Where love rules, there is no will to power; and where power predominates, there love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other.
It hurt to breathe. A gasping cough rumbled the inside of her chest as burning tears gathered in the corners of her eyes. Her palms pressed against the firm ground, desperately demanding herself to get up. Her limbs burned in agony, screaming in protest. Her body was struggling against her spirit. She wanted to get up…she had to get up…she did want to fail again…but in the end her body won against the soul, and eleven year old Hinata Hyuuga's small frame laid flat against the ground of the training field.
Closing her eyes didn't make the whispers, hisses, or soft sighs of disappointment go away. Unlike the rest of her audience, the girl's grandfather was more vocal for the moment someone handed him back his worn out twisted cane, it tapped against the ground by his feet with displeasure.
"That was quite pathetic. Why do we even bother to training you when it's obvious this is the best you can do?" the old man spat callously at the small shaking form before turning to the Clan head.
Hiashi betrayed no emotion in his deadpan pallid eyes, but it was unspoken between father and son that disappointment was there.
Some of the young members helped the elder to the porch and the old man glimpse once more at the trembling child, left alone in the center of the training ground since everyone else was moving along.
"Tis' a pity," was all the old man said; but those words were more than enough to damn the girl.
Only when certain that she was alone Hinata slowly lifted her head up, her pale face streaked with tears, blotches of dirt, and small scratches. Now sitting erect the girl dared to look up when a shadow was cast above.
There eyes only meet for a second until the girl lowered hers.
Hiashi didn't have to ask how she could lose to a man five times her age, he already knew the answer. The answer was in the girl herself, in the stumbling, stuttering, bunch of nervousness that was Hinata. The girl seemed to serve no other propose than to continuously bring shame and disappointment to his family name.
Hiashi didn't know, or even want to know, what went wrong with Hinata, it didn't matter. He had another daughter, one that could become their heir and correct the mistakes that were made with Hinata and her development into a Hyuuga.
Hinata slowly rose to her feet, knees and legs scraped and bleeding. The girl moved to speak; but before even a breath could be could escape her lips, Hiashi sharply turned his heel and walked away from her with out a single word.
His walking away confirmed her suspicions and her greatest fears to be true.
Hinata fell to her knees, not in psychical pain but more accurately the wavering of her spirit. She knew what the fight had meant, it was a last chance for her to prove herself to the clan, and she had failed.
She wanted to be mad, she really did. Screaming would have been acceptable now that she was alone. She could pound her fists into the ground until they bled and all of her fingers were broken and no one would mind but …she couldn't find it in herself to do that.
Instead she just let the tears fall from her eyes and mix in with the dirt staining her face.
Itachi's stoic expression warped into a tight grimace as he and Kisame neared the completion of their mission. The assignment was relatively simple, but for the fact that their targets resided in Konoha, this caused some difficultly, but it was nothing the two S-ranked criminals couldn't manage.
Itachi glared at Kisame briefly, before turning his attention back to the dilapidated looking white mansion directly ahead of them. Presently he and Kisame were crouched on the roof adjacent to the dourly white edifice, waiting for the signal to finally ignite the whole structure.
It wasn't unusual that he and Kisame got dispersed missions to different countries; often they carried out assassinations and espionage that drew little attention. This time the assassination was a bit different; it wasn't the fact that there were multiple targets but rather the manner in which the targets were to die; an explosion.
Of course, an explosion wasn't Itachi's preference, but they had no say in the decision; the gang that hired them to exterminate the rival group specifically ordered the assassination to be done by way of incineration.
Itachi thought it was unbelievably superfluous and drew too much attention for its own good.
The sky was darkening by this time and the last of the expected party had arrived. Itachi could vaguely make out the individuals inside of the building. He noticed most of them were older men with the exception of some; they were laughing loudly and slapping each other on the back, while taking long swigs of dry whisky.
Itachi thought it was sickening.
"Father will be furious with me." Hinata thought as she slowly began to make her way from of Academy's training field.
Rushed footfalls staggered against the rundown pathway that led out of the field and into the village.
The Hyuuga heiress was wandering the streets well after sunset, because she had fallen asleep against a tree in the training field after Academy was released.
It was unwise for her to be out so late.
