Disclaimer: Naruto characters aren't mine.
Chapter 5 – Height
Everything seemed normal in the forest: the usual lush foliage up the trees and the crumbly dry ground underfoot; the only thing that was not usual was the menacing stares reciprocated by the black eyes of a woman and white eyes of a younger one at a corner in the woods.
From their spot, the active part of Taki was obliterated by distance, by the darkness fueling as the sun shifted slowly above the forest, and by the eerie feeling it engendered. The wind blew, the leaves flicking by the frisky late afternoon waft, but it did not seem enough to calm Hinata's rapidly beating heart.
She was never the confrontational one.
"Then, girl," Banshi finally voiced louringly, "you're asking for it."
Byakugan: the bloodline ability that was revered and feared simultaneously. And it was the truth that Hinata was born as the heir of the clan that wielded it. Some would go to any length to attain it because having it in possession would elaborate a person's skills and give them a great advantage of sight. There was a reason the caged bird seal was coerced into the lower-branch members: because it was the clan's most pressing matter to protect it from being stolen and becoming a tool for ninjas with wicked intentions.
And physical strength, unfortunately, was something Hinata was not born with. Despite expectations and predictions, she was just an ordinary girl and was no genius. All she knew was that if she were going to transcend and become something meaningful to her clan, she would have to work thrice as hard as anybody else.
And because of her weakness, she had been deemed an easy target for those intending to steal the white eye's ability.
Because she, as the heir to her clan, possessed; if not more effective, than at least the purest form of it.
These eyes… She thought blankly, struggling not to let the emotion appear on her face, strengthening the posture of her legs as she stood and stared at the woman.
"The name is Banshi, before anything," the woman finally introduced herself. Hinata scrutinized the passages of chakra in the body of the woman. Banshi had a generous amount of it, more than what she was housing in her own body.
Certain death, Hinata thought, beginning to hear her breaths escape her mouth ponderously.
She could not be afraid now.
She couldn't because nobody was there to save her.
'I must be calm,' she tried to convince herself quietly. 'I won't run away, even if I die… there will be less burden for everyone.'
Banshi then removed a seal from her belt. She lowered her body and spread the sealed parchment on the ground, placed her index finger on her lips, and pressed the other on the seal. A piece of long, metal rod came to light with a sudden gust of smoke, and she stood up, starting to twist the rod in her hand skillfully. Smirking, she wound the rod up in the air—and her body arched before her hand swung and hit the tip of the rod with all her might to the ground.
As the rod tip hit the soil, the earth cracked loudly and vertically to where Hinata was standing. Seeing this, Hinata flipped backward, pressed her hand on the ground, and jerked her body further back, the bottom splintering toward her like the undulatory locomotion of a snake. Hinata continued her back flips before halting at a spot thirty meters away from the sly woman.
The farthest spot where the crack had stopped and caused a small explosion to burst from the ground was twenty meters from her opponent.
"Hmph," Banshi scoffed, twisting the metal rod in her hands, "those eyes of yours aided you."
Most often, her nervousness caused her body to shake, and her head would not be able to think straight. Most often, she would be saved by her sensei, Shino-kun, and Kiba-kun.
But now, there was nowhere to run, and she was tired of running away, tired of hiding when enemies seemed to be persistent in seeking her. The least she could do was try to save herself.
She had to.
'Twenty meters, one-eighth chakra,' she evaluated, carefully eyeing the woman.
She knew she couldn't launch Taijutsu at the woman: if she were to close in twenty meters around Banshi, it would only enable the latter to attack her using the same attack she had just launched. And Banshi could use the chakra rod seven more times, based on the amount of chakra she had released into the rod to cause the long-range explosion and the amount of chakra she still had left.
"But you bet that isn't the only one I have in my store," she said as her lips twisted to grin again. She put her rod to hang at her back and made a cycle of hand seals.
"Take this. Doton: Doryūdan!"
As Banshi finished her hand seals, the ground moved, and a large clot of earth rose in the air and hollered, developing the shape of a dragon, which was moving against Hinata at top speed. Hinata freed a quivering breath and jumped away instantaneously from the dragon's path, only for it to detour and follow her to where she leaped or flipped, even if she hid behind trees or perched on the branches. Her breaths were becoming shallow from running, and she had to carry the leaps and flexible acrobatics to avoid the dragon.
Banshi was chuckling in contempt as she only stood, watching.
Entertained.
Thirty seconds passed, and there was no way Hinata could keep up with the dragon's speed any longer. She was going to get hit by the dragon and would probably be knocked down, if not knocked into pieces from the impact. The earth dragon barely missed her when she flipped backward and did a handspring. She looked up in the middle of her movement and saw brief sunlight gleams through the forest roof.
