Cherreads

Chapter 10 - Panic

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Small self-harm scene ahead.

Just a warning for the mongrels weak of will. Worry not because it is short.

-Your ̵L̵o̵v̵e̵l̵y̵ Lazy Author

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In a room with no decorations or amenities except for a small bed, a 15 year old girl with mid-length dark blue hair, pale white skiing, and an amazing figure, was currently laying on said bed. 

It was not long before the scene changed, and the girl began to stir from unconsciousness. She slowly sat up with her eyes closed, and began to stretch her muscles while still sitting on the bed.

After a moment the girl finally opened her eyes, displaying her beautiful pale lavender eyes, a testament to the fact of her being from the Hyuuga clan.

'Mmn, I feel so comfortable. My muscles should not be this comfortable after my two days of intense training. And my body feels somewhat lighter than before.' The girl, Hinata thought to herself. 'I guess I should find Bang-Sensei and Miku and continue, I can visibly see and feel myself improve at an amazing rate.'

It was after having this thought that Hinata actually took a look at her surroundings, it wasn't a cozy room with a computer and a dresser in it, nor was it a magnificent library, heck, it wasn't even a large training field where she got pelted with attacks. No, she was back in a place that brought her great anxiety, a place that she wishes that she never had to come back to if it weren't for the sake of her sister, a place that she immediately plans to move out from as soon as she graduates and becomes a Genin.

She was back to her room at the Hyuuga estate, somewhere that she would rather not be. She immediately felt herself starting to have a panic attack as her thoughts started to spiral, 'D-does that mean that everything just now was a dream? N-none of it even happened?'

'N-no no no no no, it can't be fake, it had to have happened. It felt so real it had to be, I definitely didn't imagine it.' Hinata started to spiral further, 'Y-yes, this must be the dream, i-if I wake up right now I can go back. But how should I make myself wake up? I-I heard that if you die in a dream, then you can wake up. But I don't want to die. Pain, that's right, I can inflict pain upon myself to wake back up, can't I?'

As soon as she thought this the idea became rooted in her mind, so she reached underneath her pillow and pulled out a kunai knife that she keeps for protection. She immediately cut the back of her hand, drawing blood as she winced in pain. 

'T-that didn't wake me up. M-maybe it didn't hurt enough, maybe that's why I am still asleep.' Hinata thought in panic.

Right then she gripped the kunai and prepared to stab it into her side, her eyes already starting to show signs of someone going insane. When the kunai was about to pierce her abdomen, her left hand immediately snapped forward and held the wrist of the hand holding the kunai, halting it right before it could draw blood.

'WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING YOU IDIOT!!!' A voice yelled in Hinata's mind, slightly rousing her consciousness from the haze that she was in, making her flinch as she felt the voice was familiar.

Hinata sat there in a daze and hesitantly called out, her mental voice trembling, 'M-Miku, i-is t-that y-you?'

'OF COURSE IT'S ME YOU IDIOT! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!' Miku yelled again, her voice clearly tired but still full of anger.

'I-I thought,' Hinata began before her thoughts dropped to barely a whisper, 'W-when I woke up. *Hic* a-and I *Hic* and I was back here. I- I thought that everything that *Hic* happened, was fake. I- I couldn't take that. I wanted to go back.' Hinata started to choke on her words as she felt tears start to drop from her eyes.

Her left hand, still being controlled by Miku, rose softly towards her face, causing Hinata to flinch before she relaxed again. The hand softly, and gently wiped away the tears as Miku's soft, yet heartbroken voice spoke, 'I'm sorry.' She began, guilt laden deep in her voice, 'This was my fault.'

"NO!" Hinata said aloud, interrupting Miku, who was surprised by her outburst. "It's not your fault." She said softer this time.

'It is, If I were to be here, if I was paying attention. You would never have had doubts. You would never have injured yourself like that.' Miku said, the guilt even more present, as well as exhaustion.

Hinata was about to refute her but Miku continued before she could do so, 'If I could have just been there for you when you needed me, none of this would have happened. I should be able to be there for you now. I spent so much time and effort for us to be able to communicate, to be able to speak with each other, just so I could be there for you.' 

Self blame was very present in Miku as Hinata could picture exactly what she was doing. She was crouching on the ground deep black rings surrounding her eyes, her fists clenched on top of her head, as she roughly pulled on her own hair, obviously trying to unconsciously lower her own guilt by making herself feel pain. 

Hinata felt her emotions start to settle before she saw this sight, and when she did see it, she felt guilt as well, just because she was starting to freak out, just because she wasn't strong enough and couldn't collect herself, Miku was now trying to hurt herself, just because she could barely stop Hinata from plunging the kunai into herself.

When she saw how distraught Miku was, Hinata sent her emotions through the link that they had, they were a mix of self blame and sadness for Miku's current situation, anger and embarrassment for how she had reacted upon waking up, fear that she had almost done something that could have separated them forever. Hinata just sent every emotion that she could possibly be feeling to Miku, just to convey her intentions beyond just anything that mere words could. To open her heart completely at that moment.

