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xpastelberriesx · 2 years ago

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恋の予感 | Koi no Yokan

“A premonition sensed by two people that they will one day fall in love.”

Arranged marriages are bad by nature.

That was what Sasuke had always believed in. He wasn’t convinced about either the arranged or the marriage part.

To him, marriage meant nothing more than a weakness through the woman who would become his wife. Not because he thought a woman would be weaker or an easier target than a man, but because having someone to keep from harm inevitably would create a crack on his precious self-protecting shield.

But even if it came to marriage, arranged ones were, without a doubt, the worst. In his mind, arranged was just a softer word for forced.

Sasuke adjusted the slightly curled-up sleeve of his black kimono. The faint murmur of the crowded sanctuary painted a grimace on his face, but he stubbornly kept staring at a small hole in the wooden floor. As though relentlessly glaring into the cavity would cause it to grow and suck him in, teleporting him into another reality.

The hem of a white, richly decorated kimono suddenly hid the hole from Sasuke’s eyes, but his gaze stayed pinned on the spot.

As the owner of the kimono slowly got closer, more and more details of her body came into Sasuke’s vision—porcelain skin, moderately long, almond-shaped nails, shiny indigo hair, elegant red lipstick.

She reached out her tiny hand and instinctively, Sasuke’s calloused fingers touched velvety skin. He helped her step onto the podium that was too small for the two of them, and as they turned to face the shrine, their arms brushed together.

Her hands trembled.

Inwardly, Sasuke scoffed—the podium was useless. It was too low to make a difference for the onlookers in the back of the crowd, so its only purpose seemed to be to force them to stand close together.

Without thinking, his lips opened in a scarcely audible whisper, “You can still refuse.”

The woman next to him took in a deep breath but stayed silent.

“Hinata.”

She seemed unfazed by his voice.

Sasuke's gaze swept over the hand-painted, newly created clan sigil hanging on the wall. The Hyuuga flame inside of the Uchiha fan. A pattern that he would be wearing on his clothes from today—a clear symbol of unison and moving forward.

Slight annoyance flared up in his chest.

“Hyuuga,” his whisper had more edge, but he made sure nobody else besides the two of them could hear it.

“The ceremony is about to begin,” she whispered back. Her voice could’ve been a lullaby if the circumstances were just a tiny bit different.

“So, this is your very last chance to refuse.”

Hinata wrapped herself in silence and Sasuke suppressed a remark. He directed his attention back to his own thoughts when the soft voice spoke up once again. “This is your very last chance to refuse, too.”

Sasuke silently clicked his tongue. “Your father didn’t give me much of a choice.”

“Exactly.”

No more words were needed from either of them.

That night, when Sasuke escorted his bride to the huge house that had been given to them as a wedding gift by the Hyuugas, he was convinced his soul had long left his body. His muscles put one leg after the other without his command while his mind bathed in the embrace of the deep quietness between them.

He glanced at the white cheeks glimmering in the moonlight next to him. The strained smile that had been present on them all day, while Hinata chatted with people Sasuke had never seen before, was long gone by now.

Weirdly, the second thing that Sasuke noticed was that her red lipstick had matted, and it faded to a deep pink hue as compared to the crimson shade she wore earlier.

“I wish they could’ve been there,” the pinkish red lips unexpectedly moved, and Sasuke felt his legs stumble for the sliver of a moment. This was the first time she had directly addressed him. Ever.

“Who do you mean by ‘they’?”

“Sakura-chan, Kiba-kun, Shino-kun, Naruto-kun…” Sasuke didn’t miss her gazing up at the starry sky for a second before she continued, “And everyone else, really. It was a lonely event without them.”

The abrupt feeling of agreement that swept through Sasuke’s body made him choose silence as an answer. Her thinking that he was rude sounded way better than admitting that, in fact, Sasuke would’ve preferred to see familiar faces over the crowd of pupilless eyes. But the Hyuugas were old-fashioned, and no one was allowed at the wedding who didn’t possess the famous kekkei genkai.

Their wooden slippers knocked on the ground all the way through as they strolled down the narrow streets. Finally reaching the gate of their new home, Sasuke laid his palm against the hard surface and pushed the gate open.

Hinata slipped inside, but instead of going straight toward the traditionally built house, she turned around and stared into Sasuke’s mismatched eyes.

“I’m glad you were there, Sasuke-kun.”

And with that, she swirled inside with the grace of autumn leaves picked up by a gentle breeze, leaving Sasuke to part his lips upon the unfamiliar feeling of warmth inside his chest.

///

They had been married for six days when, as usual, Sasuke was preparing his bed in the guest room. Unusually, Hinata appeared in the open door, pulling at a loose thread at the hem of the long sleeve of her nightgown.

“Sa-Sasuke-kun,” her voice was low and uncertain and still, it blasted through the stillness of the night with the force of a paper bomb.

Sasuke calmly placed his pillow in its designated place before he straightened up and looked at the figure on the doorstep, shifting her weight from one leg to the other.

They had been married for six days but they barely were roommates. They lived in complete neutrality—Hinata cooked and Sasuke ate everything on his plate, Hinata cleaned and Sasuke took care of the garden, Hinata went out to get groceries and Sasuke helped her put everything in its place once she returned. In Sasuke’s mind, it was better like that—he was not the type to be good at small talk. And as much as he knew Hinata, neither was she.

He stared at her without saying a word and she cast her eyes down while a faint blush crawled onto her cheeks.

“Yes?” he asked finally, realizing that she wouldn’t continue until she got some kind of a reaction.

“You should sleep in your bed.”

Hinata didn’t look at him, but her voice was devoid of unsureness. Sasuke wondered how many times she had practiced this one sentence until she could say it without her voice shaking.

He turned back to the bed, reaching for a thin blanket. “That’s your bed.”

Sasuke heard her take a step forward. “It’s our… our bed.”

With the blanket in his hands, he turned his whole body toward Hinata. She put a wisp of hair behind her ears and even though she tilted her head downward, her face was visibly burning.