Twelve seconds before a hit.
Letting the impetus from the hand-press flip her up again, she landed on her feet, erected her posture, and stood tall. Her strands of hair trailed across the forehead protector around her neck like a silk cloth as she outstretched her arms a tiny margin and spread her fingers. Chakra started escaping her palms, and striking hues stirred in her face as the neon-blue chakra color intensified beneath her digits.
Seven seconds.
She chanted something under her breath before swirling her body a couple of times, and two large lions emerged from her palms as they roared and collided headfirst with the earth dragon violently, causing the beast-like lump of sand to pulverize back to dusts-to its natural state- before the chakra lions vanished into the air. Hinata rereleased a heavy breath as she stood sturdy.
Slowly pressing her hands forward and bending her knee, Hyuuga Hinata awarded Banshi the most indomitable stare the latter had seen.
"Come and get them," she challenged once more, her voice soft but thick with headstrongness.
The forest seemed to be coming alive, as though it was amusing, witnessing the fight between two women who were too determined to go their clashing ways. At some spot in the sky, a lark cried. The woodland leaves continued to fall, uniting with the rotting vegetation on the forest floor. The late noon wind caressed their figures, and Banshi looked sober.
And Hinata could see that as the realization seeped into her opponent: she was not smirking anymore.
"So, Neji. How did you do this? Could you explain to me?"
The girl whose hair was tied in double buns on her head genuflected on the grass of an open field and asked as she inspected a corpse vigilantly. The corpse of what was once a man was lying head-down on the ground, with sticky red liquid running out of his ears. However, she did not dare turn the corpse over to see his face.
"Do what, if I may ask?" A young man answered. He was sitting on a rock not far from the corpse, drinking from his metal container. He was tall for his age; his dark brown hair was long and was almost reaching his waist. His pearl-like eyes shifted to look at his female teammate and saw her scrutinizing the corpse very interestedly.
"You've killed several people before this, but... this is the first time I saw this type of injury from your attack. How did you kill this man this time?"
"Tell me what you see, your observation of the cadaver," Neji said; the late afternoon zephyr was cooling his body, and he had just brought a fight with an enemy in the grass country to an end.
"Hm. From what I see, there isn't a particularly apparent injury; there is this… horrible-looking darkish blue mark between the collarbone and the base of the neck."
"That's it."
"What do you mean that's it?"
Neji looked at the spacey meadow in front of him and looked up. Slow-moving clouds gathered in the cobalt sky above. Long grass seeded with wildflowers danced as a few squirrels leaped and disappeared into it. Such a delighting sight, he thought, as he continued his explanation, "the Hyuuga Taijutsu is different from the normal ones; you noticed that I think."
"Yes?"
"Basically, you know that in our Taijutsu, we poke or touch a certain part of the human body."
"Yes, I see that most often."
"The darkish blue mark between the clavicle and neck was where I inserted chakra. It's like an invisible knife being poked to a human body; the difference is it damages the internal organs," he paused and let out a breath.
"The human body, however, contains vital points that, if we force pressure on them, can cause the targeted blood vessels to rupture and in a given time, the person will suffer from critical injury."
"I see. So how do you kill a person with it?"
"The blood vessels work or function differently in the human body. Some vessels, if targeted, can kill someone slowly or immediately, depending on the level of skills of the Taijutsu user," he explained again. At the same time, the female teammate continued to listen with interest.
"The heart, somewhere around here," Neji paused, putting his finger on the left side of his chest, "will cause a person to feel constricting pain in his chest, and if that person continues to leave it unattended, it can cause blood to pool in the trachea, and ultimately that person would be unable to fight unless he gets it healed."
Tenten nodded a little in understanding and inspected the mark on the corpse's neck again as Neji continued, "That darkish blue mark on that person's neck, however, is what we call the death point. As obvious as it sounds, if we poke there with all our might and force chakra in it, it can cause the blood vessel to rupture and be blocked, and that vessel is the one that carries blood straight to the brain."
"You're implying?"
"Rupture it, and it's certain death, Tenten."
"I see. That's scary," Tenten reacted, "but how do you know about these things?"
"Hyuuga bloodline secret."
"Then… why are you telling me if it's secret?" Tenten said with a smile.
"Because you can't use it," Neji said briefly as he sealed his water container and put it back into his backpack.
"Aren't you afraid I would leak it to somebody?
For a while, Neji contemplated.
"I trust you," he then replied briefly.
Tenten almost looked sheepish, "thanks. I didn't know that you...anyway, aren't you restricted from the secrets? Only the main house people know about those secrets, right?" She continued to ask, finding herself interested in the Hyuuga techniques.
