::chapter 1 ::

Sliding out of the silken sheets of the canopy decorated bed; she bent down to seize a red satin robe, lying on the ground like a corpse. Her backbone straightened; the fabric she held flowing like a ghost in the air.

Her snow-white arms slid into the sleeves, cautious not to hasten themselves and generate more noise than necessary. Once all her flesh, from her back to her ribs, was covered, she let a breath penetrate her lungs, heaving elegantly an exposed milky chest. She did not seem to care about the nude state of the front of her body, satisfied by some furtive shift of the clothing on her hips.

Her head turned around; long strands of black following its motion. The eyes that adorned an oval visage, enlightened by one lonely candle shining on the Victorian stand her father had made come from France, set themselves upon a form spread, naked, on the sheets she had left.

In a fraction of a second, her delicate features, from relaxed, passed to an expression of utter disgust. She had been able to forget for an instant what she was doing undressed in that man's bed, yet her oblivion had not lasted long enough for her liking.

From that man's silhouette, her orbs fluttered to the grandfather clock announcing midnight in five minutes placed at the other extremity of the vast bedroom. She only had five minutes to get ready.

Each one of her steps carrying her nearer the stand was elegant and sly, like a dancer's. Once posted in front of the piece of furniture, she extended an ashen hand. It grabbed the handle of the only drawer, deftly tugging it out, praying Kami for it not to screech.

Inside of the wooden drawer, a gun was concealed, a pair of plastic gloves covering it by their transparency. The hand that had held the handle came to caress the gloves, removing them with extreme care. She was not scared of what was to happen. She would not accept her act to be disregarded as she had been. She wanted for everybody to raise their eyes and look at her face. She desired to hear them whisper when she would walk by their side to join the court and be judged. She yearned for their fear, as she had dreaded them. She needed to feel acknowledged just once. Not like a Hyūga, not like the mysterious woman always accompanying Hyūga Hiashi to his cocktails and parties. She sought to be known as Hyūga Hanabi's sister, the averted heir she was from her eleventh birthday. She required to be looked at like the mastermind of the happenings of the twenty-seventh of December. Only her and nobody else.

Those were the reasons she gripped the rifle's haft, skilfully moving it towards the candle's shivering light.

It was a Ruger KMKIII678 Hunter. A cheap American pistol she didn't understand what her father was doing with. Neji-nii-san, who generally preferred German technology, had tried to explain to her the advantages of such a weapon. It seems it featured good safety mechanisms, the world's first loaded chamber indicator for a .22 rimfire pistol and other things she didn't understand a word about.

The only thing she knew was that in her father's case, she only would have to pull the trigger and everything should end quite fast. That was the only good thing with his paranoia. A loaded gun to her reach.

With the sway of her hips years of wearing high-heel shoes could only give, she approached the sleeping form on the mattress. The clock was sinisterly proclaiming midnight. At the last chime, she bent down over the man's face, her lips grazing his forehead with a sickened affection.

"G-gōmen n-nasai, O-otō-s-sama … I a-am n-n-not Oka-s-sama …"

Lulled by the noise of screams in the Hyūga compound situated at Kyōto, hushed by a tommy gun, she raised the pistol she was holding with a shaky arm. She would have wanted to restrain the salty streams of liquid running down her cheeks, yet couldn't. She was on the border of cutting all the possible bonds with her family. Her dead family at that time.

Gracefully placing the edge of the barrel on the man's temple, her index quivered when faintly towing the trigger. She necessitated force, she required will.

He was the monster that had enchained her. That had transformed her in a simple slave left to his only pleasure. Nobody was aware about her. Everybody knew what he wanted to expose. He preferred for her to be referred to as his younger mistress, whose role she already played, than his failure of a daughter, which she never had been.

The trigger moved violently, releasing a bullet that installed itself in his brain, destroying all the connections with his body, splattering her visage, neck and breasts with blood.

It was done. Finally! She was free!

When she prepared to step away, scarcely affected by her doings, the heavy ebony door behind her back unlocked and a man, physically resembling the corpse on the bed, came in, a tommy gun in the left hand.

She turned around, allowing his pale eyes to wander over her tainted body.

"You are done?"

His deep voice made her heartbeats accelerated, her white skin flushing under the scarlet liquid.

