Sasuke found himself visiting the Hyūga house more often over his short period of vacation. A vacation he really didn't want to be on since work helped him remain distracted, but he was forced to stay away; every time he showed up, Itachi would threaten to call their mother.

Sitting behind the wheel of the idle car, he pulled his phone out and checked his emails quickly in hopes of getting some sort of update from Jiraiya. The man was practically hard to reach, a habit he was sure Naruto had picked up without realizing. Sasuke understood that some people worked better undisturbed — he was the exact same way — but for a private investigator, especially one looking for his missing friend, Jiraiya took 'undisturbed' to another level.

Still nothing yet.

It was a short message, one that Sasuke wasn't exactly happy about getting. It's been a week at best since he's reached out to the man, and it felt as if he was working with the police themselves once again. Nothing yet. It was always the same words over and over again.

A knock on his window alarmed him. On the other side was an upset Hanabi, her arms were crossed, and it was obvious that she had been crying. He didn't say anything, he just unlocked the doors and motioned to the passenger seat, silently offering her a place to sit.

"Thanks." She mumbled, pulling her hoodie over her head as she let it swallow her whole. Every few seconds, she would wipe her face and fidget with the sleeves of her sweater. "I'm sorry about my outburst the other day."

"You're still thinking about that?" He looked up from his phone after opening and closing the same apps over and over again in an attempt to find something to do. "It's fine."

"I was being a bitch."

"You're allowed to have a breakdown, Hanabi. You can curse and yell at me, I know it's because you miss her."

"You didn't take my words to heart, did you?" She looked through his glove compartment for some tissues. Lucky for her, he always kept some in there for Hinata's sake.

"I thought about them a few times, but no." He lied. Of course he took them to heart, she had insulted him and then assumed he didn't care simply because he reached out for help from a professional.

She did so days after putting her trust in him and telling him that she believed that he would find her sister. It felt as if there was this invisible timer he was expected to beat but there was no way for him to do that. He couldn't blame her, she was still young and scared; the longer Hinata was away, the more intense her fear became.

Not only that, but her words about being in love with Hinata echoed through his head constantly and stopped him from sleeping properly. He hadn't put much thought into anything besides that, he had convinced himself that they were only friends, and they would remain friends. Being in love with her never crossed his mind at all.

"I fought with my father and Neji." She sighed, glaring at the garage door as she clenched the tissues in her hands.

"What was the fight about?"

"I lashed out like I did with you. They've been home all the time, no one is moving their ass and making an effort anymore. The police gave up, and it feels as if my own family is giving up besides me."

"There's not much we can do, Hanabi. I don't even know where to start, or what to look for." He said truthfully. "If the people equipped with the necessary equipment and skills to find Hinata have no hope, what is there for us to do? We all lose sleep, and your father stays on the phone with me every single night in hopes of getting information as quickly as I do. You won't know about it because he doesn't want to tell you."

"Father isn't sleeping?" She turned to him, her eyes searching his face for any indication that he was lying.

"He's as involved with everything as he can be. He provides the funds if need be, even if I tell him that I have Jiraiya's payments under control."

"I didn't know…"

"I don't expect you to."

Hanabi let out a pained laugh. "I really am not mature enough to handle any of this like I originally thought. I'm the only one losing my cool so often and getting mad at everyone for trying their best." She pressed her palms against her eyes, trying to stop the hot tears that were flowing once again. "I'm just a stupid kid like everyone thinks."

"You're not stupid."

"Can I be self-deprecating for a moment? All my life I've been praised as compared to Hinata. She's always the one suffering silently, and I try to be a better sister for her sake. I praise her when I can because I don't want it getting to her. If you think me talking shit about myself for five seconds is worse than the words that have left my sister's mouth, you're mistaken."

It was Sasuke's turn to laugh without humour behind his voice. It earned him a raised eyebrow from the younger girl, a shiver went down her spine as she listened to him.

"Who do you think Hinata comes running to after those moments?"

"I assumed she just sits in a park and cries."

"She calls me to meet her. I've heard it all, Hanabi, which is why I'm also worried and scared. What would happen when she returns home? Would she blame herself for being kidnapped like she constantly blames herself for something that wasn't her fault?"

"Sasuke…"

"Hn."

"Please tell me about my sister. I want to hear it from you rather than anyone else."

"I'm not the most talkative person, Hanabi."

"You talk a lot when it's about Hinata." She finally took her hoodie off after calming herself down.

"Don't tell her that I had this talk with you."

"Deal."


Hinata stood in front of the mirror, her fingers tracing the raised and marked skin. The stitchings were beginning to heal, blending into her skin, and they would have gone unnoticed had it not been for the uneven appearance they left behind. She remembered when she first took notice of them, it was immediately after she woke up.

They made her sick; she had cried and threw up a few times when her eyes would linger on them for a moment longer every single time she stepped out of the shower. The operation was painless, that was for sure, but the recovery wasn't. They hurt, and Kabuto nor Orochimaru offered her painkillers to help in her recovery. They had watched and studied her, smiling greedily anytime she walked past them.

According to them, the tissue samples they had collected from her body were currently going through many experiments. What for? She still had no idea, nor did she want to know. The only thing that continuously puzzled her was why they were obsessed with her being a Hyūga. What was so special about her family? They had simply said that her eyes were fascinating, yet they didn't try anything with them. It led her to believe that they were lying about her eyes being the answer for their obsession with her.