"I train Hinata-sama in Jyuuken," Neji answered and rose to walk towards Tenten. He bent his body and knelt beside her to inspect the darkish mark just above the corpse's clavicle, "in exchange, discreetly, she imparts the secrets to me, from the scrolls she studied in the Hyuuga mansion."
"So, you just hit once, and he's dead. And you two have been working together, eh? Hinata can do it too?"
Neji took a few seconds to revive the memory of something before commenting, "By principle, she can, but Hinata-sama still can't kill with one blow. She has to work on the strength of her chakra pressure and precision. Another way for her: is to hit all the critical points of the human body at once, but it depends on her opponent."
Neji then stood and shouldered his backpack properly. "If Hinata-sama can find enough time and opening to hit all the vital points at once, she will kill someone. But that's impossible because there is no such thing as an unmoving opponent, and I'm not sure if she would be willing to," Neji explained extensively.
"Yeah. What was I thinking...That Hinata… she wouldn't hurt a fly," Tenten retorted somewhat with an alert, but their conversation was then interrupted. A shouting voice of a frolicking, bushy-browed, green-clad ninja was heard as he was following another green-clad man from afar, "Neji! Tenten! What are you two still doing there? Let's go!"
They both looked in their energetic teammate's direction, "that energy. I'm envious of Lee," Tenten remarked and sighed. She rose and commenced to walk toward Lee. Feeling the breeze ruffle his clothes and brush through his hair and over his skin, Neji sighed too.
"Tell me about it," he riposted, joining Tenten to pursue his other teammate.
There was a sudden change in the air of the forest when Banshi took the metal rod behind her and began to swing it again.
"Hyuuga Taijutsu, huh? It should be no problem if I don't get myself hit."
Banshi darted and leaped and swept her rod at Hinata vehemently, but Hinata managed to duck and twisted her body with her foot extended out to sweep the woman's feet. However, the latter jumped and dodged before swinging her rod again to hit the jacketed girl. Seeing this, Hinata used her right palm to push the ground, and her body jerked, and she managed to extend her hand out to shove the rod towards Banshi with her chakra-infused hand before her body spiraled and her right foot flew one more time towards Banshi's torso. Nonetheless, the woman succeeded in jerking her body backward to evade.
Hinata's feet landed on the ground, and she quickly sprang up, stood, and spread her hands again in her Jyuuken stance.
Banshi twisted her rod several times as she paced, trying to find some opening to launch an attack. After a minute, she decided to just attack. The woman dashed at Hinata and swung her rod to Hinata's head, but the girl shoved her hand and parried Banshi's rod, and at the same time; her hips yanked inversely to avoid the other tip of the metal rod that attempted to hit the lower part of her body. The young girl then arched her body backward and flipped almost instantly before springing to kick Banshi's abdomen with speed. It was a successful move. A thudding sound was elicited as Banshi was forced to retreat and almost fell before managing to balance her posture.
"Not bad," Banshi evaluated as though it was some contest, brushing off the specks of dust that clung to her clothes from Hinata's sandal; an amused smile formed on her lips.
Again, the woman shot herself at Hinata and swung the rod to her, but she eluded the rod by ducking and pressing her palm on the ground. Hinata's feet then spiraled up and kicked the other tip of the rod, and landing her feet on the ground, Hinata flung herself up and twisted her body before attempting to hit Banshi with a hand strike. Banshi immediately lowered her body to elude, but in return, Hinata's body twisted again, and her foot spiraled twice and hit Banshi right in the gut. The woman was forcefully tossed backward, realizing that the girl was quite skilled in Taijutsu, more skilled than she had expected and would ever admit.
Maybe I should just focus on Ninjutsu, she thought before sprinting back to the earlier spot she was standing on. She then made a few hand seals, and her hand reached the long rod in her back. After that, she hit her rod into the ground. The earth cracked again, but this time, Banshi was sprinting toward Hinata, faster than the moving crack. Seeing this, Hinata started to run in the opposite direction. To her surprise, Banshi suddenly appeared on the other side, seven meters from her approaching body, and made a few hand seals, "Suton: Suryūdan No Jutsu!"
This time it was a Water Dragon that emerged from the ground, rising from the earth, and it then approached her at high speed. Hinata gasped, realizing that the woman could perform elemental water Jutsu without a water source, just like Kakashi-Sensei. She flipped to the right to avoid the crack approaching behind her and distanced herself fifteen meters away from the black-haired woman, and because she was short of time, she rotated herself as the Water Dragon neared her. The Heavenly Shield rotating chakra safeguarded her as the water dragon hit the chakra armor, breaking and bursting into water.