She found herself putting off going home more and more. Home just… wasn't the same since she had lost her fight a few months before, on her eleventh birthday. At first it was just her staying after Academy to sleep or train…but now in was regular for her to slip through the academy gates in the late afternoon.
'Wicked individuals' roamed the streets at night. At least that's was the young heiress was taught, long before she could even speak properly.
Now the orange and red streaks that had once decorated the sky had now vanished leaving sunlight a pleasant distant memory.
On either side of her, light leaked through house windows and peered from underneath doors, guiding her careful yet rushed steps.
Regulars of the diverse bars lining the streets voiced words that sounded both strange and vulgar to her ears, making Kohona appear foreign and terrifying to one of its own daughters.
Normally Hinata could have made her way back home with hardily an awkward glance, but today…it was different… she didn't recognize anything and it horrified her.
Just as Hinata quickly past a bar someone emerged, tauntingly looking down upon her. She rested her gaze on him with frightened colorless eyes. The drunkard moved to speak but before he could complete a singe slurred word she backed up blindly turning and running rather than walking down the streets.
Coming to a halt only when she was out of breath Hinata leaned up against a vacant building chest heaving from physical exertion.
Her heart tightened in panic when she realized she was lost and oh so vulnerable.
Kisame waited until he was certain that the last of the murder targets were settled into their respected places and were openly discussing group affairs. He shifted slightly on the weather worn roof as gravel crumpled to some extent under his feet. He wordlessly gave Itachi a knowing glance before he let his hands from the necessary seals to active the hundreds of exploding tags that lined the inside of the walls and the lined the roof.
Itachi and Kisame together rose from their crouching positions as a resounding blast shook the area. The building roof instantly caught fire, sending massive chunks of burning wood crashing down onto the people below. Embers caught the woodwork and glowed steadily, setting everything aflame.
The cold night breeze blew pieces of hot ash around the vicinity. The side of the building ignited then, sending large portions of charred and burning timber soaring into surrounding buildings.
The hour was growing later but still Hinata had not found her way home. Stumbling about dark and unfamiliar paths she took every turn and had even resorted to activating her blood limit once or twice in order to find a course that would lead her home.
But even with the Byakugan she couldn't tell one road from another.
Lips pressed tightly together the girl could easily hear the disapproval in her father's tone. Tonight, as with most nights, he had been proven right. She was too useless to even find her way back to the Hyuuga compound.
She still had to try though, with each new road she went down she activated her Byakugan, only to be let down since the sky became darker, hindering her enhanced vision.
She twisted down a new road. This was when she found herself standing down a lightly clouded lone road. She sniffed the air for a moment before realizing that it was smoke. Something must be burning, she thought as she continued down the path. That is until a deafening blast resounded and Hinata found her vision completely clouded by a smoldering fog.
Itachi and Kisame jumped off the roof and begin to search the wreckage. They had little time before the ANBU showed up. One of the problems with using explosions to exterminate is that you can never be sure of all of the targets dieing, often, one or perhaps two targets survive and that causes many bothersome issues.
Kisame advanced towards the still burning wreckage to scan for any survivors, while Itachi headed down one of the roads that caught fire during the blast. He could sense someone close by; someone who got caught up in the debris of the blast, he assumed.
She swallowed a gasp as she hit the ground, rubble falling on her and pinning her to the cold solid earth. Hinata tentatively tried to lift herself, but quickly fell back down, trying not to look at the wreckage of her legs. White bones glared at her from beneath pale skin. Her mouth opened to scream, but nothing came out but a strangled croak.
She was trapped and she felt every nerve in her body with sharp awareness; how the cold earth made her back tremble, how the pressure of the wreckage pushing down on her small body made her feel numb.
Struggling to look up she dimly made out a figure slowly approaching, looking down at her. The form moved closer to her, but she doesn't see it, because the smoke was in her eyes and her legs were bleeding, making tears gather in her eyes. And she can't breathe…
I don't want to die, she thinks. This isn't real! This isn't me!
Oh, this chapter took so long, but I've been super busy, and I've had to take quite a few hours off from working to frolic in the snow. Had to, honest. The little fairies were threatening me. I've also decided that after this endeavor, I am going to probably start taking any and all requests with any Naruto pairing, and I do mean ANY pairing