Back to Hinata POV, Airyo-chan! The next one, is the prelude to the Massacre! Be AMAZED! yes, yes, I know. Hinata's POV is more serious, although Im pretty sure that Itachi should be less of the joker, out of those two. Meh, who cares. I DO! Not. Anyway, Love, Love, Airyo-chan! Fluttering Eyelashes! Kidding! Bet you're creeped out by now! Anyway, Enjoy!
Nightmare
Team 8, minus Hinata, were unbelievably excited for their C rank mission. All were nervous, except for Hinata, who really couldn't care less. Even Kurenai, who had been on dozens of higher ranked missions, was very excited that her first Genin team would be on their first C rank mission. Really, Hinata couldn't see what the big deal was; the mission wasn't even today. The mission, will begin tomorrow, at noon.
The mission itself wasn't very exciting, either. It was to deliver a not-so-important scroll to a not-so-important temple. The only reason that it was C rank at all, was because it was out of the country. For this mission, they'd be travelling to the outskirts of the Country of Earth, which was at least a two week walk away; sometimes, Hinata wondered if she was the only adult on her team. Well, that, and she envied their innocence and ability to express their emotions and not be afraid of the consequences. Unlike her.
Since the incident with Kurenai, Kurenai had taken to avoiding her as much as possible, which was a challenge, especially when she was supposed to be her teacher. So, Hinata spared her the nerves and usually went off to train alone whenever they had to train together. She didn't think that Kurenai told others of their little spar; after all, none of the higher ups had looked at her weird... weirder than they usually did, anyway.
Kiba and Shino were very uncomfortable with her, as well; Kiba especially, being the more emotional of the two. And Akamaru had taken to shivering- shivering- in her presence. That tended to get annoying, especially when Akamaru started whimpering, as well. To think that Hinata was fond of dogs, but it was hard to look at everything in the same light as before. Hinata just felt so jaded.
The nightmares had gotten worse, too. Hinata often dreamed of horrible things at night; dreams of her killing, of her making it rain blood. Hinata always found a hopeless panic in those dreams; all the Hyuuga's were usually running to kill her, glaring at her with an unfathomable hate.
Yes, the nightmares had gotten much, much worse. It was probably because the date was approaching; it was was approaching fast. They say that time flies when you were having fun; well, they lied, because then time absolutely turbo blasts through space when you're dreading something. Hinata, in her life, had never dreaded something as much as she was dreading the Chunin exams.
Though she quickly snapped out of her morbid thoughts the moment she heard the footsteps in the distance. She instantly recognized Shino's light treading; followed with the boisterous stomping of Kiba. Her back straightened, her expression blank, as she stared into the horizon, trying to sense Kurenai's almost silent prowl.
They all assembled around five minutes later, and all but Kiba looked bored. Hinata guessed the excitement had worn off; for Shino and Kurenai, at least. Kiba still had a sugar high, but then again he was like that everyday, so Hinata couldn't really single that particular day out.
They started travelling in silence, until, at one point, Kiba cracked, and started chattering to fill in the gaping silence. Hinata ignored his noisy self; she couldn't make herself care about inconsequential, unimportant things. The day passed like that; with silence from Shino, Kurenai and herself, but with Kiba trying to fill that with noise.
At the end of the day, they set up a fire to keep warm, circling the tents around it. Kurenai made them set up three, while she set up traps for robbers; Hinata 'wondered' why. Of course, Kurenai wouldn't want to share a tent with her. Hinata didn't find herself scary, and thought that if she was like Kurenai, Konoha would be doomed.
Sometimes, Hinata wondered how she managed to turn into such a sarcastic, bitter, and angry person. She also wondered what would have happened if the Hyuuga weren't the arrogant snobs she knew and loved today. Would she still be the gentle, innocent Hinata? Those questions haunted her mind, even as after they had set up camp and went to bed.
The week passed in a similar fashion. Wake up, have breakfast, start walking, have lunch, walk, then set up camp, and sleep. The nightmares were becoming worse, the farther away she was from home, the farther away she was from the Hyuuga's plans. Could they change their minds and attack now? She often mused, having a spine-chilling panic overwhelm her every time she had such thoughts.