"Timing is essential in a fight," Banshi murmured to herself, her lips curving upward, and she arched her person with the rod firmly grasped high in the air before hitting the ground with it. The earth then splintered from the tip of the rod to Hinata's direction again, and just in time that Hinata's Heavenly Spin was brought to a standstill, Banshi's chakra was channeled through the crack and exploded just under Hinata's feet.
She shrieked: her body was trapped in the chakra bomb, and as a result; she was flung and tossed defenselessly by the sudden outburst of chakra: the small of her back rammed brutally against the core of a tree like a child's ball, and then she bounced and rolled onto the earth.
For a few seconds, Hinata lay on her back, unmoving.
Banshi smiled smugly and brushed her hair, which was a bit messy from the fight.
"Just as expected…." She commented, brows heightening, sniffing deeply with lifted chin in sinister satisfaction.
"Kakashi-Sensei…"
The wound on Kakashi's left upper arm was about to vanish when Shino addressed him. So preoccupied was Kakashi with the healing of his arm that he was a little surprised as he heard the boy call his name.
"Hm?"
"Hinata…" Shino said as he saw the boy listen to a bug he carried on his index finger while the warm mist of the spring was still lingering on them.
"What about her?"
"I had some of my bugs stay with her and look after her. They just told me you went to the female bathhouse and asked Hinata to go to the forest."
"I have been nowhere but here all the time," Kakashi was a bit apprehensive.
"I know. She's in danger."
"What?" Kiba, too was surprised, and anxiety formed on his face.
"Let's get to her," Kakashi instructed; he felt his heart beat faster as he rose and rushed to step onto the ledge, and then he went to get his clothes from the rack. After wearing his shirt and pants in what seemed like a swoop, he turned to the boys and saw that they wore their attire and were storming out of the door. Kiba hit a man who was just walking to get into the spring. And the guy fell into the spring with a splash for all he cared.
"Tough luck," Kakashi commented before rushing out of the bathhouse himself.
Feeling as though her body had broken apart, Hinata's lips quivered from the indescribable pain as she hyperventilated. Her eyes felt so heavy-like some invisible fingers were pushing them to close. She could taste something salty in her mouth, and her stomach was turning into a state of nausea.
But she would not close her eyes, in fear she would never wake up.
Keeping her sight locked firmly onto the white light up the forest roof, she felt her body numb. Images of distant memory started to race in her mind: like waves hitting the sandy shore.
Kakashi halted his steps in front of the female bathhouse. Akamaru walked out of the entrance to the female bathhouse, nearing both Shino and Kiba before barking once.
"Hinata isn't inside," Kiba informed.
Akamaru then began sniffing on the floor, moving out to the asphalt to track Hinata's scent.
"Faster, Akamaru!" Kiba ordered in desperation. They both followed as Akamaru scuttled with its nose fixed on sniffing the road. Some of the civilians were looking at Kiba's almost-panicking face with interest. This late noon, Taki was not as congested as it was before. After a few minutes, they were nearing a lane, and Akamaru barked again.
"In the forest!" Kiba said as he began to sprint to the wooded area. Shino and Kakashi used Shunshin to get to the forest entrance but stopped when they heard a girl's loud scream from inside the forest.
"Hinata!" Kiba yelled.
Hinata's body on the ground moved a little when Banshi noticed that the girl had not been knocked out from her chakra explosion Jutsu.
"You know, I've always hated one thing that differs a ninja from the other, that… of what makes one ninja better… as he was birthed," Banshi berated, standing where she had begun the fight, without a single scratch on her despite of their fight.
"What makes you special, and what makes me less? You think you're special just because you were born with a bloodline, huh?" She continued, her eyes narrowing with intense hostility as she crossed her arms and stood.
"Hyuuga Hinata, heir to the fearsome Hyuuga clan, that sounds great, isn't it?" Banshi said again with a nauseated tone. "Tsk. The world should bow down at you, do you think so?"
'It's not wise to judge others by your preconceptions and their appearances.'
I… I was never special. S-Stop the accusation…she murmured, feeling as though her body was grated with a thousand knives. She opened her eyes and looked at the lights that glimmered above her.
I've always been…
'You're a loser!'
Always been a burden.
'Stand up for yourself, Hinata! Stand up and fight him!'
A toothy grin of a boy with yellow hair emerged in her mind: memories of his persistence that had inspired her through the years.
'Hinata, are you okay? I'm sorry. I wouldn't have thrown you so hard if you didn't ask me to. God, you're bleeding. I'm really sorry, Hinata.'
She would miss those red tattoos on his cheeks and that wide grin. Kiba-kun had always been so nice to her, always wanted to protect her: he would not let anything hurt her. But sometimes, it seemed like his protectiveness was hindering her.
'If Kiba-kun believes in me, come at me with no hesitation. Hit me like I'm your worst enemy!'
