𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐘 ❀ n. hyuga

seventeen: the price of life

Someone tapped her shoulder, pulling her away from thought, she turned her head and it was Hoshi, he looked at her with a soft expression and smiled a bit, "You ready to go back, robot?" He asked, teasing her, Inari looked at him with an emotionless expression and nodded slightly.

Hoshi opened his mouth to say something but then closed it again.

Inari held onto her stomach like how a pregnant woman would. This is the second time she's been stabbed, the first time was because of an old friend under Orochimaru's guide, it was a spar- basically a death match and she almost died, the blade missed her heart just barely. Orochimaru had them spar because the person was very similar to her, he wanted to study how people from their clans fight. His own twisted study.

"Alrighty team! It's time to head back, it's always best when it's bright and early." Kiyomi said with her unusually optimistic tone, her grin stretched from ear to ear and her eyes smiled with them.

The three were still exhausted, they groggily looked at the happy Kiyomi with tired eyes and grumbled lowly.

Hayase nudged Inari's shoulder and gestured for her to follow them. Inari's foot pivoted toward the team and she ran with them, she was a bit behind the rest of her team due to her injury and she hated it, she hated the feeling of being behind everyone else. She hated being below other people/

They launched themselves up, and hopped from tree to tree. Inari looked down, seeing how high up above she was, made her feel light. As light as a feather.

It made her forget about everything, she closed her eyes and inhaled the cool air and took a deep sigh.

"It's almost time."

The voice snapped Inari back into reality, she turned to look and a pair of big bright red eyes stared back at her and smiled. He moved her messy bangs away  from her eyes to see her face, she also got a clear view of him, "You look sad." She said in an almost robotic voice, he tilted his head a bit and smiled softly, "I'm going to die soon."

Her eyes widened.

"No."

She said, almost like a demand, "No." She said again, he sighed and ran his fingers through his messy dark purple hair and put his hands on Inari's shoulders, "Lord no longer sees a purpose in me... I can feel it." He looked away with furrowed eyebrow, "I don't want to leave you alone- but I will." He reached in his shirt and pulled out a red ribbon, he tied it around her ponytail and smiled, "There. I'll be with you forever now."

Inari blinked, she was back in the present, and in Konoha.

She was crying, she touched her tear stained face and then wiped the tears.

Inari wanted to sleep, she didn't know where the rest of her team was and assumed they all just went back home.

Hurrying back home she bumped into a familiar face, "Watch where you're going." A stern voice said, Inari twirled around swiftly and looked at the owner of the voice.

A small laugh escaped from her lips, it was Neji--of-course, he looked at her with a confused face, wondering why she was laughing, Inari's knees locked together and she smiled, "Neji I-"

Everything went black for a moment.

Her eyes slowly opened, everything felt clean. First thing she noticed was white and silence, Inari sat up and winced, she put her hand on her stomach and looked down, a bandage was wrapped around her stomach with a red stain, "Did I bleed out?" She thought to herself, not realizing she spoke out loud.

"Yes." A voice answered, she gasped softly and turned her head, Neji was sitting down on a chair laid back with his arms crossed.

"When you bumped into me and turned around, you collapsed. I noticed you were bleeding out so I took you to the hospital." He looked at her with a slightly angry expression, "How could you be so careless? I saw you wandering around the entire village with your hand over your stomach." He sat up.

Inari looked down in a bit of disbelief, "I don't remember that." She laid back and stared at the wall, Neji scoffed and shook his head, "Does anyone know I'm here? Please don't tell me you told-"

He interrupted her, "No. I didn't tell anyone."

That relieved her and she got more comfortable in her bed, "During my mission...I was stabbed." Neji glanced at her, "With my own sword isn't that embarrassing?" She smiled to herself, "And the entire time I secretly wondered if I would be better off dead." She chuckled a bit, Neji's eyebrows furrowed, "Yeah maybe you would be better off dead. Did you even consider the people you would be leaving behind?"

Her red eyes glanced at him, she smiled, "At that moment I just wanted peace. Is it that bad to think about that? After a life of regret and torture, the one thing I wanted was to put myself first, before anyone else."

Neji didn't respond, he just looked away.

Inari noticed her ponytail was down, she looked around and found her bright red ribbon in Neji's hand, "Can I have my ribbon?" She pointed at his left hand, he looked at his hand and then handed it to her. Inari took a deep sigh and stared at her ribbon, her vision started to blur and tears built up at the corner of her eyes, she bit her bottom lip and closed her eyes for just a second.

She let out a shaky sigh, "How long was I out?" Inari asked, Neji thought for a moment, "About three hours."

"I don't know if I'm supposed to tell you this but there is probably a human trafficking ring going on in all the villages. Those people probably killed Akane." Inari started to remove the needles in her arms that were pumping all types of unknown fluids into her and tied her hair into a messy ponytail. She got out of her bed and took her original clothes, her nose scrunched up when accidently touched the dry blood.

"You're not supposed to leave you haven't been discharged yet." Inari sat on the edge and took a long look at the sunset and let the breeze kiss her face.

She looked down, only two stories up which was fine, "I'll need to go back now, thanks again."

Neji frowned, "You're not supposed to-"

The girl interrupted him, "Remember that day, two years ago when I asked if you would run away with me?" Neji looked at her and didn't respond, Inari looked at him with a soft smile, "Do you think we still can?" 

"Inari--"

She moved her hands and leaped from the window.

─── ∙ ~εïз~ ∙ ───