was opened with so much force the lock broke, the moment was over and everything went too rapid for Hinata to comprehend. As slow and well-known the seconds before were, as fast and confusing those seconds were now.
Suddenly the room was filled with big men dressed in an unrecognizable uniform, some of them stumped up and throughout the house.
"Everybody up and form a line!" One of the men ordered. Hinata had expected at least someone, someone like Momoka, to question their authority; who were they and what were they doing here. But everybody stayed quiet and obeyed, even Momoka, who before this moment hadn't taken orders from anyone.
They just stood next to the wall with pounding hearts, when another man walked in. This one was obvious of higher ranking as the other ninja's quieted around and made way for him. Hinata's heart pounded in her chest en she clasped her sweaty hands together.
The man took a short look around and then focused on the girls. When Hinata took a quick glance, she could feel her eyes widen in surprise. The man had painted his face with a purple triangular design, probably to intimidate enemies. His uniform was completely black and he wore a black hood with what appeared to be cat ears.
He walked along the line of orphan-girls with an emotionless face when his eyes caught hers watching him. She quickly turned her focus to the floor, her heart was now beating even faster. She felt her cheeks turn red as the man stopped in front of her. Oh kami, why did she had to look? Now his attention was on her…
He stood still before her and for several seconds the silence was only broken by the footsteps of the other ninja's going through the house. Hinata felt his gaze rest on her and she clasped her now shaking hands together.
A shock went through her body when he grabbed her chin and forced her to look up to him. Hinata heard one of the girl next to her squeak at the sudden movement and she swallowed nervously. He wasn't hurting her, but she could clearly feel the fixed grip of his rough hands.
Hinata had trouble to not look away, his eyes were cold and scrutinizing and it felt as if he could look right through her. Just when she thought she couldn't take it anymore, he dropped her chin and turned around abruptly to some of the waiting men.
She heard him say something to them, but relief flowed through her body like a wave and she didn't listen. It was therefore that when two of the men each grabbed one of her arms, she was taken by surprise.
Hinata stumbled along and before she knew what was happening, she felt the cool night air against her skin. Again she expected someone to ask what they were doing, to stop them and to ask why they thought they were allowed to invade her life like this. But again, no one said or did anything and they only watched with wide eyes of shock.
Hinata could barely keep up when they marched out of her street, she wanted to turn around and look at her house, but she was too caught between the two ninja's to turn her head around properly.
Her mouth was dry and her body was shaking with adrenaline. What was going on?
"Whe… where are y-you t-t-taking me-e?" It came out like a whisper.
She looked up to one of the two ninja's, but couldn't see his face because of the masks that covered all their faces. Whether they didn't hear her or ignored her she didn't know, but they kept walking at a fixed pace.
It was then that Hinata noticed another squad in another street forcing themselves entry in a house. Next to the squad she saw a Konoha ninja who looked grim and unwillingly nodded as a response to the foreign squad leader.
It went still in her head as she realized what really was going on; Konoha didn't have this many ninja's and if they did, those ninja's certainly would've worn Leaf headbands and wouldn't be raiding the city like this.
Hinata's breath caught in her throat as she realized they were taking her. They were taking her away! She made a squeaky noise as panic took over and tried to break free. Her guards only grabbed her more tighter and almost lifted her up as her struggle continued.
Her left guard growled, "Stop moving!"
"Aaah..!" Hinata screamed as her arms started to burn of pain of their fierce grip. "Who are you? Where are you taking me!"
She heard the hysteria in her own voice as she kept struggling and felt tears in her eyes.
"Be quiet!" They roughly shook her a couple of times until she stopped struggling.
She didn't like what was happening, she felt sick to her stomach and wanted to go back to the orphanage. Would she be able to go back? All her thoughts were tumbling in her head and she just couldn't comprehend what was happening to her.
No, this isn't happening to me, this can't be happening to me!
Just when Hinata wondered how much longer they would have to walk, her guards stopped. She recognized the street, they were in the city center with the main city square just around the corner.
Her guards shoved her against the wall and she almost fell on the ground before she could grab a hold onto the wall. The skin on her hands opened a little.
"Are you carrying anything with you? Any weapons or jewelry or anything?"
Hinata looked at them infatuated, why were they asking that now? When one guard stepped closer, she quickly shook her head and backed down against the wall. "N-no, I-I'm not c-carry-ying anything."
"Hnf, we'll see, take of your jacket and shoes."