Letting out a hissing tsk, Sasuke threw the blanket on the bed. “I prefer cold rooms.”

“I opened the window an hour ago. It’s quite chilly now.”

During the entirety of that night, Sasuke pondered on what spirit had possessed him as he lay in their marital bed, listening to the soft breathing next to him and making sure that none of their body parts were touching, not even by accident.

///

They had been married for nineteen days when Sasuke first touched his wife with a touch that wasn’t unintentional skin contact upon the both of them reaching for the same bowl on the dinner table, or a leg reaching too far to the side during the night.

He had just returned from a discussion with Kakashi and as soon as he stepped inside the house, he sensed a cloud of oddness around him. The sweet smell of dinner that he got so used to in the past few weeks now wasn’t lingering in the air.

His legs quickly brought him to the living room where he found who he was looking for—Hinata, but her usual small smile was nowhere to be found when she lifted her head and quickly wiped away the wet trail running down her cheeks.

“Welcome home, Sasuke-kun,” she greeted as she got up from the sofa with wobbly moves. “I was just about to start preparing dinner. I’m sorry it’s not ready yet, I didn’t expect you to return so early.”

The recently shed tears had carved lines on her fine skin and Sasuke felt an invincible urge to put his hand on her shoulder as she tried passing him. She stopped, although definitely not from the force of the touch but the surprise that came in the form of a calloused palm.

“Did something happen?” The corners of Sasuke’s lips twitched as soon as he posed the question. Of course something had happened, otherwise, he wouldn’t have found Hinata crying on the sofa.

A few moments passed without Hinata’s answer as though she was contemplating lying that everything was fine, but eventually, her lips moved, and her low voice filled the room. “I had a visitor.”

“I guess it wasn’t one of your friends.”

“No. It was my father.”

The last word hovered between them like a haunting ghost and Sasuke had to gather all his self-control not to squeeze the delicate shoulder under his hand. “If he—”

“It doesn’t matter,” Hinata interrupted, but there was no tint of anger or annoyance in her tone. “I’ve dealt with it all my life. I can keep dealing with it. But…” she laid her hand on Sasuke’s, the gesture prompting him to suck in some air. “Thank you.”

Hinata’s hand was small and warm, and her skin was smooth even though Sasuke had expected it to be hardened by past scars. But her hand was silky and warm, and long-suppressed memories danced to the surface from deep inside Sasuke’s brain from a time that was long gone.

///

They had been married for twenty-six days when they first joined their friends on a get-together where they celebrated Ino and Sakura becoming a jonin. Sasuke would’ve preferred to spend the evening sharpening his sword, but when he noticed gifts neatly wrapped on the dinner table, he put on his cloak and waited for Hinata by the door.

“Sasukeeeee,” an arm hooked around his neck as soon as he stepped inside the small bar. He didn’t even need to catch a glimpse of the blond hairs on the tanned arm to know to whom this annoyingly high-pitched voice belonged. “I was waiting for you so long I started thinking you wouldn’t even come.”

Sasuke forcefully removed the limb that uncomfortably clutched around his neck. “You stink of sake,” he scoffed, but Naruto didn’t seem to hear.

“Hinata-chaaaaan,” he rushed to hug her, and as soon as his arms closed around her, Hinata’s face reddened.

A strange, squeezing sensation started throbbing inside Sasuke’s chest as he watched his blond teammate suffocating his wife with his bear hug. He concluded that Naruto got on his nerves more and more with each passing day.

Naruto dragged Hinata inside and made her sit between him and Sakura. As soon as he pushed her down on the seat, Sakura’s jade gaze found Sasuke’s with a curious gleam.

“Naruto,” she called out without turning her head in his direction. “We should let Sasuke-kun sit next to Hinata.”

“It’s fine,” Sasuke interjected before Naruto could start his drunk rambling and hopped down on an empty seat at the end of the table, at a safe distance from the others.

His dark eyes locked with Hinata’s pearly ones and he read concern out of her glance.

Tilting his head slightly to the side, Sasuke glared at the pink and purple gift boxes in Hinata’s lap, communicating without words that there were more important things than where he had been sat. Hinata must’ve understood the gesture because she gave a small bob of her head and reached for the gifts to congratulate her friends on advancing in their ninja careers.

The night was rather uneventful from Sasuke’s point of view. He drank some sake, enough to help him tolerate the constant noise and all the jokes that were meant to be funny but were not funny at all. However, it was not enough to become drunk and be able to ignore the pitying looks his so-called friends shot in his direction.

Arranged marriages were bad by nature and everybody was aware of that. The gloomily lingering looks that sometimes stopped at Hinata, sometimes at him, suggested that people felt some kind of sorry for the situation. That the two of them were forced to live together, to have their lives forever intertwined, to lose the privilege of marrying for love.

Arranged marriages were bad by nature and Sasuke knew it, but he was a man of logic and as his gaze wandered over the girls present, he didn’t doubt his own choice of accepting the offer he had got from the Hyuugas. Hinata, by far, was the best option for him. She was calmer than Sakura, quieter than Ino, and less wild than Tenten.

Besides the rational part of his mind, another part of him that Sasuke was not familiar with, also whispered to him that being married to Hinata wasn’t as torturous as others probably imagined.

He was so lost in trying to locate the source of that vexing whisper that he jumped in surprise when someone slid onto the chair next to him that had been left empty the entire night.

“Are you enjoying the party?” she asked with a smile.

Sasuke crossed his arms in front of his chest and closed his eyes. “You don’t have to babysit me, Hinata. You can go back to your friends.”

“But are you enjoying the party?”

Sasuke opened one eye and stared at the genuinely curious face leaning toward him. “I don’t like parties.”

Hinata hummed and reached out one hand but stopped herself midmotion as though she had realized what she was doing. Her hand unsurely froze in the air for a few, sluggishly passing seconds before her muscles moved again and she gently placed only her fingertips on Sasuke’s forearm. “Let’s go home then, Sasuke-kun.”