But he seemed to be one of the people who genuinely cared for her.
'Detach all ties. Defeat or be defeated. You're not serious enough.'
That toneless voice, the eyes that were always shielded by sunglasses, and the constant soothing words he said even though he rarely said anything. Over the years, they had built the kind of bond where they reached out to each other in silence. Shino-kun had trusted her enough to not even question her request to be treated like a real enemy when they sparred.
He was one of the few people who treated her like an equal.
He would throw her like a piece of trash on the ground, and she would stand up with great difficulty. It was the kind of understanding and acknowledgment that kept her going on.
'Always soften your body when you get thrown by your enemy. Don't tense-up, Hinata-sama. If you don't tense your muscles when your body hits the ground, there's less chance for you to be injured. And always roll your body back up when you're down.'
And she stood up every time. She would say thanks to Neji nii-san a million times for sharing his genius with her after the Chuunin exams. She never blamed him or his once deep hatred for her because, in the end, time proved that in the silence of the conflict between the main and branch houses, Neji nii-san and herself: his blood was thicker than her tears.
'I want to be by your side at a time like this, the way I always do.'
That bushy black hair and those lovely, lovely red eyes of a woman who had taken Hinata under her wings and nurtured her. Kurenai-sensei: The one who had always believed in her and was always there for her, defended her and saved her from herself.
The unborn child she was carrying, whom she hadn't seen.
'You shouldn't dash at him like that next time.'
There… there had to be a next time.
'You assumed I have patience. You all fail to measure your own capacity and to see the depth of my capacity. As a result, you lie beaten here. You hold onto your organization, your clan, your name… these things limit us and limit our capacities; these things deserve to be shunned.
She looked up at the forest roof; gleams of sunlight were blinding her, crystal drops welling in the pool of her vision. She smiled with great difficulty.
White.
Her vision crystallized and magnified, the trees of the forest were jumbling, but stubbornly she did not look away until her eyes were heated enough, until she closed them and felt hot fluid roll out to wet her face.
"I….want to see them again…." The words came out of her mouth as barely a whisper.
Home.
Konoha wasn't her home. Hyuuga mansion was not her home. Home was them: her sensei, her teammates….her friends, she acknowledged with a heartbreaking conviction.
Banshi was nearing her, walking closer and closer to her like the approaching gray clouds before the storm. Hinata concentrated on her chakra flow, listened to Banshi's footing, and began to guide her own chakra to her eyes.
"Are you down for the count already? Oh… you shouldn't have fought, you see. It was never my intention for you to end up like this," Banshi taunted as she lifted and set down each foot on the ground toward Hinata, her feet stepping into a few puddles of water.
"I want to see them again," she muttered hoarsely as she gruelingly sat up. Her body shook, and with great effort, she knelt on the ground, shuddering. The cut on the side of her lip spilled a tiny sliver of blood, which almost dripped from under her chin.
"What? You're rapidly losing your energy. The boss didn't want you dead, I guess half-alive or barely alive ….. is still alive," she goaded, halting as she stood two feet from Hinata. "Now, to take you where you should be…."
Banshi did not finish her sentence because, in quick dabs, almost a hundred infinitesimal water senbon shot themselves all around her body, stabbing and paralyzing her.
What was written on Banshi's face that second was the kind of look that was apparent in Shino-kun's when Hinata's water Senbon shot at the teammate the last time they sparred: wordless surprise.
Banshi gasped. Her eyes wandered wildly around her own body as her face began to twist. Finding herself petrified, she realized she could not even tremble.
"You… shouldn't have used water element Jutsu against me…." Hinata said weakly, but her tone was filled with superiority, feeling unpleasant liquid amalgamate in her mouth, "because all I needed…was water source….to stab you around your Tenketsu…and have you paralyzed…."
Banshi's eyes widened as she stood taut and then tried, in vain, to move her hands together.
A hand seal. Just a hand seal would be enough to free her from this paralysis and trigger a Jutsu to kill this child, Banshi thought in dignified distress, feeling like she would have cursed the girl with the foulest expletive.
What is this ability to create Senbons from water?
She would have also screamed out the question: if her face and the muscles around her lips were not as constrained as the muscles in her whole body. Now, like a dressmaker's dummy, Banshi stood helpless, watching the Hyuuga put her right index and middle fingers to her lips and close her eyes as though meditating. Subsequently, she bent her left knee and lowered her body, stretching her right leg behind as she spread her fingers; her face was devoid of expression, and it seemed like she was really concrete in what she was doing.
Emerald Yin and Yang symbol under her feet.
'Imagine the person you're fighting is a foot away from his real body in a real fight.'
Dark and light, black and white: everything was blurry in the shade of gray.