She looked at them in unbelief, were they serious? It was quite chilly (the reason they had sat in their jackets in the living room) and she couldn't do that! It was very indecent.
"Want one of us to do it?" Was the harsh reaction when she didn't responded.
This had Hinata immediately pull down the zipper of her jacket with shaking hands, she wasn't sure what they were planning, but knew it could be bad. She didn't actually know what 'bad men' did, as her was told by Momoka, but she knew it was really bad and that she should be very ashamed if it happened. She tried not to think about what Yui had once whispered, that it had something to do with a man touching a woman.
The guard on her right picked up her jacket and shoes and started to go through the pockets. The guard on her left stared at her for a second and then said: "Take of that vest as well and go stand flat against the wall with your back to me."
The way he looked and talked to her gave her an unsettling feeling she had never felt before and slowly she complied.
The wall felt rough and Hinata shivered as the cold started to penetrate her body which was now only covered by her panties, socks and her white, cotton night gown. Even though it was a disgrace that men saw her in her night gown, Hinata was happy she didn't have to take that off as well. At least her night gown covered her entire arms and the length went through until just above the ground.
The guard grabbed her hair and pressed her face against the stone wall and Hinata twisted her face in pain. "No tricks or you'll regret it."
Then she felt his hands go through her hair and pat down to her neck. She whimpered when his boots shoved her feet further apart and put her arms higher up the wall.
He finally let go of her hair and patted down her arms as well. Hinata shivered from the cold and her nerves, no one had ever touched her so thoroughly and she didn't like it at all.
The guard continued to search her body for any hidden objects and patted and stroked his way down her body. When he arrived at her buttocks he gave them an experimental squeeze and a little scream escaped Hinata.
Oh kami, what was he doing? She heard him chuckle as he partly traced the lines of her underwear. Then he continued down her legs and even felt under her feet. All the while Hinata tried to keep her cool and pushed away the tears that threatened to fall. She prayed this would all be over soon and that no one ever had to find out about what happened tonight.
Then she felt him lift up her night gown and her heart missed a beat. One of his hand rapidly went up her leg until it rested against her panties, cupping her behind. Hinata stiffened, she started to panic again and didn't know what to do.
She gasped for air when she felt his fingers push gently against her panties between her buttocks. She stiffened and wasn't able to think, she only registered her own embarrassment and humiliation as the man rubbed up and down a couple of times. Then his hand was gone and out of her night gown.
"Remind me again how we decided to divide the workload like this?" She heard the other guard say with an amused tone.
She heard the guard behind her snicker and stand up, "You wanna finish? It's an innocent little thing."
"That's okay, have your fun. She's a little too frigid for my taste. We'll just have to agree you'll do the next male as well." The guard said laughing.
The guard behind her said nothing and pulled her hair again as to force her to turn around and press her back against the wall. "Spread your arms and legs again" he ordered.
With wide eyes and an unsettling suspicion Hinata complied. She felt like crying when she felt his hands stroke quickly from her throat and over her arms again.
She could almost feel how his attention was now on her big breasts and she looked away. His hands cupped her breasts gently and followed their form a couple of times.
"What's this?" his voice sounded deeper, "I feel two little nubs, what could you be hiding there, hmm?"
He rubbed his thumbs over her nipples a couple of times, they had been a bit hard before as a reaction to the cold and now Hinata's body reacted naturally by hardening them even more, which the guard noticed.
"I-I.. I'm not h-hid-d-ding anything!" a sob escaped her, "p-please, please st-stop…"
He playfully pinched her nipples one more time, harder than before, and let his hands slip down her belly and along her hips. Then he dropped on his knees and lifted her night gown again.
At first Hinata looked at him with confused eyes, but when she felt his hand go up again and she realized where it was going, she screamed and grabbed his arm.
"Let go girl, I'm just following the protocol. Very thoroughly." She heard them both chuckle and tears streamed down her face. She desperately looked up and down the street in the hopes that someone could help her, but saw no one.
The guard took a strong hold on both her hands by grabbing them by the wrist and his other hand went under her night gown again. There was nothing Hinata could do to stop him, she squeezed her eyes shut and started praying in her head.
A noise of disgust escaped her when she felt his flat hand press against her panties at that very private place. She never had thought, that someone would touch her like this.
He rubbed back and forth a couple of times and then let go. "Hnf, no fun when they're crying like this", he mumbled.
