AN: Should I be starting another story. No. Blame this on there being barely any Hinata-centric fics and me getting pissed about it.

Also writing in third person is fucking difficult.

Hinata woke with a start, almost as if she'd been falling in a dream and had been pulled out right before she hit the ground. It took seconds before she calmed her breathing and less to notice the unfamiliar blue sky and trees surrounding her.

"Hanabi?" she softly called, "Are you there?" Coughing lightly, she could feel her throat quickly closing up with panic and shot to her feet, "Hanabi? HANABI?!" A burning sensation filled her lungs and clouded her mind. Hanabi was watching her move through her kata's last she remembers. Where is she?

She quickly latched a hand over her mouth, eyes wide with fear. It had been beaten into her that as a Hyuga she's a high-value target for enemies. People are willing to kill for her eyes. Start wars even. She can't freak out. Enough blood has been shed due to her incompetence. She can freak out later.

Now that she'd managed to calm herself down before hysterics started, coughing slightly into her fist, she took in her surroundings. She was in a small clearing. Trees, much smaller than the ones she knew, surrounded her and even the smell was different. The trees weren't massive or towering like the ones by the Hyuga compound, but were smaller all around and much more frail looking. Not that that's saying much, Hinata's pretty sure nothing is as big as some of the trees in those forests.

Activating her Byakugan, she couldn't find anything of note baring a few strange creatures she couldn't wrap her head around. Lightly rubbing her arm, an itch that appeared seemingly out of nowhere, she kept her byakugan up and started walking in a random direction.

Or tried to. As soon as she took a step, her byakugan deactivated and her legs gave out from under her. Dropping to the ground, the itchiness quickly turned into a burning sensation over every inch of her skin, her eyes stung as if itching powder had been thrown directly into them, her whole face actually. That burn in her lungs that she'd been feeling ever since she had woken is very real and spreading to the rest of her organs. The light coughing turned into violent hacking.

'A-am I dying?' Hinata wondered, blinking tears out of her eyes. That's what this felt like. She had never died before obviously but this had to be close to the feeling. She couldn't even scream. Each breath brought more pain and caused the searing inside her body to become worse.

Her eyes narrowed. No. This may be dying but it isn't death. She thought of her little sister, of Hanabi, watching her mediocre katas in wonder. Taking in everything she could.

It can't be death.

She forced her eyes to activate again but focused. It hurt. It caused the stinging in her eyes to burn just as bad as the rest of her body but she did her best to ignore it. Something had to be causing this.

From her fetal position -she didn't know when she had curled up into a ball- she strained her eyes to their limits, honestly, this might be even more dangerous than whatever's causing this. Popping a blood vessel would make this situation even more of a disaster, there's a reason Hyuga slowly train their eyes over time.

Hinata's Byakugan has always been able to see rather far for her age, around sixty-seven meters and that's before her body really started to go through puberty, but what she needs to do is different. Something she'd been training up for months but is far from able to do it seamlessly. Actually, she'd never done it at all.

Macro to micro.

Neji can do it seamlessly, but she's just Hinata. Disappointing, talentless Hinata.

A particularly harsh cough interrupted her thoughts, Come on Hinata, she knew if she doesn't do this she'd likely die so who cares if her eyes go out?

Everything had been hazing in and out, like the zoom of a camera on a completely different level. She could feel her already prominent veins spreading father along her face and felt as if they were going to burst when she finally saw them, something different. Small glowing particles floating in the air, the trees, soil, that creek twenty or so meters from here, they were everywhere.

Everywhere except inside her, although they were doing a fine job of seeping into her skin.

Whatever they were, her body was rejecting them. Her body, down to her chakra itself, was rejecting the particles as if they were a virus. Maybe they were? Maybe the air was poison?

She tried taking a breath, only for it to come out strangled and choked. Wet. This isn't good. She can't die. Hanabi might be in danger.

Wait… she sighed in relief as she let her Byakugan rest, she probably wouldn't be able to use it much more today but didn't pay that thought any mind as she focused inwards.

