Saki summarised everything she found out. Going through her mental list. She was more and more convinced of a tiny possibility that she had abandoned a month ago.
One, there were many recognised aboveground stakeholders in this underground facility. Konoha was one of them. Did her own people know? How much of Konoha supported this?
Two, Ryūki had started a scientific-mythic cult based on ancient "blackmagic".
She called it blackmagic but it was similar to [Kuchiyose no jutsu] Summoning Jutsu. She suspected it may be one of the earliest forms of the Summoning Jutsu. The difference lay in the process and the target of summoning.
It wasn't animals or weapons or natural phenomena. It was a second sort of intelligent creature, on par or more than humans, invisible to the naked eye existing side by side with humans in a second overlapping dimension. She simply called them Evil spirits or Yokai. Couldn't be much bothered about the name.
What was the motive for all this?
Three, the entire setup was dependant on Hinata's "cellmate". It was only after proving her value to Ryūki and assisting in certain rituals that she was allowed near the cage. To her horror, she recognised what she was looking at.
Kyuubi no Jinchuuriki!!
This was the Jinchuuriki that was removed from Konoha about four years ago!
She didn't recognise the processed red chakra mist. It was very different from the heavy chakra that cloaked the skies of Konoha all those years ago.
Four, he was the key to detonating the place up. His chakra was continuously beinng siphoned by the pipes and processed for god knows what reasons. She didn't know what the consequences of blowing up the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki was. Was it worth unleashing the Kyuubi again just to save the Byakugan? Was it worth it to kill all these criminals at the expense of a natural disaster?
She feared the answer in her heart.
Five, an unrealistic possibility, but a possibility none the less. Was the Jinchuuriki manipulatable? Was it conscious?
Was it possible, by some absurd chance, to make a "blackmagic" contract with it?
She needed to get the information back to Konoha. But how? And who could she trust when Konoha was also part of this?
There were exactly three people she knew who were truly ones she could trust with this information.
Hyūga Hiashi, her husband.
Nara Shikaku. The best logician.
And Uchiha Fugaku. The strongest Uchiha she knew of this age.
And her gut told her, Uchiha Fugaku would be her best bet against the worst future she could think of.
........
There was much she missed about what happened to Hinata and the Jinchuuriki. She even felt staying with the Nine tails was better than these worse-than-beasts shits she was surrounded by.
Ryūki was getting more and more involved in rituals, bringing along them both outside the cage. She couldn't view the said rituals but it did involve a lot of human and animal blood. So much that it would seep through tightly shut doors and get siphoned away by the pipes. During one of these rituals where she turned away from her daughter's screams, she finally got the chance to enter and view Ryūki's tightly guarded set of notes.
That's when she found it. A way to do a "black contract".
...........
Hinata was safe. She wasn't harmed physically in anyway.
Ever since Ryūki separated her from her mother, she was left alone with the slit eyed creature.
She tried to speak to it sometimes but any movement she made made it cower into the pipes. Two days she spent without any of the nasty staple food and she felt faint.
By the fourth day, she was unable to sit straight from hunger. Some of the pipes leaked dark brown liquid that tasted like rusted water which she used to quench her thirst.
When the man came back, he was in a foul mood. He muttered about things like "biological reproductive maturity" and "Reproductive isolation" and "Sterileness". It seemed he had a talk with her mother as he cursed her out under his breath.
Behind him, his attendant made fun of him by joking about "Ryūki sama being smart but sometimes lacking common sense." Ryūki smacked him lightly in annoyance.
After that, they both were left alone for a while. One of his attendants would come in with bread or rice and throw it to her. They didn't bother putting much aside for her cellmate.
Sometimes it seemed that they expected the red eyed creature to kill and eat her instead.
The creature was covered in flecks of scabs and dried blood. She couldn't make out much except for that it was much smaller than her. If it were to stand up, it wouldn't reach past her shoulders.
Its limbs were thin and belly swollen. Some parts of its scalp had bald patches. The space that separated them was minimal, almost just touching.
But what was most striking to her was its empty eyes continuously trained on her at all times. She wondered if it could actually see what it was looking at, comprehending something. Or it was just looking in her direction without understanding what seeing was.
Did it understand that the both of them had the same eyes, nose and body?
It didn't look like a strange creature to her the more she observed. He was a kid just like her. A young three year old boy.
He had slowly become used to her presence. Small movements by her wouldn't startle him into the corners anymore. Being forgotten for a few days seemed to let him awaken a mild but detached sense of curiosity to this new creature that was bound with him.
