Hinata had made her way back home very quickly, out of fear again. As always, she attempted to sneak toward her room, but always knew she failed when she heard her father's voice. "Hyuga girl!"

"Coming sir!" 'Be quick, be quick Hinata.' She made it to the room.

"I take it you delivered the herbs then?" He gave a look of the devil as he stared at Hinata cold-heartedly.

"Yes sir!" She had to show confidence, or else the whip...

"And your training rocks?"
"Out of the baskets before I handed them over."

He pursed his lips in slight surprise at her quickness. "Let's just check that." As he went over to the device that transmitted messages only with he voice. He dialed the numbers and soon heard Ms. Yamanaka's voice from the device.

"Mushi mushi."
"Hi. This is Hiashi. I just wanted to make sure that you received the herbs I sent you."

Hinata was confident she wouldn't get a punishment for this. She had delivered it to the Yamanaka household without the rocks and returned quickly. She had completed her mission perfectly...

"Oh? No, I haven't received any herbs since the other week. Sorry."

Hiashi threw the device to the other side of the room while stomping across the room to grab the poor girl around the neck against the wall. "LIAR! HOW DARE YOU LIE TO YOUR OWN FATHER! AND NONETHELESS, THE LEADER OF YOUR CLAN. LASHINGS UNTIL NIGHTFALL!" He screamed at her before dragging her be the collar of her sweater. Her sweater, zipped to its usual tightness to her neck, choked her.

By the time she was in the gardens, all the maids knew to be in the kitchen away from the fury. Hanabi was sitting in the garden before she tried to do the same, for she hadn't noticed the anger until it was in the garden doorway, but Hiashi had different ideas. "Hanabi, stay!" She slowly came back and stood straight-up by her sister who was crumpled on the ground and no jacket as Hiashi had torn off when he threw her to the ground. Weak.

"You will learn your leadership skill now Hanabi. Watch me, study me, as I use this because you will use it in time too." He pulled out his whip, looking like any other human whip, but then infused it with his chakra. Hanabi had never actually seen what he'd done to her sister and so it horrified her, petrified her almost, but she stomped over and took the whip with from his hand and turned toward Hinata.

Hinata couldn't believe it. She looked up, and here she saw her sister, her beautiful, perfect, little sister, holding a deadly weapon of chakra, holding a fierce face against her, angry almost.

She buried her head in arms again, braving herself for the strike, the horrible, cracking strike.

The first yell came, from Hanabi, "You monster!" 'I know.' "What have you done!" 'I'm sorry.' "I should report you to The Third for such cruelty. She's done nothing but do your bidding and obey your rules. Yes, she might not have the capacity you expected of her, but she works harder than you ever did in the academy and afterwards!"

'What is this? Why?'
"Why you little!" The man yelled as he snatched his whip back and began to bring it down. On instinct of the cracking whip, Hinata blocked it from her sister. Hanabi stared at her sister as she fell on the ground again, a large gash wrapped around her right arm. Hiashi was not pleased.

"How dare you interfere in my own matters! You!" pointing to Hanabi, "I'll deal with you later. And you!" eyes back on Hinata, "will pay for everything past the moon rising." He brought it down again, but Hanabi grabbed his arm and the rope grazed Hanabi's leg. But he merely used a jutsu to knock her out for a few hours until midnight. He turned back to her. "It's you and me now."

Crack, grunt, crack, cry, crack, tears, crack, recoil, crack, scream...

By the end of the screams, he sun was hidden, but the moon was not showing itself yet, and Hiashi continued.

"Now, unlike what you do, I'm going to practice my jutsu." And with that, he had his Byakugan out. Hit after hit, his hands didn't even touch her frail, little body, but in accordance with the Hyuga jutsus, they hardly did. The force he put into his throws and the amount of chakra used in each strike were unbelievable, and hardly able to bear.

He struck the sixty-four chakra points.

She was hardly alive, and how she was alive after beatings and this was unheard of, seemingly impossible even. Then again, the pain is impossible to describe.

The night had finally fallen, and the crumpled body lay in blood and dirt. The man came over and spoke one more thing, the phrase he always thought when he saw her: "Your pathetic, useless, worthless, nothing."

It was a cloudless night; beautiful, peaceful, perfect. The only imperfection hidden in that night laid by the Hyuga fountain. The wind took pity on it, and so blew a previous piece of paper from the nearby room.