"N-Neji-n-nii-s-san …"

She noticed that his garments were the color of night, his long tresses of smooth brown hair tied low on the nape of his neck. He was beautiful.

He was following the same train of thoughts, just about her. If it wasn't for the lack of time, he would have taken her there, on the Persian carpet under the bed where the corpse of the Devil was losing his fluids. The blood that smeared her was so enticing, so attracting. He had the urge to taste it on her lips.

"The Akatsuki did a good job."

Was he that desperate not to be chained to her by temptation that he needed to refer to the mercenaries they had hired?

"I shot her by my own." he whispered, noting the worries dawning in her pupils.

She let a relieved sigh escape her.

He lazily looked around him.

"We should get going, and let the Akatsuki scavenge for their payments. They are excited like kids to empty the place."

Her eyes broke the contact they had with Neji's. He of course perceived her intern struggles as well as the fact she had not used the gloves not to leave any fingerprints behind. There was nobody in this wide world that understood her as well as he did. He comprehended how this would end and accepted it. What he did not accept was the fact he would not be able to thank her conveniently for the liberty she was offering him.

"I-I am s-staying, n-nii-s-san …"

Before she realized what happened, her arms were pinned above her head with a leather gloved hand, while the other still had a grip on the weapon, her back immolated to the wall. A mouth came crashing upon hers, tongue licking her clean from the blood on her lower lip, before biting it ferociously, delighted by her own fluid.

Gasping from shock at such an animalistic assault, she slightly opened her mouth, giving his tongue the chance to enter her with brutality. He called for so much more, yet knew that if he wanted her safe, the traces left by Hiashi had to remain and not be mingled with his owns. Giving him a second more to wrestle with her tongue, violating the inside of her mouth with need, he let go of her arms that fell to the side of her body, one encumbered by the Ruger, the other free to receive his Selbstladebüchse BD-38, a copy of the antique MP40 used during World War II by the Germans. He pushed the weapon in her palm, not caring to let go of his baby he had received two years ago for his birthday.

"Take care, Hinata-sama. I will come to pick you up when the trial will be done … if they do not judge you to the capital sentence of course."

He turned his heels around, exiting the room, leaving the young woman alone with her father's corpse.

°°

"Can you believe that? I just cannot imagine that those idiots from Nishikyō-ku thought one sixteen-year-old little girl killed over two hundred people by her own in one hour. Thank Kami it is to Shimogyō-ku to take care of the investigation. At least we know the difference between a bomb and a grenade."

"There were bombs? No way!"

"No, grenades. And other people were cut into pieces with a katana signed Bizen Kuni Osafune Yoshikage, from the Nambokucho era, early fourteenth century, as well as with a Polish War scythe, used by Polish peasants in the eighteenth and nineteenth century."

"Woah, what kind of a sicko is that chick?!"

"Baka, think! The murders have taken place between midnight and one o'clock in the morning. An only person cannot kill two hundred people in that time by her own, changing weapons each fifteen minutes. Look!"

Two policemen from the Shimogyō-ku center, the main headquarters of Kyōto's police, sitting in front of a hot coffee, were heartily discussing about the greatest massacre ever, worse than the Uchiha clan's. It was the second time that in Kyōto's history a great family of yakuza was so easily exterminated, without any traces left behind than a survivor.

The man that appeared the oldest was showing a document to one of his associates.

"If it truly was her she would have used an American Ruger KMKIII678 Hunter, a German Selbstladebüchse BD-38, a Polish War scythe from the eighteenth century, a katana from the Nambokucho era, normal grenades you can buy everywhere, cords and her own hands. Did you even see the girl?! She is so slender you could break her. She may be whoever she is …"

"Wait, what do you mean by 'whoever she is'? Isn't she Hyūga Hiashi's younger mistress?"

The more experienced policeman took out a magazine from the file that was bearing the name of Hyūga Hinata. Flipping the pages, he stopped on a page exclusively filled with gossip. The biggest photograph was featuring a tall man with long black hair, pearl-coloured eyes, dressed in a tux, a very young woman wearing a revealing black dress matching the tint of her soft strands, featuring the same eyes as he was, hanging on his arm. Underneath that picture the note that had been written by quite an obnoxious hand made the younger police officer frown.