That day, at the start of the second week, was particularly bad. The moment that Hinata's eyes closed, she was engulfed with images of her family. This time, she was over a lake, with all of those eyes staring at her with abhorrence. "What do you want?" She shouted, her words echoing over the water.
She started running, swinging, attacking, her family reciprocating the best it could. The water was slowly starting to turn a bloody red, with chopped limbs and dead bodies floating atop it. The dream turned from bad to worse; the limbs started crawling to her, trying to smother her as she kept fighting. It had started raining, and Hinata had sighed in relief, until she felt some of it go into her mouth; it had a metallic, salty taste. Hinata immediately spat it out, turning to stare at the sky, feeling some of the rain spatter on her hand. She stared at it, her panic and horror starting to overpower her. Her hysteria rose as she saw more people from the corners of the lake walk to her, some with their eyeballs hanging out, their white coloured eyes reflecting the crimson of the water. They were getting soaked with rain.
Except that it was raining blood.
She couldn't think; she could hardly breathe. She opened her eyes, and all she could remember is sensing some foreign chakra signature on the perimeter. A chakra signature that might have been a Hyuuga's. She had gone to check, and all the faces had morphed to pale ones with white eyes, all of them staring at her with hatred. They tried attacking her, and Hinata fought back, her mind blank, unable to think.
All she knew, was when she came to, her hands were stained with blood as Kiba was agitatedly shouting, "Monster!" Right at her, to her confusion.
Then she looked down, seeing three bloody mutilated bodies at her feet.
She heard the story from Kurenai, as she was shell shocked, and kept repeating what happened. Supposedly, there were robbers, and Hinata had sensed them before her traps could. Then, Team 8 had witnessed Hinata brutally killing all of the robbers, with them screaming and pleading for help. Hinata was absolutely horrified. She was, what Kiba had accused her of being. She was a murderer.
The rest of the mission carried on in a stupor of silence, none of them being able to say anything. Even Kiba. All of them, even Shino, had looked absolutely petrified of her. They avoided contact, all of them, as much as possible, never saying a word out of line to her. Hinata hated being an object of fear.
She herself, was scared. Of herself, ironically. The fact that she had killed, murdered a man had not sunk in yet, even though she was plagued with thoughts and images of the robbers that she had killed. They had now entered her dreams, staring at her accusingly. She felt guilty; guiltier than she had in her whole life.
The nightmares continued, ruining her mental stability. The only way it would get better, Hinata knew, was if she got back to the Compound, to check if all of Konoha was safe or not. The paranoia was eating her alive, causing her to start to run instead of walk.
No one questioned her. They completed the mission easily, returning to Konoha a week ahead of schedule. The moment they had arrived in Konoha, Kurenai, Shino, Kiba (plus Akamaru) and her immediately split up. They were all deathly frightened of Hinata; Hinata herself could see the accusing look that Kiba was giving her, him thinking that she was a killer, murderer, monster. He was right.
She had killed; she was chilled to the bone by the thought. Not only that, she had killed easily; subconsciously. That alone scared her a lot more than she could probably admit.
Although the paranoia had died down the moment she had seen that Konoha was safe, Hinata still had that heavy pull to go and check on the Hyuuga compound. Despite that, the first place she went was to the training place, to calm down. Maybe have a good rest; the Hyuuga had obviously not attacked, yet.
As she was going to lay down in the water, (Yes, that's were she felt the most comfortable!) she paused to stare at her reflection. She admittedly looked quite frightening; her eyes, her white, pupil less eyes, were sunken and shadowed. This pronounced their blankness, and their unusualness. Her skin was sallow and pale, reminding her of the stories they told of vampires. Her hair was oily, and shone strangely in the light, giving her an almost haunting appearance. That was what she was; haunting. With a haunting beauty, one a person wouldn't wish to meet.