Hinata pressed the clump of rice she'd saved into a small ball. Cautious to not scare him, she extended her hand carefully. This was one of many attempts she tried to communicate. He didn't understand the language she spoke.
Sometimes she'd notice him babbling to himself with his hands while in a daze. He would mime nonsensical silent words into the walls. When the attendants weren't around, he'd grunt at the pipes as if having a conversation. She never saw him fully fall asleep.
Sometimes, she mirrored his gestures. Some gestures he would repeat back repeatedly. Some would set him off into a quiet meltdown. Some made him aggressive enough to tear his own skin off. Many times he simply went into an empty daze and nothing she would do could snap him out of it.
She still continued. Over and over. Learning his made up language.
There were two gestures that had the least effect on him. One, she realised, was the sign for eat. Or hunger. Or stomachache. Or it meant all of them.
So she tried to share her food. What made her confused was that he didn't understand what the food in her hands were. Had he never had rice before?
Her patience bore fruit. He stopped fearing her. Rather he couldn't differentiate between what body part belonged to her and what belonged to him. Almost as if he began to believe he grew out a second set of limbs and an extra head. She was an extension of him and he of her. The only thing that stopped him from trying to meld and fuse into her flesh was the tattered clothes she wore. A boundary that defined where she existed.
Hinata lost count of how long she was there. It felt like years passed. The time between the food delivery felt longer and longer.
His scabs peeled off bit by bit. Very soon she could make out his face.
A small, skeletal, whiskered-cheek boy with red eyes and reddish golden hair.
Suddenly, Hinata found them no longer alone. Perhaps she had lost her mind somewhere along with him. There were too many 'others' in their small cell. It felt cramped. Maybe twelve. Or a hundred.
Ryūki came later and suddenly the cell felt empty. He dragged him out of the cage. Hinata screamed and resisted him from taking him away. Ryūki kicked her back in.
Later, Hinata would only remember screaming her throat hoarse as she saw what they did to him. She couldn't remember anything else. Neither of them remembered anything when back in the cell.
Somedays she peeled the torn pieces of his flesh away from her skin and collect them back into the shape of the boy.
Like this, a moment of years passed. Her shaping him back into a human. Him coming back broken. She cradled his head in her lap. He slept fitfully waking up every few moments. But still, he stayed close to her. She was the only thing that didn't hurt at all.
......
Saki tore into the cell. Her wild eyes fearfully checked for any of Ryūki's aides. Ryūki was aboveground today. She didn't know with whom he was meeting.
"Hinata!"
"Mama?"
Her gaze fell to the Jinchuuriki in her daughter's arms. His face was buried into her shoulder while his eyes followed everything Hinata did.
Hinata dragged herself to the edge of the cage and Saki hugged her through the bars tearfully.
They hurried to tell each other everything they could.
"There's no time, Hinata. Is it possible for you to ask this boy to help us?"
Hinata didn't understand her mother's actions. They both were kids stuck in the same cell. How could this boy, smaller than her, help them?
She still gently tried to placate the boy's tense arms. He didn't understand what she meant but for some reason he calmed down when she used the word 'Mama'. He allowed his eyes to meet Saki's.
.............
Outside.
Ryūki awaited the delegation from Konohagakure. He had sent a number of delaying tactics to slow down the approach of the team. Just three days and he would be able to accomplish everything. Three days was all he needed to complete the final piece of his work. Saki truly, an unexpected factor who helped accelerate his work. She was almost inhuman with the speed she worked at. He knew she was upto something. But there was no way she was leaving this place alive.
Konoha's twenty four man delegation was headed by Inoichi Yamanaka, and secretly trailed by a team of ANBU Root and the Uchiha Police Force. He knew the risks of this mission but he thought it a little excessive nonetheless. Halfway through to the destination, they came across unexpected allies.
Hyūga Hiashi and an undercover Uchiha Fugaku.
That night Inoichi interrogated them.
Hiashi and Hizashi were frantically looking for traces of Hyūga Saki and Hyūga Hinata. Many of the Hyūga were mobilised to search for them. Shikaku Nara and the rest of the Information Department were all hands on deck. It had been three weeks since they lost their trail.
The last clue they found was they changed directions to North after heading west. Nara deduced the culprits to be from Kumogakure and suggested they head to the northeast.
Uchiha Fugaku had joined them secretly under specific orders of Sandaime Hiruzen.
He didn't disclose what he was there for.
The three hidden Uchiha Police joined him and exchanged info. ANBU Root tried to eavesdrop and it almost resulted in their team splitting. Hiashi had a great outburst which calmed them down.
