A strange new life

6.11

Keeping the seals in my bones suppressed had never taken much conscious effort. The key Orochimaru provided drew from my chakra to suppress the ongoing kill effect. I should have asked this question before, but what would happen if I ran out of chakra? Well, as it turned out, the damn thing was trying to eat me alive in an excruciating way.

A detached part of my mind watched the seal at work in fascination. I wasn’t a fan of the Snake Sannin, nor did I approve of his methods, even more so when those methods were directed at me, but I couldn’t deny that his work was exceptional. Beautiful even.

It was a level of mastery I could only dream of. My seals looked like a patchwork of cobbled-together dirt. No, that was just my depressed side getting out of control. There wasn’t a good way to compare my seals with the Snake’s. They were different paradigms. Oro’s seal was like a well-oiled machine designed to use every iota of fuel available, while mine somehow had a better conversion rate. My seals had trouble converting the chakra into energy, but the small amounts it did, somehow had better output.

All of that was to say that now – out of chakra – the seal was converting my life force into fuel to kill me. It was devious, brilliant, awesome, even. And it hurt like hell.

I was aware of movement around me. I heard voices—one deep and rumbling, Karin’s gentle and insistent, others squeaky and chattering.

“Bite, Hinata-chan,” Karin whispered, “but gently this time.”

Even with the whole dying situation, that one threw me off kilter. Not hours ago, I had chomped down on her arms to the point we had to bandage the entire forearm to hide away the gruesome teeth marks. And now, here she was, offering me the other one. That inflicted me with a severe case of feelings. Not the good kind.

I was tired of being the damsel.

Teeth found flesh, and sweetness poured again in my mouth. I didn’t chomp this time. I wasn’t that far gone. The groan-slash-moan from Karin told me she wasn’t doing well either.

The chakra top-off gave me enough to avoid the draining of my life force. It didn’t, however, stop the seal. For that, I had to work on the key again. But I had already done it once. I could do it again.

I hope I was right. It would be a very gruesome death otherwise.

The work to re-suppress the seal was challenging and time-consuming. I was tired, hungry, thirsty, and still in pain, but I couldn’t stop until the seal was back under control. I heard yet more voices around. Then, warm hands carried me somewhere else, plopping me on what felt like warm, scratchy blankets. The underground cave wasn’t as cold as the forest in the Land of Waves, but the warmth helped.

With painstaking care, I spent hours rebuilding the key. Once it was done, I fitted it into the lock. Immediately, I knew there was something different. It took just a second to understand what. This was part of the Snake’s plans all along. The key couldn’t be used over and over again. Now that I knew more about his style and work, I realized the first key was modifying the original seal. Every time it was used, the efficiency decreased. Not enough to be fatal, but enough that I was now on a timer.

His plans all along. If I couldn’t be better than him, I’d be forced to seek him out. I wasn’t going to lie; I was kinda amazed at how devious he was. The fucker.

My options weren’t great. Maybe Tsunade could help? I just needed to convince the future Hokage-sama to poke me on my insides.

…

Huh, that didn’t sound very nice.

When I opened my eyes, the cave’s darkness greeted me. All around me were sounds of moving, grunting, and the ever-present musky smell.

I was on a mound of furs, Karin sleeping by my side, grabbing me like a cushion. I looked around. We were inside what looked like a small nook in the stone wall. Beyond, I saw shapes moving in the darkness around us. Big, small. Every one of them was a bundle of chakra. There was, besides the fur pile, a bowl with water, another with fruits. That was nice of whoever did that. I disentangled myself from Karin, rolled on the furs until I was by the bowl side, grabbed it, and drank as much as I could.

It tasted a bit earthy and stale. And it was the best thing I had ever drunk.@@novelbin@@

Sweet nectar down my throat and munching on tasty fruit cleared my head to think of more pressing matters. Where was I? With all the events post space-time jutsu, I hadn’t paid attention to my surroundings. How long had it been already? What happened to the mission? Given the amount of chakra around, I was pretty sure that, somehow, my gamble worked. If I could convince my destined animal shinobi companions to sign a contract with me, maybe they could send me back to the land of waves.

Even if I was days too late to help, I could at least try to learn what happened with the rest of the team.

No, that wasn’t the real reason. That was just the lie I told myself to make me feel better. What I was worried about was the revelations I learned from the laboratory. Was I a clone? I still thought I wasn’t, but on the not-zero chance I was, where was the original Hinata? Could she be, for example, being held, for years, in some dank, dark prison Orochimaru used to keep his captives? Like the one in the Land of Waves?

My moving around attracted attention.

A small shape approached from the darkness. It was also a tiny bundle of chakra. I placed the bowl down, sat up, and waited. It didn’t take long for the interloper— or was I the interloper?— to approach.

Small — maybe a bit bigger than a Miniature Pinscher—, stocky, triangular head with beady eyes and small ears. Dark fur covered most of its face, with white hair from above its eyes to the end of its short tail. It had wicked claws on the front paws. It also wore what looked like a shinobi’s uniform, with dark-colored fabric covering parts of its body and a utility belt around its torso.

A honey badger. A mini ninja honey badger.

It stopped, got on its hind legs, and stared at me. Still stunned, I could only stare back. Why badgers, of all things? I wasn’t going to lie. It looked cute as heck. I wanted to pick it up, cuddle, maybe pet it.

The badger raised its paw; its wicked claw pointed at my face—no, not at my face, at my eye—the one with the snake pupil. My hand moved, tracing the skin just beneath said eye. The badger tilted its head, tittered. It was so cute. Then it spoke, a soft, squeaky female voice.

“Imma gonna gouge out that eye and eat it up.” The tittering rose into laughter. “Just wait till pops says you’re food.”

I take back what I said. She wasn’t cute. She was freaking adorable! Like a creepy-cute-little-murder-ninja. I wanted to cuddle her. I might even have tried.