Angsty as hell drabble on Team 8. Wrote it awhile ago, just now uploading.

BEFORE YOU READ:

- Kiba's father is a missing-nin if you weren't aware. Apparently his mom scared him off.

-I do not support self-mutilation. If you need help, get it. Hell, if there's no one else, pm me if you need to talk.

-I think it's strange that Shino attended the academy. I have a story in connection to this theory that I'm posting later.

-I hate Hiashi.

-I believe Hinata wants only to protect her sister, not fight her (I'm an older sister if this helps).

That's all.

Enjoy.

"Suffering is permanent, obscure and dark, and shares the nature of infinity."

-William Wordsworth

Team 8 is the only team that has worn jackets their entire lives.

Jackets in purple-green-black with too long sleeves and hoods that hide their faces.

Team 8 wears their jackets to hide their darkest secrets.

Their secret shames.

Their secret weaknesses.

Their secret failures.

Kiba's scars cover his upper arms because that is the easiest place to bite. He can bring up his arm and calmly, quietly, sink his fangs into his arm so that the skin breaks and beads of blood spill over. They fill his mouth and really, his blood doesn't taste any different than the blood of his enemies. He's ripped enough of their throats with the same fangs to know. They are all little half-moon scars and he doesn't let them fade because when he takes his jacket off he sees a reminder that he is not human. Humans don't leave marks like that, like the marks his mother made on his father's body before the man fled.

Shino's scars are impossible to notice, because they are on the inside of his lower arms and no one sees him without his jacket besides his teammates. The knife marks are straight, yet hesitant, simply because he's usually terrified when he makes them and because Shino never does anything half-assed. When the bugs under his skin move, sometimes they make the scars move and its horrifyingly interesting. He sometimes sits and watches the blood slowly leak from his arm before Hinata's healing cream seals it up and then they move. It's an awful reminder that death is who he is and if he feeds his kikachi his blood, maybe they'll stop moving so goddamn much that it itches and makes him want to claw them out.

And then there's Hinata.

Hinata has the most scars and most are made by other people. They are not made by her enemies but are made by the people who are supposed to love and protect her. The skin over her breast should be a twisted mass of tissue, but she is a kunochi so instead it is a faded silver blemish that reminds her that the people she loves the most will aim for the heart. Then there are the multiple scars on her back from her father because he fully supports the philosophy that to spare the rod is to spoil the child. He has never, ever spared it for her and she thinks he may even be a little whip-happy, but again the scars are not mottled flesh but shimmering lines across her skin. And on her upper arms there are scars where her sister has sliced her and she has not defended herself, because she could never raise a kunai to her baby sister. She is the elder and she was born to protect and defend. She is very good at her job.

The only scars she has made to herself only appear to be healed. They are constantly reopened and rebandaged. They are all over her body-on her chest, legs, and arms. It's not her kunai she uses to make the cuts - she has one from her father and her sister and her cousin and even Naruto. Whenever she is hurting and wants to hurt others she sharpens her chakra to blades and makes the cuts herself. These chakra kunai only belong to them metaphorically. The one that belongs to Naruto she makes the sharpest. It is a reminder that everyone she loves will hurt her but she doesn't care. It is a half-hearted attempt to get herself to think that the people she loves just bring her down, and it doesn't work. It's a reminder that she's too kind when it comes to those who hurt her so instead she must be brutal to herself.

Kiba says he wears his leather jacket because he's an Inuzuka and he's just that tough.

Shino says he wears his jacket because he's an Abarume and they need to cover up their bodies.

Hinata says she wears her jacket because she's shy.

The others take it for granted. They accept Team 8's explanations because Team 8 seems so sane and normal (their sensei isn't dead and their teammate isn't missing after all, but in reality Team 8 is the most fucked up of them all) and they smile and nod and say "That's just Team 8, you know, nothing special about them."

But Team 8 is strong and special and it's because they're not like the other teams.

They've had to work harder than anyone else because their fathers rejected them and their sensei was so young and no one knew what to do with the three failures but they had stuck together at an early age because they were masters of survival.

Kiba can grin and bear anything because the other Inuzuka's see him and see his father and the moment they suspect weakness they will pounce. It's probably why he is so attached to Akamaru. He helps him survive in a clan where the alphas will eat the omegas.

Shino can analyze a person and decide how to proceed with the skill of a Kage because his father will look at him and will say 'not good enough' and 'I am proud' in the same look and if he can't tell the difference he will be shunned once again. He is one of the first Abarume's to attend the Academy and that is just one reason he is an outsider. It's probably why he needs his method of dealing with pain. It lets him survive in a clan where he needs a reminder that he bleeds blood and not bugs.

Hinata can slip in and out of a room completely unnoticed because she has to get past her family some nights and has to be as quiet as can be or she'll be brutally beaten. She is not seen till she wants to be seen and she can also be hurt without crying, a skill the other kunochi have yet to master. If she gets hit and she cries out, it brings more people which brings more pain. It's probably why she has to cut herself, too. It lets her survive in a clan where there is no family, only potential threats that want the 'weak' heiress dead.

They aren't what one might call normal, and they wish they weren't ok with that.

But they are.

And they'll never be normal.

But they've got each other, and as long as they have that, they'll be ok.

Because they'll be together forever. Because they're Team Infinity.

Because they're Team 8.

fin.

Review?