'In order… to reach the height of my capacity...
Rise beyond expectations.
"Jyuukenhou, Hakke Kyusho Jitsu."
And raising her hands with all her might, Hinata screamed. Her fingers ferociously flew and propelled all over Banshi's body in rapid strikes: her torso, the sternum, the upper points of her clavicle, the sides of her neck, the hollow of her throat, and Banshi's own eyes were not able to follow Hinata's hands anymore as the grogginess started to overpower her, her body rocking as Hinata's fingers powerfully prodded her body. The water Senbons held her in place and tried as she might: there was no escape.
Hinata never ended her scream, wholly convinced she had pierced the heavens with her voice until she hit the last point of vitality on Banshi's body and felt hot tears tumble from her eyes once more.
Then the world fell into immense silence.
Hinata only heard her own breaths now, laced with shaky gasps. The water senbon dissolved and wetted Banshi's skin and clothes.
The older woman, however, was still stiffened, eyes shimmering and reddish with feverish pain, when she seemed to hold in a breath but powerlessly coughed: and her blood splattered onto Hinata's face.
Teeth clenching and eyes wincing, Banshi took the time—or what was remaining of it—to look at Hinata's face as the girl fell on her knees with an empty expression in front of her. She was too young, indeed, as young as Banshi was when she was first introduced to this world. She had choices of which path she could take, and the paths she had chosen led her to be here, in this wood, waiting for death to overtake her. Banshi thought she saw tears roll down the Hyuuga's cheeks, diluting her own blood: a pale, vertical line between deep shades of crimson.
'I ….looked down on the underdog.'
Banshi tried to speak, but all that came out of her mouth was a mere sound of gurgling, choking agony. The world was spinning and closing in on her, and her vision was becoming obscure.
Her time was up.
There were only so many things Banshi wanted to tell this Hyuuga. It occurred to her that she had taunted the girl too much and had managed to draw out the dormant beast within her.
'I … consider that… my success….'
Banshi had always been playful, had always been a tease.
And she would have laughed out loud when her knees buckled, and she lost all will to stand. Life was deserting her as she fell over and curled.
Hinata was still kneeling with Banshi's body coiled lifelessly next to her when Kakashi, Shino, and Kiba arrived after Akamaru. The large white dog barked once before sitting on the ground not far from Hinata.
Kakashi and even her teammates noted the heavy air of murder surrounding her. Her face was covered in blood, her hair was damp and unruly, and her clothes were caked with dirt and mud. If anything, she looked nothing like herself. She seemed to realize they were there but did not greet them. Through his experienced eye, something in her manner hinted to Kakashi that she was questioning and doubting things.
Kakashi took the time to inspect the body, realizing it belonged to the woman selling cotton candy to them just before lunch.
He exhaled deeply.
"Shino, Kiba. Try to get that body away from her, and do it carefully," Kakashi instructed softly, trying to think of the next action, of the right word to say to her.
The boys moved, not saying anything, and took the body: Shino taking the shoulder and Kiba taking the feet. They lifted the body and warily brought it away to a hidden spot where the trees were thicker.
Kakashi walked to her slowly, noticing she reeked of blood, and knelt beside her. Lifting up his forehead protector, he closed his right eye and looked through the color of Hinata's chakra flow. He then raised his hand and put his palm against the bruise on her lower lip.
She gasped when the healing green light slowly erased the cut, "this is gonna hurt a bit," he informed as he saw her flinch a little, and then his palm moved to her back, and Hinata's eyes narrowed when the bruise began to mend.
For all his ability to reason, think, understand, and judge rationally, Kakashi decided that maybe—it was better not to say anything at all. Deciding that the healing was sufficient, Kakashi rose to stand, "it's getting dark. Let's go… Hinata."
She turned to look at him, but for a second, she looked at Kakashi like he was a stranger— blankness remarkably evident on her face. Kakashi knew it because he had seen and felt it so many times.
"Get yourself together, and let's leave," Kakashi emphasized again and extended his hand to her. She tilted her head up and saw his hand. Reluctantly, she took it, and Kakashi pulled her up.
But still, she was not saying anything.
"We're gonna have to stay in one of Taki's inns tonight, and we're gonna have to move early and speed up tomorrow morning if we want to arrive in Iwa on time. Hinata has to clean up and rest. Any complaints that will come from the Earth Country or Konoha after this, I will take full responsibility," Kakashi decided as he began his steps to egress, followed by the trio.
Seeing her state, Kiba removed his jacket to leave himself in his inner shirt and covered Hinata's head with it. "Nobody should see your face covered in blood like that, Hinata. So make sure you don't take my jacket off your head, and I'll guide you to the inn," he said calmly, unlike the frantic boy he was fifteen minutes ago.