With that thought in mind, she let herself sink into unconsciousness, feeling, for the first time in a while, nightmare free. It was her sanctuary, after all. It was the one of the only places she felt safe it; the place where she had developed so much. Not only skill, but maturity as well.
When she had woken up, a few hours later, looking much more well rested, she knew it was time to go back to the Hyuuga compound. Check on what the situation was, when exactly they- and she- would attack. Hinata knew it was around the time of the Chuunin exams; but when? Before, after, during? The only way to answer these questions was to go, 'home'.
And go home she went, but had the misfortune of bumping into Neji. Neji- who she felt absolutely nothing towards- was an angry child. But he was the perfect Hyuuga. The prodigy. Hinata, sometimes, had been really envious of Neji, and his skill as a Hyuuga. But that was a long time ago, a happier time. She had been so naïve, so unknowing of everything. Unknowing of the truth. But even now, Hinata still couldn't decide whether it was better to know the reality, or stay the small innocent child you were.
Neji was scowling- as always. He was an angry child, and given his background, Hinata had tried to understand, at one point, could. Neji's father had died for the Hyuuga's- undeserving as they were- when Neji was young. Neji thought that that was unfair, that his father had to go in such a manner, and presto: you have a very young, antisocial child. Although, thinking about it, Hinata was very happy that Neji's father was dead; one less person to kill.
One less person to add to her growing collection. At that moment, Hinata could imagine the blood on her hands, her vision, usually trustworthy, zooming out of focus. Her spirit was tainted, burdened, carrying the dead men's souls; which was entirely her fault, because she was the one who killed them. She was a murderer. Hinata's psychological and mental health could only take so much; Hinata felt as if she was desensitizing to her surroundings. No longer feeling anything. It was safer that way.
Neji, meanwhile, stared at her in disgust, and then greeted her with a, "Hinata-sama." Turning his nose upwards, in a failed attempt to look down at her, he tried stalking off. Hinata needed to know one thing, before he went, though. Would she have to kill him, too?
"Neji." She stated, her voice ice cold, her eyes blank. "If you were to choose between Hyuuga and Konoha, which one would you choose?" Neji turned to glare at her, with disdain that skilfully reflected off Hinata's face. He scoffed, as if the answer was obvious.
"Of course, the Hyuuga. My father did not give up his life for something worthless." And with that, he left, taking his arrogance with him. Hinata had tensed. She really didn't want to kill Neji, not if she had a choice. But did she have a choice? She seemed not to have a choice in most things. Hinata beseeched herself to stop thinking about it, knowing that excessive thinking led to some very colourful and creative nightmares.
It was time to check up on the Hyuuga clan. Hinata mentally prepared herself for the worst, heading to the place that had an easy hearing range to the meeting room. In a day, the Hyuuga's mostly stayed in that room; under the pretence they were, 'working'. Bah. Hinata thought irritably; all it was was a bunch of arrogant men, discussing various subjects. Hinata had no idea why they all had to know the Hyuuga techniques; it's not like they had ever used them.
It actually took a couple of days to catch them in the act, to Hinata's surprise. She must have gotten particularly unlucky then; then again it wasn't like they could discuss it all day long. Appearances must be kept, after all. Although she went to check, one last time for the day.
Hinata came in to listen just at the nick of time. "Let us go over the plans one more time. They are closer than ever. We must get it perfect; get the revenge on Konoha." And ignorant Hyuuga elder stated, getting a range of responses back.
"We have gotten in an alliance with the Sand and the Sound. Orochimaru has promised us Konoha, as long as he is able to kill the Hokage, which we have no qualms over. As long as we get our revenge... No one messes with the Hyuuga and gets away with it!" He over dramatized the last point, and got many nods and smiles (more like cringes. Those were the Hyuuga style smiles.) in return.
"Yes, we attack during the Chunin Tournaments. That is when all of Konoha will be distracted!" Hinata's horror... grew, and grew, and grew. Now she had an official time limit. She had to attack a few weeks before the Chunin Tournaments took place... whatever those were. But before that, she needed to research the Hyuuga's allies. This was not looking good, not at all.
