Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Shades of White ❯ The Life of a Monster ( Chapter 2 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: HamsterBattalionCommander 
What will Hinata find, and just what can she do about it?
Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Drama / Comedy | Type: Divergence | Uploaded On: 09.29.2011 | Updated On: 09.29.2011 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.2K | Visits: 307 | Status: Work In Progress
What will Hinata find, and just what can she do about it?
Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Drama / Comedy | Type: Divergence | Uploaded On: 09.29.2011 | Updated On: 09.29.2011 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.2K | Visits: 307 | Status: Work In Progress
Shades of White
by HamsterBattalionCommander
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters. If I did, I would be rich from merchandise royalties, and I wouldn't have to write fanfics for a living. Oh, wait... D:
_______________________________________________ __________
The screams of the ANBU squad leader split the air. For a full Jounin team, they had been too easy for Gaara to kill. He hadn't even moved from where he'd stood before the fight had begun.
Gaara spared the squad leader a bored glance as his sand methodically dismembered the man. This one... must have been minutely stronger than the others. He'd been the only one to slip an attack through Gaara's Ultimate Defense. It was only one throwing needle and it had only dealt a glancing blow that had hardly bled at all, but it had been worthy of special consideration.
The other ANBU had all been crushed quickly by the sand, but this one deserved to suffer for every drop of Gaara's blood that had been spilled.
The crimson-haired youth turned and stared into the inky blackness of the shadows around him. Something had just moved in the treetops; he'd heard the rustling of leaves. He cast about with his chakra, thouroughly probing the surrounding forrest for the source of the noise. He encountered several tiny signatures, birds or squirrels, and then something larger.
Gaara's black-rimmed eyes locked onto the area and scanned for any visible sign of what or who the voyeur was. The chakra signature was relatively small, weaker than most young shinobi children. If it was another ninja hiding in the trees, logic dictated that they would have hidden, or at least have attempted to hide their presence entirely, and their chakra and movements would not have been so noticeable.
So, he concluded, his unseen companion was more than likely some predatory animal, drawn to this place by the ANBU's screams and the thick scent of their blood. Something Gaara understood only too well. If he even thought himself capable of compassionate feeling, he would have felt sorry for this kindred beast who, unfortunately, needed to die now. Gaara couldn't take any chances.
Konohagakure could not become aware of him. It would ruin everything.
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Hinata didn't move, tried not to breathe. She pressed her side tighter to the trunk of the tree in which she was crouched. With her Byakugan, she watched as none other than Gaara of the Desert stared right at her. His piercing sea-green eyes bored like lasers through the side of her head.
She knew he couldn't see her, of course. Hinata was using her kekkei genkai to look through the tree trunk while she was turned to the side, making herself as small as she could manage and utilizing the natural cover of the trees and the twilight shadows to mask her location.
Hinata was struck by another wave of dizziness, the adrenaline that had been sustaining her quickly flagging. It had been another bout of lightheadedness that had earlier caused her to almost miss her landing, allowing her foot to slip into a clump of leaves and as good as announcing her approach.
In an attempt to force blood flow back to her weary brain, Hinata chenched her eyes hard and fought to slow and deepen her breathing. After a few seconds that seemed very close to an eternity, the dizziness passed and her Byakugan refocused on the still form of Gaara.
As she watched, the boy slowly raised his arm out in front of him and tightened his hand into a fist, like his was squashing a bug. Behind him, the sand finally crushed what was left of the lifeless body it had been gleefully mangling, and came to swirl and churn at the feet of its master. Gaara motioned again with his and and his sand surged forth to do his bidding, heading with lethal purpose straight toward Hinata's hiding place.
But the sand only made it a few feet before it fell back to the ground, while Gaara dropped to his knees and clutched his head. He could feel his pulse pounding behind his eyes and his body was wracked by chills. His sand curled around him, concerned but unsure of what to do.