"I was going to suggest that anyway," Shino added and watched as Kiba held Hinata's shoulders, leading her to the forest outlet.
Something about Hinata had changed, the fanged boy thought as he held her shoulder. 'But you're still Hinata, no matter what.'
Shino watched them walk to the exit and stood, still not moving, feeling that somebody was watching them somewhere hidden. He inclined his body and cocked his head to look through the trees behind him as he pushed his goggles up and pulled them down a little.
The forest looked bleak, and Shino decided that his curiosity had just been a trick of the mind before following his counterparts to return to the center of Taki. None of them noticed the cloaked figure in the shadows, who was looking at them from the beginning with his weary eyes.
The sun was setting in the background of the blood orange sky when Daisuke arrived at the dark spot thick with tall trees in the forest. Seeing his comrade lie coiled on the ground lifelessly, he sighed, somewhat disappointed. At first, he was curious, as he was waiting for Banshi at their temporary base in Taki and realized the woman was taking too long to return with her prey.
Deciding to be rid the curiosity, he opened the contract scroll and discovered that Banshi's name had also vanished from the parchment.
Bad déjà-vu.
Now, he was standing before her corpse, figuring that he had to do the cleanup.
"What did I tell you, Banshi? You underestimate your enemy too much," he muttered, kneeling to inspect Banshi's corpse. Dried blood was flowing from her nostrils, mouth, and ears. Precise, dark purple marks were visible in some spots on her neck, throat, and chest. Daisuke could not help but feel amused; because Shigai-sama's keen interest in the white eye doujutsu was now within his comprehension.
He then stood and made a few hand seals in the dark before patting his palm on the ground, "Doton: Reikyū."
The land beneath Banshi's corpse pulverized, and slowly, her motionless body seeped into a quicksand: a silent burial in the dusk.
"Don't worry, my comrade. Because you… will be avenged," he promised calmly before teleporting himself to another space as the forest gradually blackened.
Kakashi went to the town to buy supplies after they checked into an inn.
When they entered the room, it smelled obscurely of mildew, and dusk light filtrated through one warped curtain. Kiba turned on the lights, and the inn's furnishings were revealed: four single beds, a table, a chair, a kettle, four drinking glasses, and silver wares. A small bathroom was also attached to the room, equipped with lukewarm, running water. Logs lay stacked to one side of a blackened, soot-ridden fireplace. Shino lit up the fire, hoping it would help rid the room of its humidity.
Meanwhile, Kiba saw to it; that Hinata got herself cleaned. Right after, he tucked her into the bed. When they were sure Hinata was asleep, they talked quietly amongst themselves near her bed.
"It is clear now that the woman wanted her eyes. I think… maybe we should not have protected her too much. If she had even a scant idea of what we did in the forest, if she… knew what kind of threat she was going to face… maybe she could have been more cautious."
Shino crossed his arms; he felt that he, too, was responsible for what happened, "I agree. Tomorrow we will tell her what happened in the forest. That way, she can be more careful. And also, we must ensure that we don't leave her by herself whatever happens after this."
Kiba smirked tastelessly, "yeah, some friends we were, huh, keeping her in the dark? But I guess we both have learned our lessons."
Kiba then petted Akamaru's head as he sat on his bed, letting the moments pass by.
"It's a good thing she's still alive. After this, we protect her, but we don't keep her in the dark," Shino decided, taking off his jacket to ready himself to sleep in another empty bed.
"Sounds fine to me," Kiba answered and laid himself to sleep beside his dog.
Hinata tore away from her nightmare, gasping.
She raised her body in the bed and sat to find that both her teammates were sleeping heavily in their single beds, snugly blanketed. Akamaru was also napping, its furry body embraced by Kiba-kun so dearly in his deep sleep like a plush toy. Through the glassed window beside her, she looked up at the full moon and found fleeting peace for a second.
She looked around again to find Kakashi-sensei wasn't in; the white sheet of his bed was kept and untouched. She looked at the door and saw it was unlocked. She recognized from the little aperture that he was sitting on the wooden platform beside the lake.
She watched the Jounin's back emptily and decided to join him to sit beside the lake. Getting off the bed, she stepped carefully on the inn's floor, careful not to wake Shino-kun and Kiba-kun up. A sudden gust of cold wind rushed at her when she stepped out completely of the inn. He was only wearing his black long-sleeved shirt, staring at the lake before him.
"Couldn't sleep?" She heard Kakashi ask as she slowly approached him. The somewhat resilient wooden floor creaked beneath her weight as she sat down; it felt surprisingly warm, given the cold night. She listened to the sound of rippling water and watched splashing air bubbles pop on the lake's surface.