The delegation and ANBU didn't interfere.
Like this a parade of five different factions made their way towards Hell's Valley.
It was the second night when things started getting weird. They kept losing their way or came across strange incidents like rainstorms and typhoons that made them delayed. Hiashi was pulling out his hair. Inoichi thought he saw an entire lock being pulled out. Fugaku calmed him down this time by talking on the side.
Things went wrong on the third night.
It was a sunny day that day. A sudden rain kept pouring despite there being no rain clouds.
Hizashi made a rare comment trying to cheer Hiashi up.
"You know, an old lady told me once that this phenomena is called a Kitsune no Yomeiri. When the sun's out but it rains like the monsoon."
"A fox's wedding?" Asked Hiashi, willing to go along with his twin brother.
"Perhaps this rain is an illusion made with fox yokai tricks."
It was an intriguing story. Anything was interesting when all they were doing was running silently through the frost covered forest.
Fugaku supplied his own tales from the side. It surprised everyone that he was so knowledgeable of such topics. He didn't elaborate much on the source of his knowledge, simply calling it childhood tales of the Uchihas.
The sunshower lasted all day. The problem began when the sun was out even at night.
Genjutsu was ruled out by the Uchiha team.
Inoichi and the rest almost began to think it really was a fox yokai's illusion wedding.
One of the ANBU-Inoichi recognised this one, he was Sandaime's second son- brought their notice to a flickering sky.
Their eyes traced the flickers moving in the direction they were heading.
"I've got a bad feeling. We can't go there!", said Hiashi watching with his Byakugan.
"It's like the dimension is distorted," Fugaku informed after activating his Sharingan. "Halt! Don't move!"
The February summer North soon turned into a scorching fold.
Just meters away from them, everything they could see-grass, forest, animals- simply disappeared.
The Hyūga and Uchiha winced in pain. It felt like their eyes were blinded by someone snatching their sights right out of their sockets. Like a thread being pulled out slowly from their pupils.
The rest of them were affected to a lesser extent.
There was no attack, no flash of light, no chakra being used.
The world just.... imploded into nothing.
........
Hinata couldn't recall much of what her mother did to them both.
She remembered blood writing on his and her arms and back. Her mother's tears and a calm sense of peace. It seemed she had set off some Jutsu. The 'others' also joined in as witnesses to them.
He was holding on to her, face buried in her shoulder.
She was sitting in a pool of bubbling sulphur. Everything was covered in red mist.
"Hinata?!"
She never expected to see the face of her father again. Yet, there he was. She fainted.
...........
It was a typhoon of great extent back in Konoha.
The Hyūga heir was found alive and well!
Sadly her mother wasn't found anywhere. Hiashi wanted to search more as if denying everything. He had to be dragged back knocked out.
The funeral was quiet.
No body.
Hyūga had shut their doors to everyone. Only a few were allowed in covertly.
The undercurrents flowed in vapid blades while Kohona let itself pretend it was peace.
Soon, Kumogakure would learn of this.
..........
Uchiha compound was on high alert. They said the reason was kidnappers trying to kidnap kids like they did to the Hūga. No one really believed there would be another attempt but they followed nevertheless.
Itachi tried to discreetly find out why the head of the Yamanakas was here furiously whisper-arguing with his father. He came everyday and headed down to their new basement. Shikaku Nara was also there along with one strange escort which Itachi suspected to be Sarutobi Hiruzen. He was also escorted by an ANBU black ops agent.
Everyday they would fight secretly among each other, trading coded and encrypted swear words and taunts. Fugaku was losing, Itachi felt but he made up for it in stubbornness.
Sasuke was back under his care for a day when Mikoto overheard them and stormed into the midst of their argument.
She backed her husband up and gave the rest a severe tongue whipping in code that they all left the house ashamed and apologising. Even Fugaku was not allowed into the house until the next day where he did a full dogeza to her.
Itachi was completely shocked at the scene and his respect for his mother shot up immensely. He was on his very best behavior from then on.
What he didn't understand was why his parents kept disappearing into the basement every two hours alternately.
And why Hyūga Hiashi was at their door at past midnight with his daughter in tow.
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A/N
Your comments motivate me to write more. I love reading them many times. I have read your comments more than I read my own novel. Tell me what you think about the plot.
All babies are five year olds here.
Adults should always protect the babies from every harm.
Little Naruto, Little Hinata, Little Sasuke, and all the children of the world, do not worry, every harm you suffer on Earth will be compensated for. Everyday will be a smiling day soon.