She was only meters from the chasm entrance when ten shinobi ran up to her and demanded, "Why were you outside the village?!"
"I was trying to help my sister give something to... some people on a mission but... I failed." Her head was drooping, sorrowful, but the shinobi took no notice.
"Well nonetheless, you are not allowed to leave these boundaries ever again!"
This was the first time she lifted her head to see the ninja properly. They all looked very intimidating and one of them was even her new trainer, Riko. She had previously heard that he was one of the Kazekage's favorite shinobi and entitled him to many important city missions. He was about sixteen centimeters taller than herself and his dark brown hair seemed to have a little curl to it down to his shoulders. He seemed like he would be a sweet fellow, apologetic even, but when he saw her, he cringed then squinted as if in suspicion.
Riko was the one to speak up this time, making Hinata feel even more shameful. "Don't leave again. It is for your own safety. I thought a shinobi like you would have known that or at least have figured it out. I guess I expected more from you, Hinata." At that last word, he added a tone of disgust, like her name was rubbish, no longer useful.
"You have been told," another ninja said. "Go home to rest for your training. I heard it'll be difficult," and they all nodded and jumped out of sight.
Hinata knew she could not go back home with her sister being there, so she decided to find an apartment or somewhere else to stay. After she came upon a rickety building she could stay in, she gave the little money she always kept with her and went to bed without changing into different clothes. She couldn't very well buy any more now, and it would not help in the events of that night. And currently, food was no option as well.
The moon was high in the air, full. As always said in stories, it was beautiful, but haunting. What would happen tonight was normally the side-branch's nightmare, but this man felt it necessary for a main-brancher.
The small windows let in the cool night air. Cracked, it was easily able to be opened to a full extent allowing a thin person entry. Hinata was fast asleep, in a nightmare that was not her life, but one where she was being pulled away from something important, something that could let her survive. When she thought she saw it, she opened her eyes and saw a web like pattern around a light violet pair of eyes staring down at her. She held back a scream. 'Might as well try to be brave,' and soon brought herself to say, "What do you want? I have no secret information about the city so begone! Before I kill you in protecting Sunagakure."
He merely gave a small cackle from behind his midnight mouth-cover as the breeze stopped flowing in. The window was now locked and she had locked the door before she went to bed and the vent was too small for anyone to escape through. 'What's his intention?'
"You think I'm here for info eh?" His voice was harsh and cruel, like it spent years criticizing and insulting people. He at last backed away from her bed and said, "I'm actually here to give a warning." She sat up against the tough wall to see what he meant. He made some hand signs and gently slammed his palm onto the ground and a glowing green circle with ying and yang at the middle appeared around his left hand and expanded across the floor. He made a few more signs with the very last one directed in her direction, left hand palm-side-up directly at her. She tried to move out of the way but felt like her legs and wrists were chained to the bed, her arms to her side. She looked down and only saw her color-drained covers. She looked back up to see three more signs being weaved, recognizing them to be ones of hurt just by the feeling in her gut.
The last sign weaved, a burning sensation came over her. The man laughed as he watched the girl squirm around in pain. He laughed every time he did it, though he only felt pity for one person he saw who had to brand the mark.
After what seemed like an hour to Hinata, the electrical torture gradually felt to be taking some type of form on her neck. She brought her cold hands to her neck to try to cool it, but her hands only stung. She pulled them away and saw a faint green light on them and then disapparated. It reminded her of the seal that appeared after he weaved the first few signs, the one that had looked to be on his hand. Right before the little light faded, she saw a figure with what looked like two bones crossing, like a death sign.
"You normally wouldn't have gotten this, but your lack of determination and skill brings me to do this. Seek me out if you really wish to become stronger and use the gift you were born with, Hyuga." With that said, he was gone.
'What one earth is a Hyuga? It sounds... dangerous...'
'My only solution: I must go ask the authorities. They must know something at least. It was infiltration of the village!'
She prepared her presence by finger-combing her blue hair and washing her face with a clean white towel the room had provided for her use. She then put on her sandals by the door and departed for the Kazekage's mansion and office, which just happened to pass the outside area of the Academy.
As she passed the Academy, she saw her old teacher stare at her, glared. 'Disgust. That's what people must think when they see me now after yesterday. That means Matsuri went off and blabbed to people. Oh no... what if the Kazekage hears? Or Gaara...'
She looked away from her old teacher and sprinted toward the city offices. Once she came to the doors, she fixed her hair one last time and brushed her hair out of her face. She opened one of the double doors and stepped in.
"Hinata! You are under arrest for murder! The Kazekage has already had an official meeting with other council members and you are to be in prison for the rest of your life!" It was Riko shouting at her. It was all so sudden that she hardly even thought of what she was doing. She didn't know what to do except give in. She definitely was not strong enough to take on her new sensei and three other jonin, so she hung her head and walked forward with them. She heard Riko grunt at her submission and started roughly directing her by the shoulder down a hallway toward the left, after putting cuffs of metal around her wrists that seemed to come from nowhere. Then she realized that must be her sensai's kekkei genkai.
Hinata was still looking down when she noticed the bottom of the walls looked different, differently designed. She slowly lifted her head and looked to the right to see a sand covered wall in a large room. With the little sun coming in through the 20 by 30 centimeter curtained window, she could barely distinguish a figure lying on the bed. She saw the person sit up and turn his head toward the door to where she was passing by. 'Those aqua eyes...'
'Hinata, what're they doing to you?'
She could understand the outline of his eyes: round and wide. 'I did something so now I pay.'
Gaara stared out his door to where he saw the girl he cared for being dragged by his father's guards. 'What could she have done to deserve this? It couldn't be... about... that... could it?' Gaara dashed off after her, coming with a sharp turn out of his room.
He couldn't find where she had been directed. He had never been told where the prison and torture cells were, so he went to find someone who was able to find any information, or even persuade an unpersuadable father.
"Temari!" He shouted down the hall as he almost flew down the steps to the hallway below, out of breath. "I need... you to... do me a… favor… please."
She turned around with a book in hand as she was walking toward her silent bedroom. She was surprised that her brother seemed so eager and almost relieved to see her. He slowly approached her, not in the creepy way that makes it look like he wants to kill, as he was usually accustomed to look, but more like he needed someone to lean on.
"Temari, will you please tell Lord Kazekage to let Hinata go?" He kneeled in the proper manner as if he were confronting a parent in the main room: sitting on his heels, knees together and in front of him while his hands laid on top. His head bowed forward so that she was unable to see his face, she could tell he was ashamed, yet sad as she starred at his wild, red hair. "She couldn't have done anything wrong," he went on, "and she doesn't... deserve to be in pain when her life already is pain. She's gone through the insult of the class and her teammates, the insults from her skin and eyes, the ignorance of her own being. Please, help her be relieved of this unnecessary burden."
She did not reply, but quickly turned and walked away, leaving her brother on the floor looking at her in dismay and bewilderment. 'You don't deserve to be helped because of what you have done to this village, Gaara...'