It was either the soft touch or the thoughtfulness of that one sentence, but after such long years spent in utter hatred, the gratifying feeling of not being annoyed by the person he was talking to completely engulfed Sasuke’s soul.

///

They had been married for forty-one days when Hinata first left for a longer mission. She stood in the entryway in her mission gear and with her backpack on, counting on her fingers as she repeated the information needed for survival for the hundredth time that morning.

“I left food in the fridge that should be enough for a few days. After you eat it all, you can go to the shop that’s two streets away. Don’t be lazy and go there instead of the one on this street because even though it’s closer, the ingredients they sell are not fresh. I washed and ironed each of your clothes. They should be enough but if you need them washed, I asked Hanabi to help so you can go to her. We have some medicine in the cupboard in the bathroom, they are in a small, white box. Don’t forget to—”

“Deliver the documents on the coffee table to Kakashi by next Monday at the latest,” Sasuke finished the sentence instead of her. “Thank you, mother.”

Hinata’s lips curled into a pout. “These are important.”

“You do realize I successfully lived on my own for most of my life, don’t you?”

Sasuke’s eyebrows arched as a shadow of sorrow passed through Hinata’s face.

“Right, you will be fine,” she bobbed her head up and down twice and Sasuke wondered if she was simply agreeing with him or was trying to convince herself that indeed, everything would be fine.

“Alright. Take care on your mission,” he said and balled his hand in a fist.

Hinata followed suit and pushed her fist against his. “Thank you. See you soon.” And with that, she turned around and walked out the gate.

For bystanders, it could’ve been strange that a married couple said goodbye to each other with a fist bump instead of a peck on the lips or a hug. But for Hinata and Sasuke, the fist bump was an affectionate sign that they were caring for each other—more so as friends than lovers, but in Sasuke’s mind, that was a compulsory side effect of an arranged marriage.

They came up with it two weeks prior when Hinata was asked to participate in the upcoming chuunin exams as a proctor. She came home with starry eyes and shared the news with a voice trembling with joy, and for the first time, Sasuke felt as though words were too simple to congratulate with.

He awkwardly lifted his fist and gulped when Hinata pinned her gaze on the limb, confusion swirling in the opalescent eyes.

“I saw this from Naruto,” Sasuke hardened his voice in an attempt to hide the fact that at that very moment, he wished for nothing more but for the ground to open and swallow him whole.

Hinata giggled and reciprocated the gesture. “Thank you, Sasuke-kun.”

Since then, the fist bump was what they used when other couples would’ve kissed or hugged.

The first few days of Hinata’s absence passed quickly—Sasuke kept himself busy with training, sharpening his weapons, and harassing Kakashi to finally give him a mission.

After the fourth day though, he noticed a drop in his mood when he returned home and nobody greeted him. His nose started longing for the smell of freshly cooked dinner. His lips tingled with the urge to complain about the village still not trusting him enough to let him out of the walls. His hands were reaching toward the empty space on the other side of the bed during the night.

However, he would’ve rather died than admit that, in fact, he was missing the woman he had been living in an arranged marriage with.

Because arranged marriages are bad by nature and that meant they could’ve never brought any kind of pleasance with them.

///

They had been married for sixty-five days and Hinata had been away on her mission for twenty-four days. Not that Sasuke counted the days, he just happened to know.

The day had started out as usual—he woke up, ate breakfast, and pretended that he wasn’t home when Naruto was banging on the front door. When he finally left, Sasuke put on his training gear and headed for the door, but it magically opened before he could reach the doorknob.

The dainty figure in the doorway wore a smile reaching from one ear to the other as she lifted up the box closed with a ribbon in her hands.

“Happy birthday, Sasuke,” she sang.

The absence of the honorific behind his name sent a warm wave of belonging through his body. He knew that Hinata only addressed people without any honorifics to whom she was really close.

Sasuke didn’t care about his birthday.

He didn’t care for any birthday gifts either.

He only cared for one thing—that Hinata had come home safe.

Hinata must’ve thought that Sasuke hadn’t even noticed the birthday gift because she shook it gently. “I hope you will like it. I was rushing my team so I could be home on time for your birthday and—"

She couldn’t finish the sentence she started.

The gift box fell from her hand.

Sasuke pulled her close and tangled his fingers into her hair.

His lips found the softness of hers and she responded by hooking her arms around his neck, pressing her body into his tight embrace.

Perhaps, not all arranged marriages are bad by nature.

This oneshot has been written for SasuHinaMonth 2022 - Day 12 (I know, I'm in the future) and it was a good opportunity for me to dust off my fingers and return to the fandom. I hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Huge thank you to LavenderEyedAssassin who beta read this story for me.

#shmonth2022 #sasuhinamonth2022 #day12 #koi no yokan #i know im in the future #fanfic #sasuhina #sasuke x hinata #arranged marriage #pastelberries

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team7-headquarter · 2 years ago

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Matching the Konoha 12 kunoichis to some of my favorite pop / rock / alt female singers:

Hinata Hyuuga — Billie Eilish :

The way Billie dresses up and the way she was so brutally sexualized since a young age always reminds me of Hinata. If she's soft, if she acts sweet and nice, they confuse it with weakness. That's not it. What I love about Billie Eilish vibes and Hinata is that vulnerability, that rawness of feelings. Is like she was saying "this is how you wanted me to be? this dark, broken, girl? are you that miserable when I choose to be gentle? why do they only react to anger and threats?"

Billie represents that well.

HER SONG: everything i wanted.

Sakura Haruno — Paramore :

When I hear Paramore, I think about the range of emotions Sakura is capable of. Love, hurt, desperation, hope, ambition, violence— Hayley Williams also reminds me of Sakura physically, with the bright colored hair and the brash style.

Too femenine? Too masculine? Not pretty or delicate enough? Not strong or cool enough? They demand and demand and refuse to admit they have a great impact. Sakura refuse to be anything but herself, just like Paramore. They are real kickass women, yet so human and soft. Go drown the critics with your success.