'The billionaire Hyūga Hiashi, leader of the prestigious Hyūga clan, has been seen in company of a very young woman going to the Minami-za kabuki theatre in Miyagawachō. The young woman in question did not appear to be a direct member of his family unit. The mysterious young girl in question would be, according to reliable sources, a fifteen-year old member of the Sōke, the leading branch of the clan, whose parents have died in a car accident when she was eleven, and that since that time enjoyed the older man's special attention. Our faithful readers that follow this column since ten years at least, would notice the deranging likeness miss Mysterious Hyūga has with late Hyūga Haruki, Hyūga Hiashi's wife and the clan heir's mother. Could I say that the young girl is the double of the woman. It seems Japan's richest man not only has a liking for little girls but is also desperate to find a replacement for his wife that had died with their oldest daughter, whose name had never been revealed, in an arson set by hateful enemies of the now annihilated Uchiha clan, ten years ago …'

"Eww, that man was a real pedophile. You think he raped the girl for years and she wanted to avenge herself by killing him and her clan?"

"I already told you she couldn't have killed them. No, there is something darker behind this than just pedophilia. Read this."

He handed him a paper. The scowl of the police officer deepened even more. Once he had read the whole page, he turned to look at his superior.

"The guy had had sex with her half an hour before he was shot in the head. And she is only sixteen, right?"

"Yeah, and now, this."

A last paper was handed.

A copy of the girl's birth certificate.

'Name: Hyūga Hinata

Birth date: 27th of December

Birth place: Kyotō, Nishikyō-ku district

Mother: Hyūga Haruki

Father: Hyūga Hiashi'

"Tell me this is a falsification …"

"No …"

"This is so fucking sick! You're sure the girl is Hyūga Hinata?"

"Yes, she is. DNA tests concord. She is Hyūga Hiashi's daughter and Hyūga Hanabi's sister. That is why I do not think she killed Hyūga Hiashi. And then, think about this. Katana, scythe, explosives …"

"Hoshigaki Kisame, Hidan and Deidara …"

"Exactly!"

"But then, how do you explain that she was covered in blood and that the only fingerprints found on the pistol and the tommy gun were hers, and that besides her, the only remaining member of the family is Hyūga Neji."

"Hyūga Neji was out in town, banging a hooker. We have proves. As for the blood and the guns, you know very well how they proceed. You remember the Uchiha affair. She was the weakest. They just left her behind, obliging her to hold the weapons under threats and now everybody thinks she slaughtered the whole clan, which is impossible. They wanted her to give them enough time to get rid of their evidence."

"Why is it so impossible?! Uchiha Itachi did it!"

"Uchiha Itachi is a genius. He poisoned the water flowing through the pipes of the Uchiha compound, cut down the electricity, and choked his parents. Hyūga Hinata is an excellent student, yet with talking problems and a sickly introversion. She was shunned by her peers and family, constantly raped by her father, and lives a traumatism because of the death of her family. According to what has been said by her cousin, she is too sweet of a person to even think about killing an insect. And in her psychiatrist's opinion, she suffers from a strange derivative of the Stockholm's syndrome. She believed that what her father did to her was legitimate. She did not consider it as bad. She thought it was love and loved him back in that very way. She did not kill them. Some competitor hired the Akatsuki to get rid of the clan. The mercenaries thought they could use her to avert everybody's attention for awhile, and they succeeded."

"Yeah, maybe, but still all the evidence is against her. Where is she anyways?"

"In some kind of psychiatric hospital outside of Honshū."

"What do you think will happen to her?"

"She will be accused for the murder of Hyūga Hiashi only, as she has no idea how to use a tommy gun and as the pistol she used was already loaded according to Hyūga Neji who says his uncle always had one by hand. However, because of the abuse of a minor Hyūga Hiashi is guilty of, she will not be put into prison. Her age should send her directly to reformatory school, then again because of the Akatsuki being involved and the mitigating circumstances, that will not occur. So tell me, where do we send murders too young for prison and too frail for reformatory?"

"Konoha gakuen."

"Exactly."