Just when he removed his hand from her night gown, another man appeared out of nowhere.
"What's going on here?" The authority in the voice of the newcomer made Hinata open her tearful eyes and immediately she recognized the man with the purple face paint.
"Kankuro-dono, sir!" Both her guards bowed deep as a greeting. Hinata was too afraid to move as she saw Kankuro take in the situation.
Kankuro's eyes narrowed, "Why is she still here? I ordered her to bring her to collect place B."
"We were still searching for anything she could carry with her sir."
Kankuro looked at her again with a skeptical expression and then slowly turned to look at the guards again. Even though his gaze wasn't meant for her, Hinata felt the hairs on her body rise of the sensing danger.
"Really?" Kankuro said with a low and cold voice, "I think the orphan girl is searched enough now and deemed to be of no danger, am I right?"
Nobody answered and apparently Kankuro didn't expect one since he just continued talking, now with a sneer: "On the other hand, it can't have been a very thorough search, since she's still wearing a ring."
In a different situation Hinata may have found it comical how the heads of both her guards simultaneously turned to her hand, but now she was simply afraid of the sudden attention to her person.
"We ahum… we were just gonna take that away from her sir" one of the guards responded. Startled Hinata covered her engagement ring with her other hand.
"Were you now…" Kankuro stared at them, Hinata shivered out of fear and only then realized how cold she was as well.
Kankuro's eyes flashed back to her before he focused on the guards again. "You two know what will happen to her," he stated with a low and suspiciously calm voice, "and you both know who owns her now."
Something in the demeanor of the guards changed and for several seconds Hinata was afraid that for some reason, Kankuro was going to kill the two guards and then do terrible things to her.
Instead Kankuro stepped very close to the guard that searched her jacket, "Get her to the wagon, it's almost leaving." Then his emotionless face changed into an sadistic grin, "After this is over, the both of you can report to me."
Suddenly he disappeared and Hinata's eyes widened, she hadn't even seen him leave. Her guards exchanged a quick glance and turned to her, which made her pale and she hid her hand with the ring behind her.
"P-please…" Hinata begged them, but even she could hear in her own voice that she knew it was a lost supplication.
...
Kankuro stepped into the tent which had been set up for him and let his eyes adjust to the light inside. He had traveled all afternoon and evening to breach the distance of the caravan with the Leaf spoils to the temporarily encampment where his general stayed.
He was tired and dusty and desired a bath, some nice, willing company and than a good night of sleep.
"How did it go?" Any more thoughts Kankuro might have had, were broken by the boringly asked question.
He looked at the cold, emotionless face of his younger half brother and fell respectfully on his knees.
"Everything went as planned My Lord, the caravan is on its way to Hirusha, the temples and fires have been lit without any problems and there was no observable sight of the Uchiha forces."
Gaara remained silent for a few seconds, signaling Kankuro could stand up. Kankuro rose and glanced shortly in the direction from where he heard the movement of a chain. A young woman with chestnut hair was chained with a collar to one of the tent poles, clad in a short kimono that fell open until her navel. He got a good eyeful of the creamy skin of her leg and felt something warm stir in his loin.
Kankuro turned his gaze back to Gaara again and saw that his general was observing him. "What about the special assignment I gave you?"
Again Kankuro couldn't detect a trace of emotion in either Gaara's voice or facial expression. He kept his own tone deliberately neutral, "I tracked all females with rich blood in the districts you indicated My Lord, they're with the caravan, but are separated from the other women, and await your orders in Hirusha."
Gaara nodded slowly, "very well." Gaara walked toward the tent opening and Kankuro bowed as he passed, "the debriefing tomorrow is at 08:00."
Kankuro sighed, that was way too early for what he was planning for tonight. He looked at the woman, who in her turn looked up with a slightly insecure look in her eyes. He grinned and she bowed for him, touching the ground with her forehead.
When she sat up again the movement made her kimono fall off of both her shoulders exposing her breasts to him.
"My apologies master," her soft voice purred, "but I've been a very naughty slave and I've been told to wait here, until my master punishes me."
She looked up at him with fake innocent eyes and Kankuro's grin grew wider while he felt himself harden in anticipation. "Well my little slave girl, as your master I have just the thing to discipline you."
Kankuro started opening his belt and pushed away any lingering thoughts he had about Lord Gaara and the strange command to separate women from certain districts from the other women they had enslaved in Konoha.