HONORARY SONG: hello cold world.

Tenten — The Regrettes :

They have such a bright and fun sound, just like I see Tenten. They are direct with their words, yet their songs are so empathetic and real and they talk so much about real girls being, well, just girls! I love Tenten for being the girl with a weakspot for weapons that also arranges girl nights for her group of friends. She's insecure, she's an specialist, she's an optimist, she can bd sad and sorry.

The casual tone fits her well, the energy is contagious, it all scream sharps angels and summer days. There's a metaphor there, about how a ray of sunshine can cut so deep.

HONORARY SONG: seashore.

Ino Yamanaka — Marina & The Diamonds :

The diva bitch boss attitude, the glossy sound mixed with the dark lyrics and hard trues, the oh so bright vibes surrounded by hard edges... Marina's songs scream Ino Yamanaka. You see, Ino has her insecurities and bad moments, she has lost people, has her share of responsibility on her shoulders. Still she is the girl that saved Sakura from those bullies, she is the girl who cried when they declared Sasuke should be killed, she's the girl who loves Sai with all his trauma and all his own personality.

She's a florist and a drama queen, a friend, a rival, a lover. She's a charmer, she screams and rages and never shuts up. Unapologetic, lovely, selfish. Marina and her share that, along with the fabulous touch of their personalities.

HONORARY SONG: primadonna.

#naruto #Kunoichis #Naruto girls #Konoha 12 girls #Konoha 12 women #Naruto women #sakura haruno #Hinata Hyuuga #Hinata hyuga #Tenten #Tenten naruto #Ino yamanaka #Sakura uchiha #Hinata Uzumaki

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ncji · 2 years ago

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Where does itachi fit in to the hyuga massacre?

[ I'll start at Itachi, or this will become a novel. Though my fingers do ITCH to write it.

The Hyuuga genocide was predictable, if an outsider observed what was happening inside the clan. The Akatsuki kept an eye on the boiling pot, ready to put the wooden spoon over it or catch what boiled over. They ended up catching what boiled over. "Tobi" and Itachi were stationed outside of the village for days until Neji fled past Itachi. Creepy zombie eyes caught creepy vampire eyes (We've all thought it.), and Itachi incapacitated Neji's would-be captors. Then, he swept up the emotionally compromised Hyuuga and carried him to safety.

Itachi watched over the last remaining Hyuuga, as per his orders, at the Uchiha hideout, until the Akatsuki could figure out what to do with him. Neji's suddenly rare eyes could cause wars, his presence in another village could anger Konoha, so he was best kept away from the villages. He was never formally invited to join the Akatsuki, because he was simply too weak.

Itachi didn't know why the genocide had happened. He knew the rumors that had spread about his clan's slaughter and how untrue they had been. Growing tensions and a particularly volatile relationship between Neji and the clan leader seemed to be the answer, but Itachi wasn't blind enough to accept things as they were seen. Neji never offered an explanation, though.

In fact, Neji didn't talk for months after the massacre because he was traumatized. All he did was sit on the edge of a broken area of the hideout and look out into the forest. He didn't even cry. He just stared.

Then, Itachi sat with him, from dawn until dusk, and he spoke. "It won't change what you did."

Neji looked down. "I know..."

There was an understanding between two boys who had killed their own families. Sitting there in perpetual mourning, replaying what he had done over and over again in his brain, wasn't going to absolve Neji, it wasn't going to erase the past.

"You won't find what you're looking for either."

Neji knew what he meant. He would never know if he was forgiven, if his father understood, if he was proud or disappointed, if Hinata could look past the pain of betrayal. He wouldn't know until he met them, and he didn't believe in suicide outside of sacrifice. Ironic, but true. It was a harsh reality for him to hear, though, so he cried. He let out the agony of a scared boy who was driven to the unthinkable. And Itachi sat with him until he was out of tears and exhausted, barely balancing on that ledge. Then, he took him to bed.

Their relationship was mostly comfortable silence and a vague understanding of one another's feelings. Itachi never knew if Neji was a victim of the system and an angel of death. Neji never came to know Itachi's reasons for his actions, not from his mouth. They never knew they weren't the same. Itachi had been a conflicted child with limited choices and a protector of peace. Neji had been a frightened child with an uncontained rage and a dealer of vengeance. They were farther apart than any two people could have been. Yet they were close through their misunderstanding.

Emotions bloomed early on, but neither of them were affectionate outside of a rare soft touch and a brush of the other's hair out of their face. They trained together as much as possible, since Neji was leagues under Itachi and Itachi needed to do his own training. They ate together. They helped each other with their daily grooming habits. They acted like platonic partners, maybe brothers, except they would have moments where their eyes would connect and neither of them could look away. It was as if they could communicate with just their eyes.

It became sexual when Neji was 17. It was around that time that he could separate his memories from his present. He could banish the image of Hinata's lifeless eyes from his mind long enough for a few desperate minutes of pleasure. It was never something they took their time on, it was always quick and sometimes painful. It was still a raw physical and emotional connection for them, though. It was meaningful. It wasn't like either of them bothered with physical pleasures outside of it. They didn't even fantasize. But, after lying together, their fingers laced while their eyes conveyed emotions they never spoke, it happened naturally.

Gradually, it happened more and more, especially after Itachi's long absences. Neji was escaping from his own mental Hell with the help of Itachi's love. He wasn't back to normal, but he was growing towards it. Their relationship was healing him.

Then, Itachi became...cryptic. Something was going to happen. It was coming, and Neji was to let it happen. Itachi would not forgive him if he interfered.

Eventually, after many tears, Neji managed to get it out of him, and he was heartbroken. Their last weeks were spent desperately trying to fit a lifetime of love into a tragically short amount of time. For the first time, Neji told Itachi he loved him, and Itachi returned his words with sorrow.