'Why...'

'Why do I have to put up with this...'

You don't have to, a familiar voice whispered in her head. I know you don't want to leave them all, but... you don't have to tolerate this anymore.

'No, I don't... Do I...'

She pulled a kunai from her pocket, then pulled herself up to lean against the fountain. She needed it to stop. Life wasn't looking any better as long as he was alive, but nothing could bring that about for her life to get better.

Hinata put the kunai to her inner arm, and pulled. In a few short seconds, red beads began appearing. She did it again, and again, slowly making her way toward her hand, pressing harder with each stroke. It was pain, but a new kind of pain. One that didn't make her feel weak, only maybe a little scared but quickly into a thrill almost, as the beads turned to threads, growing longer, wider, and moving. It began dripping down her arm onto the grass and her clothes as she pulled back her pants and proceeded to press and swipe on her legs.

Dark spots began appearing when she analyzed her work. Light in head, she kept her bloodied arm on her knee and leaned her hand on the ground, still holding the kunai. It was finally happening. At long last, what she had long hoped for was finally coming as the world started fading away.

Shikamaru didn't know what to do. He had managed to make it to his room after he greeted and talked to Hanabi Hyuga at the front door. He couldn't have stood for much longer.

He was lost.

His mind was spinning with thoughts and visions, imagining what had happened to her: the violence to both girls, the resulting state of his crush, the look she might have had when...

'No! I can't think that! No! Don't think of her like that! Remember her well, remember her happy...
But she was never happy. The last time she smiled was when we were 5...'

He didn't know what to do with himself. He wanted to stay and sit there on the ground; he wanted to scream into his pillow; he wanted to punch the wall to oblivion; he wanted to cry; he wanted -

"Knock knock," he heard at the door. He didn't respond.

"Come on I only just got to town and everyone's acting weird." Continued silence.

"Really? I'm surprised you are too." He heard the door try to be opened. "Wow this is new for you. Come on, I know you're not on a mission and everyone I've talked to says you're in here." He couldn't talk to her. He couldn't talk to anyone right now...

'Fine,' Temari thought to herself. 'Playing hard to get eh?' as she began picking at the lock.

It didn't take long before Temari walked in to see the mess that Shikamaru's room was. She knew boys were messy, she lived with two. What made her worry was the fact that things around the room looked broken, and he lay against the wall with a dazed look.

"Shikamaru?" she inquired as she slowly approached, first setting her fan against the door frame. He only curled into himself more at her approaching. "Shikamaru, what's going on?" she asked softly and calmly.

He swallowed, opened his mouth, tried to talk, but failed. He open and closed it multiple times before he screamed "HINATA!" and started crying again.

Temari looked around the room and on the floor only a few meters from her and Shikamaru was a photograph. By the hair on their heads and the insignias on their cloths, should could make out a few people: Shikamaru, Choji, Sakura, Ino, Kiba, even Naruto. Then she noticed the little girl hiding to the side with short blue hair and bright white eyes. Hinata.

'Okay, this is emergency enough, he'll understand.' She pulled from her pocket a little puppet. Kankuro had given one to both her and Gaara if there were ever an emergency or they were in trouble. In her mind right now, the most calm, logical, straight-forward thinking guy was losing his mind right now and Hinata was part of the reason. She needed to know why.

Temari laid the puppet in front of her on the ground where she kneeled. Hovering her hand over the doll, she put some chakra into it. Picking it up again, she whispered, "Find out what's wrong with Hinata Hyuga," and let it be on its way.

She slowly crept to the Naru boy's side, and put a hand on his shoulder. He leaned into her. He trusted her. She pulled him closer, gently stroking him in an effort to calm him down.

He eventually fell asleep and she repositioned him to lay on her lap. Only five minutes later the puppet was back and hopped on her shoulder and began to whisper the main details of the past few days.

Shocked, she looked down at the boy on her lap. She had picked up a hint way-back-when that he had feelings for this girl. It was no wonder he was distraught. By the looks of it, he had been close to her in their childhood, and now... she was gone.

She did her best to keep him comfortable. She would thankfully be in town for a few days, but that's all she needed: a few days with him to help him get back on his feet. She looked at him again, finally laying peacefully on her lap. 'I'll do anything to help you, Shikamaru.'