BORDERLINE INSANITY

When she thought back, Hinata remembered she had a fear of thunderstorms and darkness. Neither of these exist in the white rooms. There is no sound from outside and the white walls scare the dark away. It's almost as though time doesn't exist here. Only through the growth of herself does she realise the passage of time. Or perhaps medication is speeding up the process?

The men she saw today all had tortured eyes, like the dark clouds of storms raged within them.

Hatake Kakashi was an aloof man with mismatched eyes. Apparently he had an eye transplant when he was injured as a young soldier. The eye belonged to his best friend who he watched die on the battlefield and the medic was the childhood unrequieted love of his best friend. She committed suicide quite a while ago. Their sensei was rumoured to be Naruto's father and died to protect Naruto. Hinata only heard the gossips and the rumours so she didn't know for sure.

"Good day Hinata," Kakashi said his face hidden behind a mask and headband as well as a pornographic book. With these items Kakashi seemed almost calm apart from the sudden tensing and the rapid movements of his eyes as he followed every shadow. Taking these items from him usually resulted in violence. Hinata was not like his old friends so she didn't cause him to become upset. She doubted he really paid attention to her, but he had the outwards appearance of someone friendly.

"Your boobs are starting to get big," he said lewdly, chuckling dryly to himself. She forced herself not to react, but he noticed her curl in on herself slightly, wanting to shield herself from him. He knew the truth with that sharp eye. The eye of the Uchiha's that used to be famous for their observation skills and photographic memory. She remembered her father telling her so once. However, Kakashi chose not to tell her secrets. She doubted he thought her worth the effort.

She didn't comment on the suffocating sorrow surrounding him. He didn't comment on her facade and lies.

The second man, in her opinion, had the most haunted eyes of all.

He was in a high security cell, despite the fact he had shown no violence or aggression since he had been put here. He looked up as she came in and when the door closed and the doctor left he tilted his head to scrutinise her.

The first time she had seen him, Uchiha Itachi had mistaken her for his brother Sasuke with her short dark hair. He had cried and apologised endlessly. Said the government told him to. Said they'd kill everyone in the town if he didn't. He closed up when he saw her white eyes instead of black. Her composure had slipped in front of him and she had let out a tear. Their moments of weakness were not discussed, but it was as though they shared a secret now. Almost as if they were allies. But of course, Hinata didn't believe in such things in this place. There were no allies in a mad house.

"Hello Hinata. Are they using you again today?"

He could read her body language perfectly even if she said nothing. His hollow eyes were so lifeless it was frightening and she wondered if the ghosts were louder to him than to Sasuke. Secretly in her heart she was sad for him. Sad the government, or perhaps merely the voices in his head, forced him to do something so horrible as to kill everyone he loved except one who now hated him for sparing him. Those eyes begged and pleaded for death, for suffering, for punishment. They were so desperate.

His eyes were cloudier this time. She could see he was going blind from infinite unshed tears. But the ghosts wouldn't disappear even if his sight did. He would see them, even if they saw nothing else.

"Are you still scared of being here?"

Terribly so. I want father to come back. I want to go home. I want my mother to take me in her arms and say everything's okay. I want Neji-nii to smile when he sees me again and ask me to come watch the koi fish with him.

Being with Uchiha Itachi always made her heart sting. He was a man who had lost everything and reminded her of what awaited her. To waste away endlessly until the last moment. Locked in the prison of white rooms and loud thoughts.

She wondered if a broken heart would turn her blind too.

"Farewell Hinata, until the next time."

He was polite as always, the perfect son. He would be perfect until the end. She wished she could set him free, but she had no knife, no rope, no drugs suitable. Euthanasia was not possible in this place. She apologised sincerely within her heart to him.

There was the ghost of a smile on his face when she looked back. It was like he read her thoughts, understood and forgave her.

How sad.

The last man was a new, horrifying encounter.

The long dark hair that fell loose over the sallow face reminded her a bit of her father. She had never met him before and the way he looked at her scared her so much she nearly soiled herself. It was so predatory and insane, almost as though he wasn't human. She half expected a snake to break free of his skin and spit its venom at her, bare it's fangs menacingly.

"Oh! What a pretty body you have!" he hissed in glee, yellow, bloodshot eyes mad and bulging. "But ssso fragile and ssso weak! No good, no good, won't do at all!"

He grinned so wide she was amazed he didn't split his face and his tongue lolled out, too long, too slimy, to lick his wide cracked lips.

"Are you ssscared to die little moussse? I'll never ever die. I'll sssteal peoplesss bodiesss and live forever!" he started to cackle manically. Hinata was frozen staring at this man wide-eyed. He was scary. He was terrifying! "Sssnakesss eat miccce you know! Come clossser?"

The first sound she had made in months burst from her mouth in a raspy high-pitched scream before she could consider her place, the image she had to fool the men in white coats so they let their guard down around her. The monster leapt at her, thin white hands like large spiders leaping at her face trying to grab a hold of her, tear her apart and steal her body, her life, her very soul!

The men in white coats seemed to take hours to come as she kicked and scratched and cried as he gripped and clawed and bit her with sharp nails and sharp teeth like that of a beast.

Finally they were pulled apart and she scrambled up and ran. Like a mouse she scurried round their legs and raced down the white halls. Can't catch me, can't catch me, I'll find a hole to hide in too small for you to reach me!

She knew the codes to all the doors. They thought she was stupid but no, she knew where they wouldn't look. She knew where they'd go first. She wasn't going back to the snake man, oh no. She was never going back there no matter how many drugs they injected her with.

She slammed the door shut behind her and sinking to her knees she threw her face into her hands and curled up crying silently. The tremors raging through her body like an earthquake from inside.

"What are you doing in here? You're not usually so eager to get in here."

She flinched at the voice and looked up slowly. She could see the twisted grin through the blurry filter of her tears and wondered if she's been too rash in her desperate decision.

Had she run from the coils of a snake into the jaws of a tiger?