Then, that fateful day came, and Neji stood back and watched Itachi slip lifelessly to the ground. When Sasuke looked to him, waiting for a second fight, all he did was fall to his knees and stare at Itachi's lifeless face. He had nothing left. He had no one. ]

#outofthecage ( ooc )#アノニマス ( anonymous )#[ That whole time #Lee is on a mission to bring Neji home #Naruto is anti-Neji because Hinata could never have deserved to die like that #and Gai isn't nearly as cold about Neji as Kakashi is about Sasuke.#It's a whole fucking universe that I LOVE. And what happens when Toneri comes looking for his Byakugan Princess? OHO! ]

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angeliise · 3 years ago

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Day 14 - Within These Dreams

A/N - Damn this One-Shot gave me hell. I feel like I was all over the place hahaha. Hope you enjoy and happy belated Day 14 :3

Word count: 3457

It is within these dreams that I feel loved.

It is within these dreams that you give me a reason to live.

It is only within these dreams that I can be me.

It is only when I'm within these dreams where her hair wasn't a curse.

“I like your hair.” They said.

“Y-you do?” Hinata asked.

They nodded. They reached a hand out to her. Hinata was hesitant as this person was… blurry.. She couldn’t make out their features. She could barely make notice of their hair, their clothes, their skin… their face… their voice. She did not know how she managed to understand them.

Her hand slowly clapped over theirs, and she was met with a tight squeeze followed by a pull.

“Where are you taking me?” She asked again, this time stopping them from taking her further.

The person looked behind her and smiled.

“Your hair is a blessing.”

“H-huh?”

“Your hair is a part of who you are.”

“W-Why are you tell-telling me this?”

“Your hair-”

“-is a disgrace.”

It wasn’t often that her father would pay her any mind. But when he did it-

“No one will want to be around you when you look like a boy.”

-when he did-

“Your haircut is an insult to the Hyuuga family.”

-- when he di-

“No one wants to be seen with you with that haircut!”

-- when he d- her breath hitched. Her throat threatened to heave again, so she quickly slapped her tiny hand over it.

Silence.

Silence was all there was as Hiashi looked down at her petite figure. A figure that was continually trembling from the constant hiccups that she tried so hard to suppress. Her cheeks were drowning in warm tears, and the hand covering her mouth was dripping those tears down to her kimono. She had nothing to hide. She could not hide. There was nothing she could use to hide the sullen face from the disapproving look of her father. Noth-

“Leave.”

___________________________

Her hair was a blessing. Her hair was a part of who she was.. Her hair- A tear slid down her cheek again. It had been the only sensation to bring her any warmth since she left her home. Where she was, she didn’t know. She was on a path far into the forests of Konoha. Far away from her home. Far away from the place that labelled her a disgrace upon birth. Far away from the place she brought shame to. Far away from-

“Watch out!”

As she swung in the direction of the voice, her vision went blank.

___________________________

She just wanted to disappear. She could do nothing but wallow in her own tears -- pathetic tears. Tears that reinforced that one thing she had been condemned all her life for: weakness. Her sleeves were drowned, her palms became slippery around her face and her kimono had long been drenched in her tears. What more was there left of her?

What more could she do to stop the tears?

Hinata felt a comforting chill run down her spine. Imminent footsteps were nearing her, and as she raised her head she saw the toes of someone. Her swollen eyes followed from the tip of his toes to the bandages covering his shins and the-

“Don’t cry -- don’t cry, I said…..” Hinata heard nothing from that point because-- because she could make out the movement of his mouth and… his skin.

He was pale.

He was the only one that had complimented her hair. He had been the only one to call her hair a blessing and not a curse -- he? It was a he! It was-

“Wh-Who are-”

She felt the softness of his thumb on her lips. Her eyes wandered away from the tip of his thumb to his face again. This time she saw bangs -- raven bangs. And- she sensed a banging sensation on the left side of her head. She winced and grabbed the side, hoping the pain would subside.

A warm palm lay upon her hand. She looked up again and before the whiteness engulfed them, she saw the corners of their mouth face upwards.

He smiled at her.

“I like your hair.”

____________________

“Oi, oi! Are you okay? Oi!” Obsidian eyes were staring down at Hinata’s bruised face with immense worry.

Sasuke had not wanted to shake her, in any case it would be worse for her. He had been scrambling for things to do but he found himself simply sitting on his knees, by her side. Itachi that bastard! Throwing the ball so far that even Sasuke had to run through a river for.

Hmph! This was his fault. Yeah, that’s right. It was his fault and- “Nn.”

“Huh?... Oi.” He gently placed his hands on her shoulder. In a quieter tone he said, “are you okay?”

His eyes were purer than any snowflake he had ever seen. Although he had seen a Hyuuga before, he had never sensed such kind and gentle eyes before. He saw him wince and place a hand on the left side of his face. “Here? Is it here?”

He grabbed her wrist and slowly removed it from her face to check for any open wounds.

There were none. He looked back at him. As his mouth parted, he heard the voice of his brother from afar.

“Sasuke! Here you are. Sorry-”

“Look what you did! You threw the ball so far and hit him in the face.” Sasuke dramatically gestured to Hinata sitting up.

.........

Itachi raised an eyebrow. “Him?”

“Yes, him!”

Itachi looked at Hinata, which made her heart skip a beat. He grinned. “Take a closer look, silly.”

This time it was Sasuke who tilted his head in confusion. “Why would I…”

He turned his attention to Hinata -- closing the distance between the two so that the tip of their noses nearly touched. Hinata slightly jumped, trying to maintain her compo- her cheeks were burning!

“A girl?”

She gave him a stiff nod. She saw his eyes fall before raising them to her level again. “Sorry, for hurting you.”

Hinata’ lips parted but words failed to escape. She- She couldn't’ process the situation. Where was she? What had happened? How did she end up here? These were questions she should be asking herself. But what she really wanted to know-- what she was burning to find out -- was who this person was. And… Why did he sound so familiar?