°°

It felt so strange not to be wearing any Marc Jacobs or Versace at the moment. After sixteen years of being bent to the will of fashion designers you get used to it, as when your body gets accustomed to a drug. It was also very weird to be sitting in a crummy little Toyota when she only was accustomed to her leather-seated Rolls Royce.

Her white hands straightened the crinkles of her white cotton dress, daintily shoving them down her knees. That dress was an ugly thing without any form. Just a blank piece of fabric falling from her shoulders in a straight line to her calves. She met two chocolate eyes in the driving mirror in front of her. Nakamura-san was inspecting her with concern. Her social worker was very involved with her ever since he found out why she had been placed under his care. He had been very thoughtful as well as his wife, that seemed to appreciate grandly her mild and helpful spirit. In fact, they had proposed to adopt her, charmed by her seriousness, her excellent marks and the way she did not make any problems, yet the court had refused to give away the perfect Japanese girl, future wife, and daughter, preferring to remit her into the doubtful hands of Konoha gakuen's workers. Of course he had bowed to the decision of his superiors.

And now he was sitting in his little Toyota driving her towards her new environment with a certain rue.

"So, are you excited, Hinata-chan?"

He could hear his disappointment piercing through the enthusiastic tone of his voice. He examined the young girl some more. She appeared to be very nervous; feeling how the atmosphere was getting heavier as they approached what would be her new home.

"Ano …H-hai, N-Na-Nakamura-s-san, I-I-I am v-v-very e-excited ..."

She couldn't mislead him about her emotions. He could see how uncomfortable she felt, how little she wanted to adapt herself for another time in a few months. From member of the richest clan ever, to murderer, passing by simple girl and now delinquent, she had undergone pretty much everything imaginable.

"Everything will be just fine, Hinata-chan. It is an absolutely normal boarding-school. You will have plenty of friends, I am sure about it."

She though was not that sure.

Nakamura finally slowed down in front of a heavy gate, adorned with a leaf with a large K written as a stylized silver rōmaji letter.

Cameras were frenetically turning to all the sides, getting a hold of their image. After a few minutes, the gates opened up in a screeching noise, after the electricity running through the bars had been cut down.

They drove into a very elegant aisle surrounded by beautiful trees, making Hinata forget right away about the barbed wires she had noticed above the gates.

This place seemed so … peaceful. It reminded her of one of Hyūga's secondary dwellings. The one they had in Okinawa. Of course, it was all beaches, and palm trees, but still it was so peaceful and beautiful just like the impression this place gave to her.

However, that impression did not last for long. Indeed, when they got a glimpse of the school, all her good feelings dissipated.

The building, called Kage building, she would learn after, was Konoha's principal wing as well as the chūgakkō. There was the shōgakkō, just beside it. And finally the daigaku, one of the best of Japan, offering outstanding military formations, medical training and other things, very selective as well as only youth with a police record was accepted in it. Nevertheless, all three of the edifices were sinister. Made of grey rocks, they were erect like three dragons, making her feel suffocated. Something cold emanated from that place, contrasting oddly with the peaceful warmness of the passageway they had driven through.

But that was not the only deranging thing. In fact what actually made her so tense were the people that were sitting in front of the Kage building. Girls and boys yelling playfully after each other, passing something that gave the impression of being a mini cigarette, groping each other in very suggestive ways.

They appeared to be so different from her friends. Well, the friends she had had when going to high school but that abandoned her when her relationship with her father was divulged. Those acquaintances of hers were all so elegant and calm, not at all as noisy and somewhat dangerous as the people she was looking at when passing by their side. Of course, some of them were smoking, drinking liquors and … doing other things between each other, just as much as those people in front of her, yet it gave the impression of always being somehow more distinguished than what she was actually staring at.

The car parked just in front of the principal wing, facing those people that had to be even younger than she was.

She was half expecting to see Neji-nii-san get out before her and open the door of the car for her, yet he was not there. Not there to give her courage, because they were refused to ever enter in contact for her time being in that Konoha gakuen. Therefore, she opened the door by herself and stepped out in the hideous clothing she was wearing for all eyes to turn towards her.

A new chick that most probably had done some ugly stuff. Big deal. The attention they gave her disappeared after a glance or two, leaving her standing in front of that gigantic dragon the Kage building was, shiver after shiver travelling through her backbone.