"What's happening?" he groaned. Gaara knew that this wasn't Shukaku's doing, because when the demon tried to take control, it was like lava was coursing through his veins, not icy razor blades.
But if the raccoon wasn't to blame, then... what? Gaara struggled to think, but couldn't over the deafening buzzing in his head. His breath was coming fast now and he was covered in a sheen of cold sweat.
A barely audible sound from the underbrush caused his head to snap up, the sudden movement nearly making him faint. He fought to focus his eyes on the dark figure, still half-dissolved into the shadows, but failed admirably. As the figure edged closer, the last shred of Gaara's strength left him and he collapsed onto his side, his sand cushioning his impact with the forest floor.
Trembling with fear, Hinata took a few tiny, halting steps forward, ready to bolt the instant Gaara moved. The sand shinobi merely stared at her with glassy, black-rimmed eyes, which then rolled back into his head as he lost his shaky grip on consciousness.
What could possibly have laid a fearsome ninja like Gaara so low so quickly, Hinata wondered. she reactivated her Byakugan, examining the boy's insides carefully. His less vital internal organs were beginning to fail, and his tenketsu, the tiny chakra gateways, were shutting down at an alarming rate. On top of that, he was burning with fever as his body fought the losing battle against whatever was attacking it.
He would surely die if he didn't get help. Now.
Hinata gazed down at Gaara's prone form. This single Gennin was responsible for the deaths of so many Leaf Village shinobi. Many of them had been friends. All of them had been valuable to the continued survival of Konohagakure. If anyone needed saving, Gaara of the Desert was among the least deserving.
And yet... The white-eyed girl couldn't quite bring herself to turn her back on him. If she just left him there to die, would she not be just as bad as he was? She couldn't find it in her heart to be so cold-blooded.
Hinata knelt over the unconscious boy and reached out to feel his forehead, when the sand that had been gently slithering all over him in search of some way to aid its master leapt up and formed into a wall around him. The Hyuuga girl was so startled that she fell back onto her rear end. She had forgotten about Gaara's Ultimate Defense. The sand could act completely of its own will, so even though Gaara was out cold, he was still utterly unreachable.
Now, the Hyuuga prodigy, Hinata's cousin Neji, often boasted about his awesome skills of insight. He liked to taunt his opponents by telling them exactly what they were thinking, even before they ever really thought it. Just like he had done to Hinata during the Chunin exams. But Hinata's own powers of insight were nothing to be scoffed at, either. And right now, staring up at Gaara's deadly sand, observing the way the individual grains shifted and bounced against each other, she felt as though she could essentially read its mind.
That is, if sand could have a mind.
Hinata saw how even though she was still relatively near and easily within striking distance, the sand made no move to attack her. It merely stood its ground, the tiny rocks it was comprised of twitching back and forth nervously, waiting for the girl to make just one false move. It saw her as a potential threat to its master, but it was more concerned with staying close and protecting him than killing her.
If the sand could understand how vulnerable Gaara was now, Hinata speculated, perhaps it could also understand that she was there to help.
The girl stood slowly and assumed what she hoped was a non-threatening stance; hands clasped in front of her, head slightly bowed, shoulders relaxed. With her Byakugan, she looked past the sand at Gaara, scanning his body again.
Whatever was attacking him was wreaking havoc on his vital organ systems and spreading to his extremities. Fluid was building up in his lungs and his heart labored to circulate what little oxygen he was getting to his brain. His liver was failing. His kidneys weren't far behind. His tenketsu were blinking out, one by one.
"He's dying." She fought to keep her voice steady. Come on, Hinata, she told herself. You're the only one who can help him. You've been studying medicine; you know how the body works. You're his only hope and being afraid will do him no good. She continued to coach herself in this manner as she tried to reason with the wall of sand before her.
