Rise of a Kage

Gaara pulled on the leash and Hinata followed obediently. Corridor after corridor passed by, and Hinata started to get tired. She slowed down, allowing Gaara to take a larger lead. The hallways seemed to pass in a blur as Hinata became increasingly more pensive. Hinata had just endured more humiliation than most people endure within their entire lives, which would cause anyone to give their situation a second thought.

Her thoughts depressed her. Perhaps Gaara was right. Maybe Hinata was destined to be weak. After all, her younger sister had outpreformed her already. How could she catch up to someone who was both more advanced and less experienced? She thought of all the times her classmates made fun of her. Maybe they were right.

That reminded her of Naruto, and all the times he fought on and never gave up.

No, that couldn't be reality. It was only the reality that Gaara was describing to her. Of course he was exaggerating. He was only doing it to break her spirit. "I've gone through so much, I'd be a fool to give up hope now," Hinata thought. She could see the hallways more clearly now. "If I just stay here long enough without losing hope, soon enough Naruto will rescue me. I just have to be as obedient as possible, and I'll suffer the least," Hinata thought. Almost on que, Hinata felt her collar jerk forward. It pinched her skin in a way that was sure to leave a mark.

"Heel," Gaara ordered. Hinata hung her head down. She caught up to Gaara and rubbed her neck on Gaara's leg. Then, she continued walking and a quicker pace to keep up with him. It was hard, knowing she had to do what was the worst thing to her in the world in order to get what she wanted most, but thoughts of Naruto kept her strong.

Gaara finally led her into a dark terminal. She could barely make out anything in the room save a dimly lit chair. She could tell that there were shelves with various items on them, along with scattered things across sides of the floor. "Sit, slave," Gaara ordered. The anger was still apparent in his voice. Hinata crawled on all four up on top of the chair before turning around and sitting properly. She felt herself somehow being strapped into place by her arms and ankles, as if she was in a sadistic dentist's chair. Upon further inspection she saw that she was being held into place by Gaara's densely packed sand.

She heard Gaara fooling around with various items in the background. Even after trying to adjust her eyes to the darkness, Hinata could not see anything. Gaara, on the other hand, had adapted. Living the better part of your life underground will help you out that way. As Hinata felt her braces, she heard some faint dialogue in the background. She could only make out that it was in another language. Without warning, she felt her hair being pulled behind her head painfully. Hinata jerked her head back and forth instinctively, which was brought to a quick end by fifth and sixth braces of sand around Hinata's neck and mouth. Her forehead was exposed and held into place.

Gaara started yelling at another figure in the room. Hinata could hear it slowly walk over and and lean in above her. She felt the hot breaths of both Gaara and the figure on her face. The figure pulled a heated rod out from under Hinata's chair. It was made of metal, but had been heated to the point where it was glowing red. This cast red light across the face of the figure. Hinata could make out a heavily painted face, a grin of blackened teeth, and a bronze collar with the word "Kankuro" printed on it. Kankuro laughed and jabbed Hinata's forehead with the rod, causing her to let out a ear-piercing scream.

Through all her ninja training, she had never felt anything so painful, and she had even sparred with her father, who was the leader of the Hyuuga clan. He often took out his anger from personal issues by beating on Hinata, anger often caused by his own disappointment in her. However, the pain from his father's genjutsu was now nothing compared to this. The pain was not only extreme, but it traveled directly into Hinata's brain. Lucky for her, the pain eventually caused her to pass out.

Hinata's screams caused Kankuro to grow an erection. Screams were what he lived for, and Gaara rarely allowed Kankuro to cause the screams. Gaara yelled at Kankuro in the sand language. Loosely translated, Gaara told Kankuro to hurry up with his work and stop getting distracted. A more direct translation would be illegal to broadcast over the radio in the United States.

Kankuro did as he was told. He continued marking Hinata's forehead until he was finished. Gaara pushed Kankuro aside to examine the work. Gaara smiled. He had not expected Kankuro to be so successful and accurate. Kankuro saw that Gaara was pleased and smiled back. Gaara looked down onto the top corner of Hinata's creamy, pale forehead to see clearly a tattoo of the kanji for "love."