Cocoon

Chapter 8

~o~

A month passed, and it was becoming increasingly clear to Hinata that whatever mysterious quest had beckoned her boyfriend away was taking much longer than previously anticipated. Still, no news was good news she supposed, but she wondered if the rumors of her pregnancy had managed to reach him, why he would not come flying back in full sage form as fast as humanly possible.

Perhaps it was due to the fact that she was keeping her secret on the down-low, and refused to acknowledge any congratulations or praise. For that matter, she seldom left her living quarters at all these days, fearing the worst. It took longer than expected, but the worst finally happened...rumors of her pregnancy reached Hiashi Hyuga's ears, and now he was summoning her to the Hyuga Estate. Hinata dreaded it, but there was no way she could refuse.

As she walked hesitantly towards her old childhood home, she went over the various scenarios that could possibly occur. Would she risk lying to her father, and possibly buy some time until Naruto arrived to discuss the situation? Or would she take an even greater risk in telling the truth, and sealing her pregnancy as the only possible path ahead. Well, not so much the truth...a half truth. She was pregnant, to be sure...but the paternity of the child was still in question. Regardless, she had settled on the fact that if she had to raise the child, she would raise it as Naruto's, and that was that. Yet, she still had a small hope that upon Naruto's return, he would inform her that he was not ready for fatherhood, and Hinata could escape the entire mess.

She chewed her lip as she tugged at the massive rope attached to the calling bell that swung over the great wooden gate of the Hyuga Estate. Within moments, the clamoring of the servants could be heard behind the gate, whispering her name and arrival. As she was escorted to the meeting hall, her heart ached with anxiety. Upon entering the enormous and intimidating hall, she took her place on the small silk pillow before her father's seat, and stared into an expression that was anything but pleasant.

"It is good to see you again, father." She stated politely while taking a sitting bow.

"So, are the rumors true?"

Sigh, he was even more painfully to the point than Shino. Hinata swallowed hard. Her next words would determine her future.

"I...I-I-I..." her voice caught in her throat.

"I am...p-pregnant, father...w-with...the son of the Ichihokage."

She couldn't bare to say his name. The lie stung on her tongue.

"Why did you not bring this news to me sooner, Hinata?"

"I...I was scared, father."

Suddenly, she felt his warm hands wrap around her arms as he pulled her to her feet and into his embrace. It wasn't exactly welcoming...Hiashi had a perpetual stiffness about him, but it did allow her to relax slightly.

"You have nothing to be afraid of, my darling daughter...you are bringing a new Hyuga into the world, one adorned with the great power of the Ichihokage, no less. You should be swelling with pride and joy!"

Oh she was swelling, alright...but pride and joy were not the first adjectives she would have used.

"I just...I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep it..."

That was a mistake. Her false sense of security from her father's embrace had allowed such blasphemous words to escape her lips, and not a second after she had uttered the last syllable, she felt the cold sting of a hand across her cheek. The force of it almost knocked her off her feet.

"How dare you...do you have any idea the importance of this child?! To even think you would consider..."

Her delicate hand held the pain of the sting, and she refused to look at him. This did not stop him from grabbing her by the chin and forcing her to stare into his glossy eyes of ice.

"You will not give up this child. It is your duty to produce an heir for the Ichihokage, and I won't have you disgrace our family name with talk of..."

He couldn't say the words.

"Neji would be disgusted with you."

He finally let go of her, then stood high above her crumpled form and faced away from her.

"Tomorrow it will be announced to Konoha that you are carrying Naruto's child. We'll have an official ceremony, then ensure that you are properly taken care of."

Hinata said nothing.

"You are excused."

~o~

Hinata left the estate with a dark feeling around her. She couldn't help but feel that she would have been better off if she had taken Shino's offer to a discrete termination. Now what could she do? Well, plan A, she supposed...raise the child as Naruto's, and pray to the Gods that Shino kept his mouth shut.