"He's dying," she began again in a soothing monotone. "He needs medical attention right away." The tiny grains of sand jumped and quivered in agitation... fear, maybe? Hinata pressed on, doing her level best to smother her own fear. "I might be able to save him, but you have to let me. Please." When the barrier didn't go down, Hinata's pain, exhaustion, fear, and frustration got the better of her. "I'm not going to kill him!" she snapped. "If I wanted him dead, I'd just leave him like he is. He's dying just fine on his own, without my help. Just listen to his breathing!"
There was a beat or two of motionless silence in the clearing. Or, near silence. The only thing that could be heard was Gaara, a sickening rattle deep in his chest, laboring to draw each shallow breath.
So slowly that at first Hinata wasn't sure if it was actually happening, the sand slid to the ground and parted, creating a path for her, but staying close. Hinata didn't spare the time to be relieved, just dropped to her knees at the side of the fallen shinobi, stripping off her backpack and dumping out its contents.
"Here goes nothing," she muttered.
Author's Note: I've noticed that a lot of Naruto fanfiction portray Hinata as a jibbering, babbling wuss. However, in what I've seen of the anime, she mostly only stutters when she is scared or embarrassed. I'm trying to model this fanfiction to be as close to what I think is the real Hinata as I can manage, which is why my story starts out just after the Chunin exams, when Konoha is trying to pull itself together and deal with its new morally-questionable Hokage. At this time, Hinata is twelve, naive, and kind-hearted with loads of untapped potential and a buried inner strength.
Gaara will be a challenge for me. In the anime, his thoughts and motivations are not usually explained, so his true character is a bit vague. I will admit that I have read one or two good Gaara-centric fiction, those ones where he pretty much renounces his black-hearted ways and sees the light. But it seems the the vast majority of those were kind of abbrieviated to the point of incredulity. There's just no way Gaara could go from cold-blooded killer to fluffy baby kitten overnight. So his will be a slow transformation, one that will probably never be complete, and most of it will be internalized, as he doesn't share his feelings with anybody.
And unless it somehow gets into my head (*hint* reviews *hint*) I'll probably not do very much in the way of other pairings. Naruto will still be folloing Sakura around like a puppy, she'll still be annoyingly in love with Sasuke, and he'll still be a frigid little emo princess.
Sorry for the huge author's note, I felt as though these things needed to be said. Until next time. ^^
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by HamsterBattalionCommander
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters. If I did, I would be rich from merchandise royalties, and I wouldn't have to write fanfics for a living. Oh, wait... D:
_______________________________________________ __________
The screams of the ANBU squad leader split the air. For a full Jounin team, they had been too easy for Gaara to kill. He hadn't even moved from where he'd stood before the fight had begun.
Gaara spared the squad leader a bored glance as his sand methodically dismembered the man. This one... must have been minutely stronger than the others. He'd been the only one to slip an attack through Gaara's Ultimate Defense. It was only one throwing needle and it had only dealt a glancing blow that had hardly bled at all, but it had been worthy of special consideration.
The other ANBU had all been crushed quickly by the sand, but this one deserved to suffer for every drop of Gaara's blood that had been spilled.
The crimson-haired youth turned and stared into the inky blackness of the shadows around him. Something had just moved in the treetops; he'd heard the rustling of leaves. He cast about with his chakra, thouroughly probing the surrounding forrest for the source of the noise. He encountered several tiny signatures, birds or squirrels, and then something larger.
Gaara's black-rimmed eyes locked onto the area and scanned for any visible sign of what or who the voyeur was. The chakra signature was relatively small, weaker than most young shinobi children. If it was another ninja hiding in the trees, logic dictated that they would have hidden, or at least have attempted to hide their presence entirely, and their chakra and movements would not have been so noticeable.
So, he concluded, his unseen companion was more than likely some predatory animal, drawn to this place by the ANBU's screams and the thick scent of their blood. Something Gaara understood only too well. If he even thought himself capable of compassionate feeling, he would have felt sorry for this kindred beast who, unfortunately, needed to die now. Gaara couldn't take any chances.
