Standard disclaimer applies.

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The air was humid.

She collapsed again, her body heaving and her eyes tired and exhausted. Her mind wasn't working very well. Every fiver of her being was covered with exhaustion. And horror.

"Stand up." It was him. His face was contorted with disgust. Disgust, anger, and frustration. She struggled back up, her legs trembling. Her legs gave way again, and she fell with a cry of pain. It was the first sound she had made for days. That was all her lack of energy permitted her to make.

"Stand up." He wasn't even looking at her, not even deeming her a worthy subject to look at.

She was weak. After the first hundred miles of travel, she cracked. By the next hundred, she had stopped thinking. By the third hundred, she became nothing but a blank face. Her mind slowly deciphered thoughts, observations and voice. It took thirty minutes to realize it was raining, three hours to realize it was nighttime. All she registered was the emptiness nipping at her over and over again. She hadn't eaten food for two days. She was caked in mud and some yellow sticky substance. She wasn't alive. Was Hell anything like this?

He stood in silence, but the fury emanating from him was tangible. He knelt over her, his hands cold but gripping. In a flash he pulled a kunai and held it against her throat.

He didn't bother speaking.

Her neck was thoroughly bruised. He had done this so many times before that it almost felt comforting in familiarity. The first drops of blood fell thickly. Her eyes shot wide open as he smeared his fingers onto her face. She felt the tangy liquid of blood on her lips and she gulped.

Blood. All over her.

She wanted to scream.

He looked wordlessly down at his bloodied fingers and slowly, deliberately began to lick it.

Her head began to spin. She wanted to fall unconscious to immediate peace. She wanted it to end…

Her legs trembled as she moved slowly, her jaw clenched from the dull pain. Her chakra had diminished to almost nothing.

She stood up.

He looked at her, and the indifferent look in his eyes made her shiver. "You do that again, I won't wait."

She knew what he meant.

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She had to stand asleep.

Her bruised legs gave up trembling and instead became numb. Instead of her legs hurting, it became her heavily blistered feet.

She slept four hours, so they could move again at the crack of dawn. The journey had stretched into numberless days. There were no words, no eye-contact, no gestures.

It was one morning—if you could call it a morning at 3 AM, when she work up on fire.

She didn't scream, but merely looked at her body in interest. But when the flames began to devour her body, her mouth opened in a surprise scream but nothing came out. It must have been five seconds before it was distinguished.

"Wakey, wakey, wakey." An unfamiliar voice filtered through her brain, and she looked up at the person with curious eyes. He was a monster, with his blue skin. Inhuman. His eyes were small, white and watery, and his mouth was stretched into a leer.

"You seemed like a pretty girl. Did Itachi pick you up from the streets?

She merely stared at him.

"We don't need her in Akatsuki," he said loudly to a silent Itachi. "She's weak. A liability."

She didn't even care about what they thought about her. As if he could think that anything they would say would affect her.

"We could sell her. She's a pretty thing. We could make a fortune off her by selling her as a slave."

"No." The answer was short and to the point. Itachi glared at his partner.

"Have you grown fond of the girl?" The monster seemed to have grown incredulous. "Are you caring for her? Tucking her into bed? Feeding her?"

There was a slam and the monster was slammed to the ground an inch away from death.

"Just kidding. But touchy in the mornings, aren't you?"

She kept her face down, wishing she could disappear.

"Hey, you there." It was the monster, and she stumbled over herself again. Laughter seemed to reverberate in the vicinity. "She's amusing to watch, isn't she? The alive girl."

"Not in the least," his partner said softly.

"So you wouldn't mind…if I killed her?" The monster asked skeptically.

"Not really."

"Then why haven't you killed her?" His voice was shocked and bewildered.

"I don't care. If she lives or dies." He repeated dully.

Her stomach growled, and she closed her eyes as the sound drew the monster's attention.

"Haven't been feeding her?" The monster laughed. "You aren't very nice. Maybe I can just end it by killing her….she is weak, and besides, we could sell her to Zetsu for food."

Itachi didn't make a sound, and the monster laughed and moved closer to her. She shivered. "Don't be afraid," he crooned mockingly. "You won't feel the pain of being eaten alive. I'll kill you first." She shut her eyes and felt the sudden surge of insurmountable chakra.

"P-please," she croaked, and the two Akatsuki members froze. "Kill me."

There was a long silence, and she tensed, waiting for a scathing and mocking reply before death. None came. Perhaps she was dead already…she tentatively opened her eyes and was disappointed. The monster was still in front of her, poised for attack.

"No." he tossed his weapon away and gave her a contemptuous look. "No."

"No?" she was beginning to panic.

"No." The monster began to laugh. "Itachi, you have a very interesting friend."

She winced at the last word. Itachi made no response.

The monster knelt down so they faced each other, their faces level. "I'm Kisame. That's all you'll ever need to know."

She nodded dumbly.

"Now, aren't you going to tell me your name?" he asked, amused. "Isn't that customary in the Public World?" He waited.

There was a long silence before she whispered, "Hyuuga Hinata."

He smirked. "She's so weak. You sure know how to pick them, Itachi." Said person made no response.

Suddenly Itachi straightened up. "We need to go," he muttered. "We'll be late. She's slow. We'll be late at her rate."

She winced at the unbidden disgust in his voice.

"I'll carry her," Kisame said. "She's light. And don't worry, pretty," he added, sneering. "I won't…bite."

Something in his tone suggested otherwise.