It was hotter that day than the previous, and the mosquitoes were after her again. Every time she felt the pinch of one land on her, the feeling of a thousand more surrounded her. She slapped at them in frustration, almost moving her to tears, when she noticed that one was not like the others. It was another beetle, in fact.

She had been avoiding Shino like the plague, going so much as taping the gaps in her windows and doors shut and lining her windowsill with venus fly traps to keep her quarters as Shino-free as possible. She didn't want him spying on her, after all. She even went as far as taking a nit-comb to her hair until she weeded out his female tracking beetle. With a heavy heart, she crushed the little thing in her fingertips...letting lose a few tears for purposely crushing what was no doubt one of Shino's dearest friends.

But it had to be done...she still had lingering, confusing, and terrifying feelings for Shino, and there was no way she could bury their secret if she saw him.

So when she found what appeared to be one of Shino's beetles on her hand, the first thing she did was immediately Byakugan to find his presence. Before she could seek him out however, a fiery sting erupted on the flesh beneath the beetle. It was then she realized that this was not Shino's beetle...and soon after that, she found that her consciousness was rapidly fading away.

The last thing she saw was four dark blurs surrounding her as she fell into darkness.

~o~

Hinata woke up sometime later in a dim room she was not familiar with. Her grogginess was almost unbearable, and her brain felt as if it weighed about fifty pounds more than usual. She couldn't even bring herself to summon her Byakugan and thoroughly determine her surroundings.

It became apparent that she was lying on some sort of examination table, and she was no longer wearing her normal clothes. Instead, a thin linen robe wrapped around her, but her stomach was exposed.

"She's waking up..." she heard a disembodied voice whisper.

"Wh-who..." Hinata replied deliriously. Her head was spinning.

"Sssh, calm down miss. You're okay."

She felt a pair of hands on her shoulders then, which were applying pressure to keep her from sitting up.

Suddenly, a mechanical click could be heard, and Hinata's vision was blinded by a massive light. When she regained vision, she found herself surrounded by a small group of strange people, all wearing goggles. She didn't recognize a single one of them, but they all gave her a sense of familiarity.

"You just try to relax, this will be over quickly," one of them said.

"Wha..what will be over?" Hinata managed to groggily spew.

An enormous dread washed over her then, when she saw someone emerge from the crowd that she did recognize...the strange woman who had scowled at her at the onsen a few weeks ago. She didn't look any more friendly, especially when Hinata noticed what she was holding...an enormous hypodermic needle filled with a strange pinkish gel substance. To make matters worse, within that gel subject was what must have been a hundred squirming little beetles. Hinata's fear broke through her headache.

"W-what are you doing?!" She shrieked as she began to wriggle away. She was immediately restrained by the woman's goggled partners.

"Hold her still." The woman said bluntly, squeezing a bit of the liquid out of the needle to test it.

Hinata felt a cold tingling as her stomach was wiped with some sort of sterilization pad. Hinata shrieked and kicked, but the shadows held her down tight.

"Please don't struggle...it's for the baby..." the woman said ominously, aiming the needle for Hinata's stomach.

"No! Don't! It's Naruto's! It's Naruto's!" Hinata screamed desperately, as the needle inched closer to her flesh.

Suddenly, the procedure calm to a halt as an enormous creature crashed through a nearby window that Hinata had not cared to notice. The crowd scattered and took a defensive stance around Hinata, but with a furious howl, the tornado burst through the wall of them.

Before Hinata could even realize what was happening, she felt herself being gathered in the arms of an all-too-familiar smell.

"It's okay Hina-chan, I'm getting you outta here," Kiba announced a determined glare to his opponents.

"Don't! You don't know what you're doing!" She heard one of the shadows cry.

"I know exactly what I'm doing...getting Hinata away from you creeps!"

And with that, Hinata was swept to freedom on the backs of wild hounds.

~o~