Konohagakure could not become aware of him. It would ruin everything.
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Hinata didn't move, tried not to breathe. She pressed her side tighter to the trunk of the tree in which she was crouched. With her Byakugan, she watched as none other than Gaara of the Desert stared right at her. His piercing sea-green eyes bored like lasers through the side of her head.
She knew he couldn't see her, of course. Hinata was using her kekkei genkai to look through the tree trunk while she was turned to the side, making herself as small as she could manage and utilizing the natural cover of the trees and the twilight shadows to mask her location.
Hinata was struck by another wave of dizziness, the adrenaline that had been sustaining her quickly flagging. It had been another bout of lightheadedness that had earlier caused her to almost miss her landing, allowing her foot to slip into a clump of leaves and as good as announcing her approach.
In an attempt to force blood flow back to her weary brain, Hinata chenched her eyes hard and fought to slow and deepen her breathing. After a few seconds that seemed very close to an eternity, the dizziness passed and her Byakugan refocused on the still form of Gaara.
As she watched, the boy slowly raised his arm out in front of him and tightened his hand into a fist, like his was squashing a bug. Behind him, the sand finally crushed what was left of the lifeless body it had been gleefully mangling, and came to swirl and churn at the feet of its master. Gaara motioned again with his and and his sand surged forth to do his bidding, heading with lethal purpose straight toward Hinata's hiding place.
But the sand only made it a few feet before it fell back to the ground, while Gaara dropped to his knees and clutched his head. He could feel his pulse pounding behind his eyes and his body was wracked by chills. His sand curled around him, concerned but unsure of what to do.
"What's happening?" he groaned. Gaara knew that this wasn't Shukaku's doing, because when the demon tried to take control, it was like lava was coursing through his veins, not icy razor blades.
But if the raccoon wasn't to blame, then... what? Gaara struggled to think, but couldn't over the deafening buzzing in his head. His breath was coming fast now and he was covered in a sheen of cold sweat.
A barely audible sound from the underbrush caused his head to snap up, the sudden movement nearly making him faint. He fought to focus his eyes on the dark figure, still half-dissolved into the shadows, but failed admirably. As the figure edged closer, the last shred of Gaara's strength left him and he collapsed onto his side, his sand cushioning his impact with the forest floor.
Trembling with fear, Hinata took a few tiny, halting steps forward, ready to bolt the instant Gaara moved. The sand shinobi merely stared at her with glassy, black-rimmed eyes, which then rolled back into his head as he lost his shaky grip on consciousness.
What could possibly have laid a fearsome ninja like Gaara so low so quickly, Hinata wondered. she reactivated her Byakugan, examining the boy's insides carefully. His less vital internal organs were beginning to fail, and his tenketsu, the tiny chakra gateways, were shutting down at an alarming rate. On top of that, he was burning with fever as his body fought the losing battle against whatever was attacking it.
He would surely die if he didn't get help. Now.
Hinata gazed down at Gaara's prone form. This single Gennin was responsible for the deaths of so many Leaf Village shinobi. Many of them had been friends. All of them had been valuable to the continued survival of Konohagakure. If anyone needed saving, Gaara of the Desert was among the least deserving.
And yet... The white-eyed girl couldn't quite bring herself to turn her back on him. If she just left him there to die, would she not be just as bad as he was? She couldn't find it in her heart to be so cold-blooded.
Hinata knelt over the unconscious boy and reached out to feel his forehead, when the sand that had been gently slithering all over him in search of some way to aid its master leapt up and formed into a wall around him. The Hyuuga girl was so startled that she fell back onto her rear end. She had forgotten about Gaara's Ultimate Defense. The sand could act completely of its own will, so even though Gaara was out cold, he was still utterly unreachable.
