ALL NOVEL 3.9
The funny thing about explosions, they don’t really care who triggered them. My precious babies exploded and almost took us out. The blast was stronger than I could have dreamed of. Naruto hadn’t braced himself. He flew away from us, fell somewhere I couldn’t see. I crashed against a tree, felt my shoulder crack. I didn’t see what happened to Sasuke, but his chakra presence was nearby, I hoped he was alright.
And in the end, it was all for nothing.
The shinobi chasing us hid under the earth. Moved underneath, crossed over past where we fell, blocking our path forward. I got up, moved toward Sasuke. When I got there, he was already up, standing straight, kunai in hand, facing the tall long tongued lady from the start of the exam. Shit, shit, shit. What do I do? My legs refused to move when I set my eyes on the enemy.
Tall Lady looked at me. “What gave me away?” The raspy voice asked. My trembling got worse. Move, dammit, move. I took a kunai. Held it in front of me with a white death grip. The lady didn’t seem bothered by my lack of answers. She took a scroll. Another earth one. “I suppose you’d like to get my Earth scroll, wouldn’t you?” She opened her mouth, tongue came out, snaked around the scroll. Gulped it down like it was candy.
My trembling got out of control. I wanted to run. Sasuke looked at me, worry written on his face. He moved closer, stood by my side. I could have kissed him right now. A chaste one, on the cheek, but a kiss nonetheless.
“Now, shall we see who will steal from who?” Tall Lady glared at us. “We’ll fight to the death.”
Chakra full of killing intent washed over me. I don’t know what Sasuke felt, how it affected him. For me? I remembered. Memories flashed too fast in my mind.
Strapped to a table, the sterile walls, pain, yelling. The same scratchy voice. “We can’t have you yelling like that,” the voice said, a finger burned my throat, “there, that will keep you quiet.”
There was more, a lot more.
My thorax cut open, my bones dug out, my guts hung in the open. All the while, the pale man chuckled or scribed something away. Not even when he took out my eyes it ended. It just turned worse.
The killing intent infused chakra abated. I was on the ground. Water leaked from everywhere. My pores, my eyes, my mouth, between my legs. My mouth was open in a horrifying scream that created no sound. What was that? A genjutsu? I thought those couldn't affect me. Was it a memory? It didn’t felt like one, It didn’t felt like I was Hinata strapped to that table. I felt like my old self, I was Camilla.
By my side, Sasuke had spilled his lunch. He looked at me. Still trembling. Called out. “Hinata?”
I couldn’t take my eyes from the lady, man, snake. Whatever.
Tall Lady ninja smirked. Threw kunai at me. I saw them, calculated their path: Neck and heart. I couldn’t move. My body refused to obey. The world blurred and we were elsewhere.
Sasuke had somehow dragged me out of the clearing, hid behind the trunk of one of the biggest tree. He held both of my trembling hands with one of his. The boy looked at me eyes full of worry. Looked out from the corner of the trunk, searching for the enemy. Silly boy wasn’t paying attention to the snake sneaking up on him from above.
I bit my own tongue. Pain flared, iron filled my mouth, but whatever shit Orochimaru did to me lessened. I wrenched my hands from Sasuke’s. Grabbed a kunai, a normal exploding one, threw it. The weapon hit the branch above us, detonated. The explosion pushed the snake away.
Sasuke finally noticed the enemy. Whirled, attacked. Threw shuriken, jumped to another branch. The snake chased him. While in midair, Sasuke unloaded a rain of kunai and shuriken. It hit the open mouth of the snake. The creature fell, flopped down, still half coiled around a branch.
But there was no relief. The body of the serpent bulged and distorted, burst open and out came the disguised shinobi, covered in gore and bile. “You make this so much fun. Keep running prey.” The sibilant voice hissed. Then, like a snake, it crawled up the branch, toward the still panting Sasuke.
Kunai and shuriken hit the branch, cut off the half-snake path. Naruto — covered in blood and guts — stood above us. “Naruto is here for the rescue!”
Sasuke called out. “Be careful Naruto, they are way above our league.”
“Good job escaping the snake, Naruto-kun.” Disguised Orochimaru complimented. There was a bit more of back and forth. Orochimaru didn’t seem hurried to continue his attacks.
Naruto lost his patience first, attacked.
Orochimaru pulled his sleeve up, smeared blood on the summoning seal tattooed to his arm. Summoned a giant snake. The snake moved fast, tail-slapping Naruto away. Sasuke attacked. His eyes red, tomoe spinning. I forced myself up. My knees trembled, but I had to fight. Couldn’t just give up. Sasuke was also slapped away, and my hands moved. I threw a kunai, blocking the snake follow up attack.