Now that she knew that they were there, she wouldn't need to see them.

She had been told that her one talent was her chakra control, that it was adept for a child, even for a Hyuga apparently. And with that chakra control came an increased sensitivity to her chakra network and activity. So, paying attention to the flow of her chakra, and the strange poisonous particles. She noticed that the poison wasn't penetrating her chakra like it was the rest of her body. Or it is, but it's getting swept up in the flow of her chakra network, maybe because it's not physical. Theoretically, she should be able to…

Focusing on her Tenketsu points, she pushes out chakra into a thin layer covering her body. She has to get this right, too much then she'd run out too quickly, too little and it wouldn't do whQat she needed. A nice middle ground she could maintain is what she needed.

It took a second or two of tweaking but Hinata could instantly feel the effects, her hacking coughs settled down into wheezing breaths, the searing pain throughout her body dialed down to just an intense stinging. With her chakra acting as a buffer of sorts, fewer particles touched her skin and made it inside her body. That didn't mean that each breath didn't cause intense pain but it was more manageable now.

Now she was probably just going to die slower.

This entire process took the span of around three or so minutes, though it felt longer, it should have been shorter. She had gotten into the habit of timing herself when she was doing anything of note. First starting when she was trying to get quicker with her katas. She usually fell short. Father certainly thought so, as did the rest of her clan.

'Glad to see nothing's changed on that front,' a small dark part of herself whispered.

Deactivating her Byakugan and immediately feeling relief, she shook her head. Inadequacies aside, she needs to figure out where she is and how much danger she's in.

And how much danger her little sister might be in.

Actually, if the air is poisonous to her it likely would be just as poisonous to her sister.

The thought pushed her forward, almost franticly but she managed to fall back on her training even if it was hard to not panic because this is really scary she justwantstogohome- STOP IT, she screamed in her head. I might be in enemy territory. Even if it's scary, she can't. Freak. Out.

She needs to take stock of her situation, yeah. That's the right thing to do.

Glancing at her clothing, she sighed, wishing she had her jacket. Her jacket was warm, and soft, and safe. But no, all she had on was her black training outfit. A thin, dark long-sleeved shirt over mesh armor. The mesh is a bit heavier than normal so she could get used to moving while weighed down. Her pants -the same color as her shirt- are calf-length not coming close to her sandals to offer more freedom of movement.

Thankfully, she'd already needed to start wrapping her chest. Even if her breasts were small right now, it was embarrassing to have started growing so early. They made boys -and some girls- look at her funny. She'd rather not be looked at at all.

If anything she could use them as bandages since her supplies were, depressingly, a pouch consisting of a handful of shuriken and a three kunai she was planning on practicing with.

So she has minimal supplies, her training gi, her eyes -which were extremely painful to activate at the moment and at risk of overuse- and she was in an unknown area with acidic air.

Yeah, she's dead.

Taking a wobbly step in a random direction, she walked.

Normally, even with the smaller, more flimsy-looking trees, she could have jumped through them. It'd be less dangerous and much faster. She'd even be able to do it without manually strengthening her muscles with chakra for a little bit.

But with how weak she felt just stumbling through the brush, and with how out of breath, dizzy, and nauseous she felt with just a few steps she didn't want to risk it. On top of that, she was dealing with a lot of pain, and her tears were making her vision blur more than it already was on its own, and on top of everything else she's having to maintain a very precise layer of chakra over her skin.

She leaned against a tree, coughing, her throat was already sore.

Turning back, she saw that she'd barely made any distance from her starting point.

"This…" she winced as the hand that touched the tree suddenly erupted in pain, "Is not good."

Two hours and thirteen minutes later

Hinata was making too much noise.

Kunoichi weren't supposed to be loud, even when in pain and probably dying like she is right now. Every step she took was heavy and loud, luckily no leaves had fallen but that hardly made a difference at this point.

