青い骨の美 - The Beauty of Blue Bones

Chapter 21

Unknown
N/A

She opened her eyes and squinted as the bright sunlight greeted her. Hinata groaned as she laid there and took a good look around to see if she was in any immediate danger, or if she had simply failed at her mission and ended up in the afterlife. Bright green grass caressed the nape of her neck, the chirping of the birds acted like an alarm clock notifying her that the day had just begun.

"Good, I didn't screw it up just yet." She murmured as she sat up and massaged her sore limbs.

She didn't know what exactly to expect after going to sleep. All she could recall is falling into a tunnel for what seemed like years, time whizzing past her in a blink of an eye as she tried to navigate the chasm she seemed to be floating around in. Her senses were disrupted and amplified at the same time; she felt as though she was being ripped apart and put back together again the longer she fell. At some point, she was certain that the Shinigami had been watching her interfere with the natural order of things, its big grin scaring her as she spun 'round and around.

If she were to describe the feeling to anyone else, she would have settled on one word: torture. Hinata wasn't even sure that she was actually where she was supposed to be; she was just glad that it stopped. Had she gone into detail about what she felt or saw, she would have already emptied her stomach and perhaps choked on her own fluids.

Shaking her head, a shiver going down her spine, she stood up and stretched. Enkai couldn't explain exactly what she needed to do once she switched 'lives' with the spirit beyond finding its name [done] and what was precious to it. Running a shaky hand through her hair, she picked a random direction and began walking in hopes of stumbling across what she needed to find.

Mentally, she went over the things she read in the book she had stolen from her father. There wasn't too much information in there, anything beyond the basics like one's description and name wasn't documented. The cause of death was also fabricated, and any mentions of family was also useless.

She didn't know what time period she was in either, nor did she know if anyone was aware of her presence beyond herself and the Shinigami that hovered around her. She could feel its breath tickle the top of her head, hot and cold all in the same as its long nails tug itself in her shoulders. Hinata stopped herself from completely freezing, never acknowledging the dark presence that studied her as she walked past the forest and towards the direction she could hear noises.

"Just find out what's precious to him and get out." She muttered, "easier said than done."

Spring
Saturday—1:35AM

Sasuke squeezed the cold water out of the cloth and folded it carefully on her forehead. He sat back and stared at her barely moving chest at each breath she took. Rubbing his eye, ignoring how wet his hand was, he flipped the cloth over and then rinsed it again. She had been running a fever since the horrifying scene Naruto and himself were forced to witness. It was his turn to watch her for the next couple of hours before Naruto took over, so he took care of her fever as best as he could.

He listened to Naruto's soft snores, the only sound in the room that made up for the lack of noise Hinata made, as he wiped her face. The downturn of his lips did not go unnoticed as he quickly changed the already hot cloth on her forehead. Unknown to Naruto, he had tried using his sharingan on her in hopes of having some sort of peek at what was happening. It didn't do anything, it was as if her eyes weren't her own, nor were they connected to her chakra so his abilities had no effect and was likened to throwing cotton at glass.

His fingers brushed her wet bangs out of her face as she turned her head in displeasure. A whine left her mouth, her lips trembling and slowly turning blue as she shivered.