Naruto was back in the fight, eyes red and raging, evil chakra gushing out of him. Somehow, evil Kyuubi chakra actually helped. It terrorized me in a different way; pushed away all remaining influence from whatever Orochimaru did. Naruto punched the snake down. It felt like the punch of god. The snake retaliation was interrupted by Sasuke’s flame jutsu. I threw even more explosive weapons at the giant snake. Hope sparked in my chest. We’re driving the snake off.
Like always, I cursed fate by daring to have hope.
The snake recoiled, then lashed out, faster than before. A wave of dread and killing intent blasted me, froze me in place. The snake open maw promised horrible death. Then Naruto was there, somehow he stopped the snake, diverted the attack and the creature snout hit the branch. Naruto held it there like he held the weight of the whole world.
The brat’s eyes burned red, evil chakra visible around him. He grinned, a bloodied, nasty thing. “I’ll protect you, Hinata-chan.” I was speechless for more than one reason. Naruto decided to play cool and flirt mid fight? The gall of that brat!
Orochimaru, who had been content to watch, moved. His tongue extended, wrapped around Naruto, took him to the air. I attacked, I flickered behind Orochimaru, stabbed with my kunai. Or I tried to. The man had turned his head 180, with a movement too fast for me to see, slapped me away.
“Get off me!” Naruto yelled.
Sasuke moved, not to help Naruto, but to catch my fall. He grabbed my hand, we landed on a lower branch. What was wrong with me? When did I turn from a ninja to damsel in distress?
Orochimaru’s turned back to Naruto. The tip of his tongue raised up Naruto’s shirt, revealed the seal on the boy’s stomach. Orochimaru’s fingers burned with purple chakra. He hit the seal. Like pressing an off button on one of those jolly chimp toys, Naruto flopped off, unconscious. Orochimaru tossed Naruto away. Sasuke threw a kunai, pinned Naruto to the tree by his jacket.
The snake man turned to Sasuke then to me. His next words chilled me to the bone. “How curious, I’m sure you were dead.” I didn’t think he was talking about this fight.
Pressed beyond what was reasonable, we fought. Sasuke feinted, attacked, dodged. I kept moving, kept flickering, threw kunai, shuriken, placed explosive trap barriers. My lack of jutsu rearing its ugly head. Sasuke used my own attacks, capitalized on any chance. Used a wire trick with the sharingan and shuriken to trap Orochimaru. Spewed flames all over the enemy face.
For a normal enemy, it would have been more than enough. I dare say even some weaker jounin wouldn't come unscathed from that. Not that Orochimaru wasn’t hit. The fire melted away half of the skin the man wore, revealing even paler flesh beneath. I had expected to see the snake pupils. I didn’t. Instead the eyes were white on white. Hyuga byakugan eyes.
Were those my fucking eyes?
“I’m Orochimaru,” the man introduced himself to Sasuke. Took the earth scroll from inside his mouth. “If you’d ever like to become strong, pass this exam and come find me.” Orochimaru burned the Earth scroll. “I’ll give you a taste of true power.”
Sasuke held his ground, another kunai in hand. “What are you babbling about?”
The snake sannin neck elongated, faster than the eye could move, bit down on Sasuke’s neck. Sasuke screamed. For a moment, the selfish part of me dared believe it was over. The man had done what he wanted. Marked Sasuke with this seal. Now please just leave. He didn’t. He turned to me. His white eye glowed, filled all my vision. My body burned. I fell down like a puppet with its strings cut.
What just happened.
Orochimaru walked closer. Picked me up by the hair. Like I was a piece of rare furniture, inspected me. Looked at my arms, pried open my eyes. Stuck a finger inside my throat. All the while, the white eye stared at me. He took my pouch, checked my seals. “They haven’t taught you.” Orochimaru said. “Dangling bits in front of your face and never giving you real power. I can teach you.” Orochimaru grabbed my chin and forced me to look at him. “No matter how much you beg, Konoha won’t help you, they can’t. Not even the third can remove those seals.”
What seals? I had no idea what he was talking about. Was this a recruitment pitch? In the background, Sasuke had stopped screaming after a hoarse grunt.
Orochimaru chuckled. “Think about it, I can teach you things they never even dreamed about.” He looked away, to the far horizon, beyond the trees. The man pushed a glowing finger onto my forehead.
Agony invaded my mind. I felt dirty, violated, unclean, my bones burned, my blood boiled.
The man took his finger away. “My offer is the same. Come and find me when you get tired of them denying you. But first, you have to prove you’re worth it.” Orochimaru released me. I crumpled on the branch. The man turned, left without looking back.