She left before anything else could be said. Her future looked bleak; not good at all. Now if only she could get more information about Orochimaru...
The next morning, after she finished training (by herself. Kurenai was so scared of her, that she couldn't even contact her by this point. Hinata could just feel Kurenai looking at her as if she was a murderer, like she was), she found herself in the library. She was searching through the different volumes, searching for anything about Orochimaru. She spotted his (or her) name in a book called Konoha's History, in a chapter called The Three Sannin. So he was a Sannin. What was that? Hinata wondered, deciding to research more about the three Sannin.
If Hinata wasn't so busy, and distracting herself, she would probably be thinking that she was a murderer. A cold, cold blooded murderer. It was a good thing the fiasco with the Hyuuga was keeping her from thinking too much.
Over the next few hours, she had learned a few things about Orochimaru. He was a snake master; having a contract with the snakes, his main one being called Manda. He was exiled out of Konoha, for doing illegal experiments on the people. Hinata, as desensitized as she was, felt extreme horror and disgust at such a creature. As she stared at a picture, she deduced that this Orochimaru didn't act human; but he didn't look it, either. He had very pale eyes, and snaky, cold, amber eyes that stared right through you. Hinata had never felt so chilled at a picture before in her life.
He (Orochimaru) also had impressive techniques; most of them had something to do with snakes. He was part of the three Sannin, a legendary group of ninja from Konoha, that took a large part in the war. He was the only one, however, who turned evil.
As Hinata delved herself deeper into the secrets of the snake, she had realized a few things; he reminded her of Sasuke.
You see, Orochimaru had tried to become the Fourth Hokage, but was turned down by his own mentor, as Hinata learned, the Third Hokage. For a younger, no less. Hinata understood now why the Hyuuga were talking about him killing the Hokage; he was doing this all for revenge. Yes, this snaky bastard reminded her a lot of Sasuke. (In one of the unfortunate circumstances of when she had to use the girls bathroom, she could overhear Sakura and Ino the dreaded 'enemies' discussing Sasuke. In between bickering, Sakura had shared with Ino how Sasuke wanted to kill a certain man, and how his 'cool' revenge based actions had taken him to a new 'cool' level. Emo, Hinata had mused then, hating how human nature had gotten the better of her. She left as if the devil- Sasuke- himself was chasing her, disappear faster than Sakura screaming 'Sasuke'.)
Just then, she felt a dark aura appear near the table she was at. Speak of the devil, Hinata thought bitterly, and the devil shall appear. Sasuke's rocky gaze was upon her, trying to devour her alive. Trying, and epicly failing, that is. Strangely enough, he had acknowledged her. "Hyuuga." He said, walking over to her side, acting as if they were best friends now. Men. Hinata almost snorted, but caught herself on time.
"Uchiha." She shot back, standing up quickly. She had been sitting on the chairs, pondering upon various scrolls. Sasuke walked up to her, staring at the scroll she was reading. He seemed to have no idea on who Orochimaru was, however, as he did not comment. And then his shoulder 'accidentally' bumped into hers. Hinata knew it was no accident; as they were both shinobi, in perfect control of their bodies. She turned to stare blankly at Sasuke. He stared blankly back, as if challenging her.
Hinata had no time for this. She would not involve herself with a boy, especially not now. Even Naruto.
So she left Sasuke there, choosing to disappear than further their interaction. Her thoughts rapidly wandered to Orochimaru, someone who chilled her to the core. That man... he sent shudders up her spine, even by just the pictures. He was a nightmare.
And frankly, he had just been added to her personal nightmares, that kept haunting her dreams. Her dreams, filled with blood, that was usually spattered on her tainted hands. Her hands were tainted; after all, her first kill had proven that.
Actually, I think that I still have like, one more chapter (of Hinata POV) before the prelude of the Massacre. Yes. Be frustrated, as I am.
Well, SOMEONE has a crush. Cough, cough. Oh, stupid men trying to be dominant. Please reviewwwwww! Id love you so!
Thank Airyo chan forever for Betaing this story.
Sincerely,
Aurora-chan!