“You’re Hinata, right? Heir to the Hyuuga Clan.” Such a calm composure. She had seen it before. She had seen it in her father and Neji. But they lacked the kindness behind their words and demeanour.

“Y-Yes.”

Itachi -- what the boy had called him, reached his hand out to her. She took it with no hesitation and raised herself up with the help of Itachi. He patted down her kimono and checked her head for any bruises like the other one had done. He nodded to himself.

“Doesn’t seem like there are any open wounds, how are you feeling? Does it hurt anywhere?”

She was lying when she nodded. The pain on her left side still prevailed but she didn’t care. Being in their care, their presence was enough to lessen the hurt. And that hurt wasn’t from the ball-

The boy exclaimed a loud sigh. “Where are we anyway? Why did you have to kick the ball so far away, Itachi?!”

Itachi chuckled. “Well, you’ll have to find your way back home someway.”

“Me?!”

“Yes you, Sasuke.”

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. “What do you- wait!”

*Poof*

…..

His brother had seriously abandoned him out in the middle of nowhere. He-- sighed. He didn’t know where to begin. Where to start. Where to- he heard a whimper sounding from behind. He looked over at Hinata whose head was facing the ground.

“Oi, what’s wrong?”

__________________________

It was him. It was him.

“I like your hair.”

His voice. The bandage around his shins.

“Your hair is a blessing.”

The colour of his hair, his bangs.

“Your hair is a part of who you are.”

His pale skin.

“S-Sasuke...” She whispered to herself.

“What?” Or so she thought.

Hinata shook her head vigorously. “N-Nothing. It’s-” Her words were failing to pass the lump in her throat. All she could do was swallow the tears and lump as deep as she could-

“Don’t cry- don’t cry. I said I was sorry.”

Hinata shook her head from left to right. She did it again, this time slower. She did it again, and again, and again until-

“Oi.” His voice resonated through her mind. When she looked up she saw his hand stretched out. “Here, take my hand. Don’t worry, you don’t have to be scared -- I’m here. .”

Her eyes shot from his eyes to his hand and then back at his eyes again. And although they were trembling, her hand reciprocated-

“No one wants to be seen with you with that haircut!”

Her hand retreated. Her eyes fell from his again as she whispered. “It’s okay…”

“I like your hair.”

Hinata shook his voice out of her head. It was a dream. It had all been a dream. A dream that wasn’t bound to be a reality…

She didn’t see his reaction. She didn’t have to. She knew that it was for the best. By the time they reach Konoha he would separate from her anyway and pretend like he didn’t know her. After all, a Hyuuga with short hair wasn't a Hyuuga worth the pride, prestige and honour.

Sasuke looked back at Hinata. “You don’t have to walk so far behind, you know.”

Nothing.

Sasuke groaned, and in a split second found himself in front of Hinata. He watched as the heiress let out a tiny gasp. “It would be dangerous if you got lost, stay close to me.”

“I-I.. It’s fine. I-”

“No,” Sasuke grabbed her hand, rather roughly. “It is not. Stay close to me.”

The tears were starting again. Hinata took her other hand and slapped it in front of her mouth to hide her- she wheezed. His eyes were upon her so quickly that all she could do was wave her free hand to signal that she was okay. It was to no avail as their footsteps had stopped and Sauske had fully turned around to her.

Hinata’s lips parted in a final attempt to assure Sasuke that she is okay. Or was okay. His palm, his pleasant and soft palm, was on her cheek. His thumb dried the tears on her left side. His other hand quickly followed and dried the tears on the other side.

“Please,” he spoke, continually rubbing away at her cheeks that had long dried up, “don’t cry.”

Sasuke’s glare lingered on her for a while before his forehead was upon hers. “I’m right here. So please,” he locked his eyes with hers, “don’t cry anymore.”

___________________________

*Streets of Konoha*

It was for the best. She couldn’t burden him by being seen with her. She couldn’t risk-

Don’t cry- don’t cry.

“Hic.” She wiped the incoming tears. She felt no malice in his attempt to make her not cry. Instead, she could sense worry in his voice as he said. How could she even think he was being malicious when-

Sorry, for hurting you.

A weak weep escaped her throat. He had been so kind to her in the little time they had been in each other’s vicinity that she wanted to see him again. She wanted to- She wanted to be his-

“No one wants to be seen with you with that haircut!”

“-friend!”

“What was that?”

“Isn’t that-”

“Why does she not grow out her hair?”

“Shhh… i think she heard you.”

Embarrassed to find that she was in the heart of the Konoha market, Hinata dashed through the people and found herself somewhere around the academy. She was walking alongside the benches and saw a couple of her classmates. She looked away quickly as she saw how they went their fingers through their waist-length hair.

“Did you hear? Did you hear?” One spoke.

As she walked past them her mind drifted back to Sasuke, and how she wished to see him again to try and… befriend him. He seemed nice enough. He seemed to not mind her hair. He seemed to not-

The other giggled. “Is it about Sasuke?”

…..

Hinata’s footsteps came to a halt.

“Yes! I couldn’t believe it either.”

Hinata nervously chewed on her lower-lip over the anticipation for what they were going to say.

“To think that he likes girls with long hair! Who would have thought? His mother has long hair as well. And so do I. It was meant to be!”

“Not with that big forehead of yours.”

“Well, excuse me!”

……

Her shoulders felt a slight tuck as she continued walking. Of course, he did.

“No one will want to be around you when you look like a boy.”

She rubbed the back of her neck.

Of course, he did...

______________________________

*Uchiha Compound*

The sliding doors were shut open by a disgruntled Sasuke. Itachi looked up from his desk and gave him a small smile.

“Oh, Sasuke. You’re back.”

Sasuke scoffed. “No thanks to you.”

Sasuke flopped onto his brother’s bed, shifting to the side that faced the window. The curtains were pulled and the light from the moon nearly blinded Sasuke, yet he continued to stare. He stared into the blinding abyss. It sucked him into a profound state of calmness. The moon’s aura was so calming and pure that he couldn’t stop thinking about-

“Why is she like that?”