Sweat dripped down her chin, she was drenched and sticky and felt terrible but at least the pain faded, now it was down to a dull throb. She even stopped crying! That was something right? Not really. She's exhausted and her body is heavy but she can't stop until she knows where she is. No one can get her eyes, she needs to be sure Hanabi is safe, and no wars are started because of her.

But most of all, she's scared. The panic is getting more and more difficult to hold at bay the further she walks without seeing anyone.

SNAP!

Suddenly, she heard branches and maybe even the trees themselves breaking. Something was rumbling towards her, something big and strong and angry.

She activated and deactivated her Byakugan in quick succession, pain flared briefly but it was enough to see what was coming her way. A monster. Some type of brown-furred cross between a bear and a human, if only because it's clawed hands had thumbs too. What seems to be blades came from various spots from the thing's back and arms. It was burrowing towards her, fast. She needs to move.

But she didn't.

She froze.

Her breath left her, and her carefully maintained coat of chakra fluctuated. Thankfully not too much but it was enough that it stopped buffering the particles for a second or two.

The trees in front of her were casually knocked over right before her vision exploded with spots as the beast slammed into her, instantly a new pain formed as she was flung through a tree or two where her back splintered yet another tree, bouncing off of it.

The impact, and likely broken ribs, knocked back her senses. She barely had time to struggle to her feet before she was looking up at the monster heaving over her. Its hot breath was moist with drool and was rancid enough to make Hinata almost gag. She could see meat between the teeth of a maw large enough to chomp her body in half in one bite.

A low keening noise made its way past her lips as she froze once more.

It let out an ear splitting roar in Hinata's face, she could feel it throughout her body, shaking her bones, her face became wet with the spittle and who knows what.

Looking into its eyes, she could only see hunger and rage.

As it reared its head back to lung, she saw those same eyes go blank and its body slack, the low growling rumbling through its throat cut off abruptly.

She only had enough time to realize that her byakugan was activated, pulsing with pain, and her palm and on its furry chest, right over its heart, before it dropped down on top of her. The dead weight made it even more difficult to breathe.

It took an embarrassingly long amount of time before she was able to wiggle fully out from under it, injured, poisoned, and weak as she was. Not to mention her hacking up her lungs the whole time and the sheer amount of bulk of the beast made it even worse. It was ridiculously huge. Around five times her meager height and completely dwarfing her with its mass, the blades being around a foot each. It'd even cratered the ground a little bit.

And she killed it.

Tears welled up in her eyes when she fully realized the fact. She'd accidentally stopped its heart. Yes, it was going to eat her, and yes this was the best possible outcome but… but she still killed it. It still hurt. She didn't want to harm it, it just left her no other choice. It was an accident, right? This wasn't her fault.

-the kitten mewling in pain, her father looking down on her in disappointment-

-No! Stop. It was going to eat her, it was either her or it. It had a painless death at least… She smiled softly, "A much less painful death than mine," she whispered ruefully. Quicker too.

Letting out a shaky, pain-filled breath and wiping her eyes, she set a firm expression on her face. If she faked it, she could get through this right? She could survive.

Hastily reapplying her chakra buffer, she nearly collapsed when her back erupted in pain, and her side didn't feel much better. The adrenaline must be wearing off.

Not wanting to be near the bear-monster-thing she stumbled away from it as quick as she could. Once it was out of sight, Hinata collapsed on the ground.

Blinking away the black spots from her eyes, she groaned. Her back was probably just one big bruise so there was nothing she could do about that but her side… she grimaced as the hand she brushed it with felt wet and came back sticky. Blood.

She activated her byakugan, ignored the throbbing they gave, and looked through her clothes. A large gash was torn near her stomach, along with her shirt and mesh armor. It looked like the mesh did its job, taking the brunt of the damage but the gash was still fairly deep.

Deactivating her byakugan and blinking away the spots that were a very new thing for her, Hinata carefully took to taking off her overshirt, then her mesh shirt -that one was more difficult because of the material- she set them down neatly as she could, and set to unwrapping her chest bindings.