The sound of her door opening made her panic. Letting her shirt cover her stomach once more, she pulled on a pair of long pants and walked out of the bathroom. Kabuto stood there, his arms crossed and his foot tapping against the floor impatiently.

"You take too long in the shower." He grumbled.

"I was checking how my body was healing." She said, "what do you want today?"

"Did something change in your healing process?" He ignored her question, his interest piqued at hearing the possibility of her recovery going extremely well. She wasn't supposed to be healing quickly, especially without any ointment or medicine.

Hinata bit her lip, stepping away from him as he approached her. The feeling of his fingers against her hips, right where the biggest incision was, made her skin crawl. "They're just fading faster than I think they should." She mumbled.

"Lift your shirt." He instructed.

"What?"

"You heard me."

"No."

"You don't have much of a choice here." His eyes narrowed. "You don't want to annoy me right now."

She didn't move as fast as he would have liked. Kabuto pushed her back against the wall and grabbed her shirt as he lifted it to cover her head. His eyes were trained on the pinkish irritated flesh that really was beginning to fully heal. He pushed his fingers into one of the stitches, ignoring as she thrashed in his arms as her body erupted in pain.

Blood seeped out of his careless markings, the area around it flushing bright pink as Hinata screamed for him to stop.

"Please!" She cried, trying to move away from him but he kept her there. "Stop! Please!"

"Kabuto." A voice interrupted them.

Groaning, Kabuto stepped back from Hinata and turned to the intruder. "What do you want?"

It was a nameless servant, one of the many they had forcefully taken from their homes where no one would miss them.

"Lord Orochimaru is looking for you." His voice was just above a whisper, his head was bowed in submission.

"I'll be right there, you can leave." Kabuto waved him off, turning back to Hinata who was slumped over on the floor.

Her hand was pressed to her side, tears falling from her eyes as she tried to ignore the pain. "Why did you do that?"

"I was performing a little experiment." He smirked.

"You didn't need to touch me! You could have just seen it for yourself." She yelled, making eye contact with him. She was sure to make him know that she was indeed angry, and she wouldn't stand for whatever stupid reason he muttered.

"Fighting back are we? Are you forgetting what your place is in this place?"

"I could care less, you fucking asshole." She crawled over to the bathroom, using the door to stand up.

Kabuto reached for her, yanking her back by her hair. He ignored her cries of pain once more as he hissed at her. "Don't talk to me that way."

Hinata didn't apologize. She just bit her lip as she let him whisper his threats into her ear. No matter how much he threatened her with death, she knew that he would never do it, she was too valuable to get rid of.

"I will share with Orochimaru my findings. You will be eating in your room today." He pushed her away and wiped his hands as if he touched something nasty. "You're lucky that I like you."

Hinata's breathing was heavy as she listened to him leave. She clenched her fists, her anger flooding her systems, successfully numbing the pain of her open injury for just a moment. If she was ever given the opportunity, she would make Kabuto hurt more than she has.


Jiraiya stood in front of Hinata's bakery, a trench coat and sunglasses made him stand out more than it helped conceal him. All his career, no one took him seriously because of this, but that didn't stop him getting his job done.

Pulling out a gadget from his pocket, he approached the door and looked to his left and right as he inserted it into the lock of the door and fiddled with it. People walked by, only giving him weird looks before minding their business, he was grateful that none of them were the police.

Who was Ogata Jiraiya?

For one, he used to work with the FBI but left his job since he felt as if there was more to do. He was also a failed novelist, but that wasn't something he gloated about very much, his fans barely knew what he looked like. Jiraiya was a freelancer half the time, taking on multiple jobs, but he was most successful in finding people who the police had given up on.

That's what he intended to do today; find some sort of clue that would put his clients at ease for the time being.

Letting out an exasperated sigh of satisfaction, the door opened wide and he stepped inside. Closing it behind him, Jiraiya flicked on the lights and watched as the place became alive.

"This is nice." He mumbled as he walked around the place. His goal was to find the camera systems.

It took some time, and a lot of snooping in things that didn't hold any meaning like the pile of letters left behind. He would have much preferred if the place remained untouched but he understood, from what Sasuke said, that her father and sister had cleaned the place a few times.

Sitting down in front of the monitor, Jiraiya turned it on and was grateful when he realized that there wasn't a password on it — probably because it was in such a hard place to find. Clicking through emails, opening multiple files, he laughed loudly when he found the security system.

There were multiple files inside, they were organized by dates which made his job easier. Picking a random one to see what sort of angles the cameras were recording from, he began scrolling through each and every single one of them.

Hours passed by, and he didn't find anything for a while. His coat was thrown over the desk, his glasses pushed his hair back, and an unfinished box of takeout was pushed to the side. Yawning loudly, his shoulders slouched some more as he propped his head up against his hand.

His eyes watched the sped up version of the footage, he would rub them occasionally when they began to hurt. When he was ready to conclude that there was nothing he could find in the footage, a man caught his eyes.

Jiraiya sat up straight, rewinding the tape as he zoomed in. The glasses and white hair were very familiar. Going back to other footage, he realized that the man had constantly been seen in the vicinity of the bakery. He would pace back and forth in the parking lot, or he would sit inside a vehicle and wait until it was getting late.

The thing about this man; he was very very familiar. He had seen him before.

Taking his phone out, Jiraiya scrolled through his past messages; pictures of women or younger men, paragraphs from clients begging him to find them. He knew where he saw that man in the video before.

Turning the monitor off, he grabbed his things quickly and left the bakery. He needed to have a talk with Sasuke quickly, but first he needed to stop at the hospital.