“Which fangirl is it now?”

Sasuke, remaining in his position, said. “No.”

“You mean, Hinata?”

Sasuke nodded. He heard Itachi place his pencil down, and look his way. “It can’t be helped. She keeps her hair short..”

“So what about it?”

Sigh. “The Hyuugas are prideful, just like us. But they show and honour them in different ways.”

Sasuke blinked. Itachi continued. “Hinata keeping her hair short is seen as a dishonour to their clan-”

“Her hair!” He yelled, rising to his feet. “There’s nothing wrong with her hair!”

____________________________

“You shouldn’t fall asleep in a place like this.”

Laughters of joy echoed into the realms of her mind. She had never felt this much happiness since she was born. She never knew such levels of happiness existed. Or that she could ever achieve it in her lifetime. But here she was, laughing with her friend whom she hadn’t given a name to. He was a friend that resembled a boy she had once seen but… they weren’t the same. Her friend was different. Her friend didn’t think of her as a burden, a disgrace, a waste.

No.

He… liked her. He never distanced himself from her. In fact he would fight to stay right by her side. But it was only within her dreams that he existed. It was only within her dreams that she could love, touch and feel the spirit of her friend whom she knew cherished her. It was only within these dreams that-

“You know you can find me outside this realm, right?”

Hinata raised her brows. “Eh?”

Although he looked like Sasuke, he wasn’t Sasuke. He wasn’t-

I’m right here. So please, don’t cry anymore.”

Here, take my hand.

Don’t worry, you don’t have to be scared.

She saw him nod. Hinata shook her head vigorously. “No…”

“Hinata.”

“No.” She blocked her ears. “No. No…! I want you to exist but,” she looked at him, “you don’t.”

The downward smile told her that she had upset him. But before she could reach for him her entire world shook.

___________________________

Hinata opened her eyes to feel her cheek being nibbled on by a moist sentient. She blinked twice before realising that she was surrounded by the ducks she had come to feed. “Huh?”

Her fingers pinched the bread piece in her hand. She had fallen asleep, but how- “You shouldn’t fall asleep in a place like this.”

“Eh?!” Hinata sat up, scaring the ducks away. As she rose up she found a fan symbol facing her.

“Sa-Sasuke-kun?”

He turned his head around. His face was in a frown. “What are you doing out here? It’s dangerous.”

Hinata blinked again. “I… I don’t- I was feeding the ducks.”

Sasuke looked at the bags of bread and the piece in her hand. “Seems like they aren’t interested.”

The corner of her lips threatened to lift. She wanted-- she lifted her sleeve to cover for the tiny smile that arose on her face. “Doesn’t that apply to you as well?”

Sasuke scoffed. “I’m older than you. I can handl-”

“How old are you?”

Sasuke shot her a death glare. “It’s rude to interrupt-”

“I’m 7 years old-” - “Oi!”

….

Her sides were tingling and her throat was itching to- “Ha ha ha!”

“Hmph! And here I thought I would-” In a split second, Hinata was upon him. Her bangs covered her eyes but Sasuke felt an area of his shirt stick to him.

“Don’t leave me.” She uttered into the silence of the air.

Hinata felt a pair of hands on her shoulder. “And if I do?”

Her petite figure trembled like never before. She didn’t want to- She didn’t want him to leave. She wanted to be his friend. He had shown her so much kindness in the little time they spent together. What he did for her in the forest was something she thought no one would ever do for her. What he did for her- from drying her tears away, holding her hand, rubbing foreheads -- What he said to her-

To think that he likes girls with long hair!

Long hair!

It was too good to be true, she thought. Heh, it was too good to be true after all.

“No one will want to be around you when you look like a boy.”

Too good.

“Your hair is a disgrace.”

Her hold on him loosened.

“No one will want to be around you when you look like a boy.”

Too good to be true, right?

“Your haircut is an insult to the Hyuuga family.”

She took a step back and cleaned her kimono

“No one wants to be seen with you with that haircut!”

It was too good to expect anyone to like her hair, to like her… right?

She turned around. Right?

Sasuke took hold of her wrist. “Where are you-”

“You don’t need to pretend anymore!!” She roared

Sasuke groaned. “What are you talking about?!”

“I know I’m not worth the trouble!” She cried as she tried to pull away from Sasuke.

“And I’m asking you, what are you talking about?!”

Her voice cracked. “My father has always told me,” her breath heaved, “that my hair would never- gulp- never attract anyone!”

“But I-”

“No one would ever want to be seen with me in public because of my hair! My hair is a disgrace to the Hyuuga Clan. My hair is a curse-” - “Hinata, I-” “My hair-!”

“I like your hair!”

The leaves danced along to the wind, and the sounds of ruffled feathers echoed the atmosphere. Hinata had stopped resisting and was instead stunned in place.

“Your hair is not a curse. It’s a blessing.”

Her eyes widened beyond what she could comprehend.

Your hair is a blessing.”

“Your hair is what makes Hinata, Hinata.” The moment she looked back she saw the corners of Sasuke’s lips face upwards.

Sasuke felt his cheeks heat at her intense stare, and looked down as a result. “And whoever told you otherwise is a liar.” He mumbled to himself.

“D-D-Did you really mean that?”

Sasuke smirked. He went from holding her wrist to tangling his fingers with hers. He went in front and looked back at her. “Come with me.”

“E-Eh?”

Hinata did not have time to process as she was being pulled away from the ducks and back to Konoha. When she saw the gates, she instinctively tried to pull away but Sasuke’s grip held firm in her hands. “S-Sasuke-kun?”

His only response was another smirk.

And so they walked. They walked the streets of Konoha with eyes plastered on them. At least that is what Hinata could tell from many whispers and gasps she heard as her head was glued to her toes. She could not look up, no matter-

“Is that Hiashi?”