"Thank you," she whispered automatically.

"What was that?" his voice seemed bewildered.

"Thank you." She sounded like a small child, thanking a grownup for giving out sweets—frail, quiet, small.

He looked at her with an odd expression on his face, akin to wonder, before his face suddenly and unexpectedly shuttered.

"Hn." It was the most indifferent tone of voice she had ever heard from him.

She nodded once before turning away, her eyes tilted towards the sky…maybe there were nice Akatsuki members, she thought hopefully, even if they did these favors out of mockery and spite.

"No." It was Itachi, ad his voice was bleak and harsh. She looked at him and was met with an alarming glare of hatred, animosity and…jealousy?

"What?" It was Kisame, his tone normal again.

"No," he repeated flatly.

"Don't carry her? But it will be faster if—"

"No." He took a breath and a torrent of words spilt out. "She is weak. This might as well be training to improve her stamina. Besides—" He tossed her a dreadful look," if we are late because of her, we will tell Leader-sama. And she will face the consequences."

Her feet were aching and her eyes felt swollen. She felt dirty, used, like a public toilet. No, scratch felt and replace it with was.

"Fine. That's actually a GREAT idea, Itachi." Kisame seemed eager to inflict more suffering on her. "We can go our normal pace, and you can use that pretty Byukagan of yours to find us." He paused, squinting at the rising sun just above them. "It will take Itachi and me three hours of travel. We are expected at six at night."

"We will rest before then," Itachi said quietly. "You have twelve hours of rest."

It was a miracle. She collapsed before them, not caring about her dignity, not caring about punishment. She fell asleep before she hit the floor.

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They were miles away from her. If she didn't catch up soon, she would lose her Byukagan sight of them.

Her body was stumbling, already tired after only thirty minutes. The twelve hours of sleep had help replenish her chakra, but it had not helped in the least with her physical energy, and certainly had not helped heal her aching body.

She closed her eyes, relying on her Byukagan from walking into objects like trees. She had to think of a strategy to stop her from losing track of the Akatsuki members. Maybe she could use her Byukagan sporadically, use her chakra to propel herself forward…or…

Maybe she could just run away.

But she knew that they would come find her and punish her. They could easily do that.

But if…if she could…kill herself before that…

She knew she would never dare. And besides, they would have found her out before she killed herself. They would stop her from that and torture her forever.

If she could, she would have laughed. How ironic, that the Akatsuki killed so easily, yet they refused to kill her. How insane, that for the one person who wanted death, they wouldn't give itto her.

When had she been so broken that she started pleading for death? Hadn't she, once, loved life? How badly had she warped? Why was she so weak?

She was weak only because her father told her so, wasn't she? That's what she told herself over and over again. But now she was free, wasn't she? She was free from her old life. And even though the new life felt so horrible, it shut her mind down and numbed her feelings like a drug. Ironically enough, the physical pain seemed to give her an escape route from her ensnaring and imprisoning mind.

And suddenly, all of her overwhelming feelings seemed to explode, and she stopped her running and froze. Her heart felt as if it were exploding. She clutched her chest with a moan. What was happening to her? And suddenly, she began to run again, trying to shake off all these sudden intense feelings. Oh, if only she were given the choice of cutting her heart out!

And suddenly, the pain had gone, and all that was left in its wake was sudden, vivid clarity. She opened her eyes, and only the blur of white was visible. Was she in Heaven?

The thought seemed to rock her…Heaven? Take her? She was not worthy for Heaven. No…she wouldn't be in Heaven…but maybe…she was flying. The thought tickled her, and she laughed. Wouldn't that be funny? And suddenly her thoughts were raining down at her like laser bullets and she heard every single one of them and she dodged them laughing and Christ her legs were moving so fast, so fast she seemed to glide and it had been two hours but really if felt like it was just a couple of minutes and she felt like she was engulfed, like she was being embraced and it felt so good, and she was laughing again because nothing mattered and she felt like she was so out of breath and she couldn't breathe anymore and she was getting dizzy and everything seemed to blur and she closed her eyes and she stopped her insane running and her thoughts were moving slower and too late they seemed lodged inside her body like bullets and her body was on fire, because she—

"Hinata?" It was a familiar-sounding voice, she groggily thought.She didn't want to open her eyes anymore and she slid onto the hard, welcoming ground. "Is that you?" Was that disbelief in his voice? "H-how did you catch up to us?"

She didn't answer. She didn't need to. Christ she was tired, because it felt as if her insides were sucked out of her and she wanted to throw up and everything was spinning.

"No chakra left in her." Was that Itachi?

"She must have been—been traveling over a hundred miles per hour to catch up to us!"

Was it just her, or were their voices getting softer and softer?Actually, it probably was just her. She couldn't decipher their conversation, but their voices were so annoying in their persistent buzzing.

Then suddenly against the confusion, a clear voice: "Hinata."

She wondered oddly how is voice was so clear. She could hear every single vibration in the word. "Hinata," the voice said again. "Look at me."

She obeyed, her eyes squinting against the funny light. She could vaguely see Kisame leaning down, a look of bewilderment on his face, and Itachi, his body kneeling next to hers, his face indifferent but oddly…different.

Then she caught a glimpse of his eyes. They were captivating, bright read, irresistible…everything else faded away as she stared at the hypnotizing eyes.

"Sleep," he whispered, and she slept.

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This is finally a decent-sized chapter. Thanks for reading, and don't forget the reviews (hinthintXP!