"I… had a nightmare," she said, and Kakashi noticed she sounded… calm.
"It was only a nightmare," he responded after lengthy seconds.
"But it seemed so…endless," she replied, her gaze downcast.
It is, Kakashi thought.
"Kakashi-Sensei...I….How…"
"Hm?"
"How… do you keep your sanity?" She questioned meekly, not looking at him. Instead, she was looking at the lake, the nocturnal beauty Taki was offering.
Kakashi thought, and his eye guttered, "I don't keep my sanity."
He knew he was not answering anything, but his answer was as honest as it could get.
"It is a curse, isn't it? This… bloodline," She commented again in a blank tone. "That is …why Itachi-san wiped out his clan. And today, I killed a human with it."
"For trying to harm you," he answered.
"For trying to harm me," Hinata acknowledged reluctantly.
"Sometimes, it is easier to stop worrying about things. So don't think too much of it," Kakashi answered, feeling like he was opening himself up, in his opinion, a little too much.
In normal circumstances, he would not even open himself the way he opened himself up tonight. He had always prided himself as the undisputed master of his emotions: bottling things up was his specialty. He was so trained in it and masked himself from it, keeping his distance from anyone because attachment would one day lead him to misery. Such was the reality in the world he lived in, and he had long accepted it. He would rather die than wallow in the guilt of failing to protect his comrades again.
So he would avoid proximity. He would escape into his books because any diversion from reality was and had always been his safest sanctuary.
But tonight, for an inconceivable reason, to this fifteen-year-old girl who was young enough to be his little sister, he was letting his guard down.
*"It didn't matter. Right and wrong decisions, today, didn't matter as well because every now and then, lines do get blurred," he added, as if unaware.
Hinata did not react. They both were lost in silence until she muttered, "then… sensei… shouldn't you… forgive yourself too?"
And Kakashi felt like he had been pricked with an unseen, minuscule splinter.
Forgive… me?
He was slightly surprised when she pressed her head to his shoulder, but he did not distance himself. For whatever reason he could not, or would not think about—he let her curl to his side; the back of her head rested against what was yesterday a wound that she bandaged on his left upper arm, feeling the strands of soft dark-blue hair brush the cloth that masked his chin when he tilted his head down to his shoulder to look at her.
He felt the coldness of the night ebb away as she snuggled into him and turned his head to look back at the lake's surface. He watched a dried leaf topple onto the moon's reflection on the molasses-like water, and the reflection shattered into glittering pieces. Kakashi closed his eye for a few seconds, then raised his left arm, curled it around her frame, and repeatedly patted her hand lightly, just to remind her that she was not alone.
He looked up; through his solitary eye, the night sky was big, dark, blue, and all of everything.
'Self-forgiveness. I… should be taking my own advice.'
He sighed.
He told himself that it is okay to tread on dangerous water once in a while because…
Because she needs this.
Tomorrow, he would be back to being her teacher, back to whomever he was.
Because right now, I need this, he acknowledged grudgingly, his soul feeling closer to her more than before, now with the incontestable certainty—that they were both murderers.
He had been spending too much time sleeping on tree branches.
The thought crossed Uchiha Itachi's head as he pressed his body against the tree lightly, feeling a little pain in the small of his back, watching the intriguing development between his former ANBU Senpai and the Hyuuga girl from a distance.
Taki still seemed busy even this late at night, and from his vantage point of view, he saw the village's core was very much alive. Colorful lanterns were glowing in the streets; haze visibly blended with the air in certain corners of the town as gray clouds glided lazily across the moon. Passers-by were walking on some cement lanes, one or two wobbling with bottles of liquor in their hands, a smattering of hails on some walking paths.
'To overcome your barriers, you and I must continue living together. Even if it means hating each other… that's what being an elder brother means….'
He looked down to inspect the Katana in his hand, the one he used when he spilled the blood of his kinsmen.
'Wouldn't you have done the same, Kakashi-san?' he asked, not requiring an answer: seeing the illusion of viscous, dark red liquid bathing the polished metal, lazily coating it to its tip, dripping into the unfathomable darkness below him.
'You and I: children of war… and we don't have a choice. We're soldiers, and we kill because we have to….and eventually, little by little, our hearts are killed in return. We delude ourselves; it is for the sake of the masses.'
The night deepened to the darkest hue of blue; as silence leisurely blanketed Taki and all its occupants. He breathed in the air and watched the Jounin take the sleeping Hyuuga into his arms to bring her into the inn, into the closed darkness, into the tranquility: of safety within walls, under the roofs.
'We know; it is just a false sense of peace….'
He closed his eyes, waiting for darkness to reclaim him, his lips curving very faintly.
'…at the price of our own.'
Tbc.