Now, the Hyuuga prodigy, Hinata's cousin Neji, often boasted about his awesome skills of insight. He liked to taunt his opponents by telling them exactly what they were thinking, even before they ever really thought it. Just like he had done to Hinata during the Chunin exams. But Hinata's own powers of insight were nothing to be scoffed at, either. And right now, staring up at Gaara's deadly sand, observing the way the individual grains shifted and bounced against each other, she felt as though she could essentially read its mind.
That is, if sand could have a mind.
Hinata saw how even though she was still relatively near and easily within striking distance, the sand made no move to attack her. It merely stood its ground, the tiny rocks it was comprised of twitching back and forth nervously, waiting for the girl to make just one false move. It saw her as a potential threat to its master, but it was more concerned with staying close and protecting him than killing her.
If the sand could understand how vulnerable Gaara was now, Hinata speculated, perhaps it could also understand that she was there to help.
The girl stood slowly and assumed what she hoped was a non-threatening stance; hands clasped in front of her, head slightly bowed, shoulders relaxed. With her Byakugan, she looked past the sand at Gaara, scanning his body again.
Whatever was attacking him was wreaking havoc on his vital organ systems and spreading to his extremities. Fluid was building up in his lungs and his heart labored to circulate what little oxygen he was getting to his brain. His liver was failing. His kidneys weren't far behind. His tenketsu were blinking out, one by one.
"He's dying." She fought to keep her voice steady. Come on, Hinata, she told herself. You're the only one who can help him. You've been studying medicine; you know how the body works. You're his only hope and being afraid will do him no good. She continued to coach herself in this manner as she tried to reason with the wall of sand before her.
"He's dying," she began again in a soothing monotone. "He needs medical attention right away." The tiny grains of sand jumped and quivered in agitation... fear, maybe? Hinata pressed on, doing her level best to smother her own fear. "I might be able to save him, but you have to let me. Please." When the barrier didn't go down, Hinata's pain, exhaustion, fear, and frustration got the better of her. "I'm not going to kill him!" she snapped. "If I wanted him dead, I'd just leave him like he is. He's dying just fine on his own, without my help. Just listen to his breathing!"
There was a beat or two of motionless silence in the clearing. Or, near silence. The only thing that could be heard was Gaara, a sickening rattle deep in his chest, laboring to draw each shallow breath.
So slowly that at first Hinata wasn't sure if it was actually happening, the sand slid to the ground and parted, creating a path for her, but staying close. Hinata didn't spare the time to be relieved, just dropped to her knees at the side of the fallen shinobi, stripping off her backpack and dumping out its contents.
"Here goes nothing," she muttered.
Author's Note: I've noticed that a lot of Naruto fanfiction portray Hinata as a jibbering, babbling wuss. However, in what I've seen of the anime, she mostly only stutters when she is scared or embarrassed. I'm trying to model this fanfiction to be as close to what I think is the real Hinata as I can manage, which is why my story starts out just after the Chunin exams, when Konoha is trying to pull itself together and deal with its new morally-questionable Hokage. At this time, Hinata is twelve, naive, and kind-hearted with loads of untapped potential and a buried inner strength.
Gaara will be a challenge for me. In the anime, his thoughts and motivations are not usually explained, so his true character is a bit vague. I will admit that I have read one or two good Gaara-centric fiction, those ones where he pretty much renounces his black-hearted ways and sees the light. But it seems the the vast majority of those were kind of abbrieviated to the point of incredulity. There's just no way Gaara could go from cold-blooded killer to fluffy baby kitten overnight. So his will be a slow transformation, one that will probably never be complete, and most of it will be internalized, as he doesn't share his feelings with anybody.
And unless it somehow gets into my head (*hint* reviews *hint*) I'll probably not do very much in the way of other pairings. Naruto will still be folloing Sakura around like a puppy, she'll still be annoyingly in love with Sasuke, and he'll still be a frigid little emo princess.
Sorry for the huge author's note, I felt as though these things needed to be said. Until next time. ^^
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