'Never, and I mean NEVER, blame yourself for that Miku, it was all my own fault, I didn't even try to call out for you and I just assumed the worst as I always do. There were so many ways that I could have handled that better.' Hinata said emotionally, 'So never blame yourself for my actions, and never hurt yourself just because I was being an idiot. Seeing you in pain is much worse than any wound that a kunai could inflict.'

After feeling waves upon waves of Hinata's emotions, Miku felt herself start to calm down, as she no longer tried to pull out her own hair, however there was still sadness in her voice, not for her but for Hinata, 'I'm sorry Hinata.'

A gentle smile appeared on Hinata's face as she looked at the mental image of Miku who had puffy eyes with tears still in them, 'I said you have nothing to apologize for, the fact that you managed to stop me from hurting myself further, the fact that you are even with me. It fills me up with such happiness.' Hinata then gave Miku a hug with her mental energy, sending waves of soothing emotions to further calm her down.

Hinata felt that she was indeed being a little stupid when she first woke up, she had so many ways that she could have gone about that, but she chose one of the worst ways to go about it.

After sitting in silence for a long while, Hinata finally decided to speak, embarrassment present in her tone from her earlier actions, 'So everything that happened before was real, the library, meeting Bang-Sensei, the training. All of that actually happened, right?'

'Mhmm,' Miku said in agreement, her tone much calmer than before, but Hinata was still able to detect the shame that Miku was feeling which caused her to chuckle lightly at how adorable Miku was acting.

'So why am I back here?' Hinata questioned, venom lacing her words not at Miku, but at the area itself, 'Why now of all times. Couldn't we have stayed there for a longer time? Continue my training?'

'*Yawn* Well, the reason that "WE" are here is because too much time had already passed and it was very draining.' Miku explained, drowsiness evident, 'It's also why we couldn't stay there longer. I already informed the old man that we will be leaving for a short whale so that you can recuperate, though I won't be surprised if the old man began to make guesses of his own. Most people who lived as long as he has aren't stupid, unless you're the Third Hokage, or maybe a young master *shudder*, but we don't talk about those last ones, they are like a virus.'

'What do you mean draining? I feel fine.' Hinata thought, the only exhaustion she felt was towards the end of her training session.

'Of course you do. YOU weren't the one supplying the energy needed. I was.' Miku said in mock annoyance, though she did grumble plenty.

'What kind of energy were you expending then? I didn't see you do much, except for all your weird antics.' Hinata said.

'Well to be fair, most of those "Antics" you were talking about didn't really expend much energy at all. *Yawn, what I spent most of my spiritual power on was establishing a connection between you and our mindscape for the first time, now you will be able to do it on your own and not take energy from me that I am sorely lacking.'

'Did it really take that much energy from you? Is there a way I can help?' Hinata said worriedly, feeling she might have been a burden to Miku.

'It's not that big of a deal, while it did consume a lot of energy to bring you here, that was mostly energy I had saved up for a while now. The real energy drainer was the time dilation.*Yawn*' Miku said as a matter of fact.

'Time dilation?' Hinata questioned, wondering why she brought that up before her eyes widened in realization.

'That's right, as you might have guessed, while you spent a little over two days doing training and other things, only a few hours have passed over here. When you get stronger we can even do more things using your spiritual energy, for example we can increase the time dilation further, making days there just a moment here. You can find more people to train with and learn from, and much much more, at one point you can even attempt to bring others here if you wish.' Miku explained.

'I don't think I need to bring anyone into our library, I'm not anywhere near close enough with anyone for that to happen. Hanabi would have to consider the future of the clan and while she wouldn't force me, she would try to convince me to let others in as well and I am not comfortable with that idea, while I do occasionally talk with Shiina, I do not know her well enough to take that kind of step, and the only other person I've actually spoken to would be Sasuke, and even then we haven't talked in forever as he has slowly been becoming more and more arrogant.' Hinata listed the people that she had even a little bit of connection to and didn't feel the want nor the need to invite them to her special place, at least not anytime soon.

'I understand, and I respect your decision, just remember to get my permission as well, because it would be rather rude to just have someone appear in my house you know.' Miku said in agreement before she resumed her earlier topic, 'And the last main reason that drained all my gathered energy, would be the fact that I opened a book that would allow you to learn from the old man.' 

'Be respectful to Bang-Sensei.' Hinata chided.

Miku just rolled her eyes as she continued, 'And do you even know how difficult it is to bring in your consciousness, give you a functioning body that's a replica to your actual one, in one-one detail no less, and even make it so you don't lose the instincts or muscle memory you just gained. That is crazy draining you *Yawn* y'know.'

Hinata was about to apologize for the troubles she apparently caused Miku, however the person in question had no intention of hearing it as she said, 'So aren't you going to get ready?'

'What for?' Hinata asked in genuine confusion.

"Are you an idiot? Of course because it's graduation day, you have to take your final tests. Or did you forget.'

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