Wincing as she wrapped the bindings tight against her side, she almost cried at how much binding she was using for bandages. This meant she had less for her chest. Which, while not really big enough to cause a hindrance to her movement, were again, embarrassing when she talked to people.

People already stared at her enough because of her eyes.

Cutting her makeshift bandage with a kunai, Hinata internally cringed at the thought of talking to strangers, anyone really. But she'd probably have to unless she was in enemy territory. But she hadn't ever heard of a creature like that and she's only survived this long because she's a Hyuga, she has access to her tenketsu points. Not many kunoichi could survive this poison.

Not that she was a kunoichi yet.

Hinata's eyes widened as everything hit her. She just almost died, and has no idea where she could possibly be. The air is poison, monsters are running around -one just tried to skewer and eat her!- and now she has to deal with a wound that's already soaking her bandages red, a back that's more bruise than skin, and a body that already felt like it was on fire before any of that.

And worst of all, she still doesn't know if her sister is okay.

She clutched her head, pulling at her hair as the world twisted her and blurred together, "What is this?" she pulled harder and started crying again, "Get a grip Hinata, you're the Heiress aren't you? You're supposed to be strong. Fathersaid you're not to be weak, Hanabi expects you to be strong."

-Maybe he got rid of you-

No.

-This is what a miserable disappointment deserves-

No!

Hinata let out a soft chuckle that contrasted with her inner thoughts, and a shaky breath that turned into a coughing fit, which also turned into her stomach almost forcing itself up her throat.

"I'm going to die."

It's going to happen. No, it was happening. She's just stretching out the process, making it more painful.

Looking up at the clear blue sky, she chuckled, "Father is probably ecstatic."

She knew anything she did came up short, it was obvious with the way he looked at her. Like no matter what she did she'd fail. She wouldn't meet his expectations, wasn't as good as Neji, as Hanabi. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't get anything other than disappointment when he looked at her. Though she found herself craving that look too.

Disappointment is better than nothing.

Thinking if her father made her thoughts roam to her little sister. Always staring, expectation in her gaze. The only approval that she could admit she craved more than her father's.

Sighing, she slowly picked herself up off the ground, her side stitching and her back throbbing the more she moved.

She could die when she sees Hanabi again. Safe and happy. Until then, failure or not, she had to survive even if everything is killing her.

Rewrapping her chest, her mood lifted slightly realizing she'd have just enough to make her flat again.

She had to hold in a yelp when she put her mesh back on. She tried to not tear up but only kind of succeeded. Why is it more of a pain than taking it off? The feeling of the metal brushing along her back made her breath hitch, but it probably saved her life so back on it goes. The shirt wasn't as painful thankfully, though lifting her arms in any way made her entire torso throb.

Slowly rolling her ankles one at a time to test if they were okay, she then bent her knees. At least her legs were more or less okay.

Her layer of chakra was still fine. While applying it was a bit tricky, keeping it on and maintaining it was automatic for the most part, it was kind of like a lesser version of water walking except applied to her entire body instead of just her feet.

'That was just one more thing I learned after Neji.'

Neji had taken a few hours to learn both tree walking and water walking at the age of seven. At the same age, it took her a whole day. And then just to rub salt in the wound, she was bedridden the entire day after. That didn't stop her from reading at least.

A familiar roar shook the forest, snapping Hinata out of her thoughts, only it sounded angrier, and somehow way more scary. Activating her byakugan for a second, she almost groaned.

'They come in pairs? How is that fair?!' She cried in her head.

Carefully moving away from the roaring of, well, probably its mate or something, she turned her byakugan back on and kept them on, even if it hurt. Who knows if there were more of these things, plus she didn't get the chance to study the last one properly. Whatever they are, they're just so bizarre and frightening that she's interested in what they look like on the inside.

Now that she's seen them once, she can tune the particles into her vision without as much effort as finding them was. It was still hard, and painful, but easier. Though even if it was easier, Hinata was pushing it with them just being on right now That being said, the animals here are immune, no, they're thriving with the poison.

One thing she's noticed is that the animals here actually take in the particles, unlike with how she's just passing through them and the effect of that is they seep into her body, they seem to be actively soaking them up and storing them. Some animals. like that squirrel-looking creature hiding in that tree a few dozen meters from the monster, take in less. While others, like the monster-sword-bear things, take in much more. Why? Probably because of size, she doesn't know. And she doesn't have the time to find out.

The monster-animal turned in her direction and started sniffing. Great.

Hinata, all efforts of being stealthy abandoned, started running. In hindsight, there was no way this wasn't going to happen. Her bleeding out for a little bit was more than enough for it to catch her scent.

Hearing a roar that vibrated her bones and more trees being knocked over, she ignored her various injuries and started to sprint. The pain was excruciating but getting hit by another of those things would kill her, so she endured.

Luckily, it seemed to be fairly slow compared to her, unluckily, she doesn't know where she's going and her stamina's quickly running out- "Wait is it getting faster?"

The creature was slowly gaining speed but the gap was closing more and more by the second. This wouldn't work. She's injured and all this running was making her dizzy. Plus while she had to weave through the trees, the beast just was just flattening them, not fazed in the slightest. At this rate, it's going to catch her.

She'd have to kill it. On purpose this time.

Luckily, there was another small clearing up ahead with the beast's strength the trees would be more of a hindrance to her than to it.

She nearly stumbled as a sharp pulse of agony ran throughout her eyes and brain, shortly being followed by her vision blurring tremendously. The pain made her control slip and her layer of chakra fluctuated because of it.

She could make out faded shapes, but that was it.

Bursting into the small clearing, she went directly for the small pond taking up the majority of it.

Hinata didn't know if the bear thing could swim, she wasn't the best herself but she didn't have to be.

Stepping onto the water she pulled out a kunai, spinning around and sliding to a stop in the middle of the pond. Her breathe was coming out in ragged gasps, and everything hurt. None of that mattered though, the thing is coming.

She readied her kunai, now that her Byakugan was out of commission -she wasn't willing to risk using them again- the gentle fist style wouldn't be as effective. Which sucked. Technically, she could still use it but this needed to end quickly.

Hinata hissed through her teeth, "C'mon Hinata, it's just an animal and it's trying to kill you. You have to do this." It's not a person, or a kitten, it's a giant murder-bear.

She flinched as it crashed into the clearing with a roar but quickly got in her ready stance again. She wouldn't be able to dodge all that well, so hopefully the water gives it more trouble than the trees.

Surprisingly, it stopped near the water. It even stopped roaring for a few seconds to just stare at her.

Not long after that, it was splashing through the water, sending literal waves with its weight and strength. It was quicker than she'd thought it'd be but it was clearly not meant for swimming.

All she needed was one shot, and with the situation as it is currently it'd be easy. Even with her being more or less blind at the moment.

With it bobbing to keep a float, it could do next to nothing as Hinata reared her Kunai back and plunged it into its brain. The kunai met more resistance than expected but it still died instantly.

The tool is stuck in the bone though, she's down one kunai.

Hinata made her way back to land, nearly losing control and dropping into the water during the short walk. Now that she wasn't being chased by the creature, the adrenaline was fading yet again, leaving her even more exhausted than the first time.

Everything hurt more now.

Legs buckling, her body pulsed with pain as she collapsed to the ground. She rolled over to her back and just focused on breathing, managing her chakra, and the fact that she was still alive. Her eyes were drifting closed when she realized something very important.

She can't sleep.

The chakra covering her skin may be easy to maintain while away but her being asleep was a different story.

A low, pitiful groan weaseled out through her lips.

"I'm definitely going to die."

AN: Hinata's having a bad day.

Been wanting to do a Hinata fic for a while so it's nice to get this out of my brain.

A thank you for Redking96, he brainstormed the hell out of this with me.

Interaction and reviews make my fucking day.