Her face shot up. No… She could hear it. She could hear his voice, and they were telling her to look away from him. They were telling her how she should be ashamed of herself. They were telling her how much her hair was making her look a fool in front of all these people. They were telling her-!

“I like your hair!”

And just like that, her vision was back on Sasuke who continued to walk.. She inhaled deeply as the sounds of her father’s footsteps neared. She exhaled, keeping a firm look ahead. Her eyes directed back at her father which resulted in his eyebrows raising.

Your hair is a blessing.”

Her hair was a blessing, a message her eyes transferred over to her fathers as the two walked past him.

“Your hair is a part of who you are.”

“Hinata,” Hinata tilted her head to see the side of his face. Sasuke smiled at her. “Let’s be friends.”

Hinata smiled. Her smile grew wider and wider to the point where she couldn’t feel her cheeks. “Yes,” she nodded while giving his hand a tight squeeze.

Let’s be friends.

@sasuhinamonth

#sasuhina #shmonth2021 #sasuhinamonth #sasuke uchiha #hyuugahinata

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gigiree · 3 years ago

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With enough strength to be gentle

AO3 First chapter. Previous chapter here. Sasuhina month day 20: thunderous as a storm, gentle as a dew drop

“A-are you ready?”

He barely hears her soft tones over the thundering rain rattling his new screen door so hard, it clatters against the wood frame with a staccato groan that’s a bit eerie.

The lighting in his living room is dim and flickering, dozens of candles placed haphazardly on any flat surface because no one ever thought to update electrical grid in the old Uchiha district. That can be credited to the village Utilities’ Department lack of desire to brave the rumored ghosts, the actually decrepit utilities, and the surly last Uchiha who haunts the grounds. They’re alone in that sentiment, but it’s an annoyance that tugs at long buried hurts Sasuke would never admit to.

So he finds himself looking into her earnest eyes, her round face made even softer by the wavering warmth, hesitation clinging firmly to the corner of her pretty mouth and nervousness settled on her scrunched nose.

(And perhaps if he’d known better, he would’ve known that the flush in her cheeks was the fault of a fluttering attraction, but he should be forgiven for missing it, considering the circumstances.)

He smiles, a gentle, crooked quirk of his mouth that’s easy to miss in the dark, but Hinata sees more than most. He knows this small thing to be enough for her to get the message.

He closes his heavy lids and tilts his head forward.

Her chilled fingers brush back his bangs ever so carefully, he might’ve imagined her touch for all the contact she makes. He bites back the anxiety that raises the hairs on the back of his neck. The absolute contradiction to every instinct that’s ever kept him alive in his time as a shinobi, baring his vulnerable parts to someone who could easily stop his heart with a touch.

(Though he’s already admitted as much that she does with just a look, anyway.)

The cold in her touch makes its way to his temples, soothing the lingering headache that stays despite the herbal concoctions he’s choked down.

“I’m going to start now.”

“Hn.” There’s a heavy silence on her end, her tension threading to her hands so obviously, he opens his eyes suddenly, only to realize her face is mere inches from his own. It takes everything in him not to want to grasp her worried, little face and pull her into his orbit. His lips on hers, her hair tickling the edges of his jaw-

“S-Sasuke-san.”

“Don’t apologize. I did this to myself remember. Now get it off me.” He closes his eyes again.

Hinata makes a small sound of embarrassment or resolve, he’s not quite sure.

He wants to make a joke at her expense, but the words are caught on his throat as a sudden lance of pain bores into the space behind his eyes, and it feels like he’s being unraveled.

----

Pain. Exquisitely thin and sharp. It laces through every part of him, every thought, as the dull headache he’d been having is seemingly taken apart, bit by bit until he can distinguish each sensation in it as a singular experience.

The roiling of his guts, chills wracking his strong frame, the tang of blood in his mouth, the muscles of his eyes straining in extremis, sight torn between his two doujutsu, the Rinnegan pushing the source of pain and the Sharingan flaring to see past all of it. He's in danger of losing it, but he remembers her to keep hold on why he'd done this. Prior to this, he would've thought the memories to tether himself to consciousness would've been those involving Naruto, Sakura, Itachi and his family.

Fighting for the end of the world. Fighting for a dream inherited, fighting, endless fighting but...That had all ended hadn't it? He'd been lost in a peace everyone else had seemed to fall naturally into. He'd thought he'd been alone in that. But she was just as lost, if not more so. And she'd crashed into him, pulled forward by her own powerful gravity that she never seem to quite accept. And he'd fallen right into her orbit, hadn't he?

What a blind, hopeless fool he'd been. But he's changed. No longer a lodestone sinking into the earth. She'd forced him to move. He doesn't know if he'll ever be done thanking her for that.

So he does this for her.

He remembers stolen moments between the meandering she's done, little crossings where they'd gotten to know one another. He remembers her shining eyes, glinting with mischief when stealing from him, narrowing with suspicion whenever he'd pop by just to see her surprise so deliciously obvious, scrunching with happiness when he'd sit across from her during a Yakiniku gathering.

Shared glances through a crowd.

A strand of long, dark hair curling on his couch throw pillow. A bracelet with moonlight hanging off a silver chain, echoing the paleness of her gaze. Fireworks. Thin wires barely keeping an emaciated form tied to this life.

Distance to zero and his lips on hers, the cloying smell of red bean on her breath.

Stolen moments and kept secrets, just the both of them spinning lost and lonely underneath an old umbrella. Silly, lost, stupidly good, stubborn, misguided, scared, brave, pretty, sweet, strong, gentle, ever growing...Hinata.

His fingers claw at his hair, at his skin, begging for reprieve and then-

A singular touch to his forehead clears it all, like the first drop of rain in a drought riddled desert. The relief ripples across from the dull pressure centered on his botched seal, numbing, washing away the hurt and the loose ends of unraveled thoughts.

For a moment, it feels like Itachi’s poking his forehead again and there’s thunder and rain outside sounding almost too loud and resonant in his sensitive ears.

But when he opens his eyes, confusion and anger and irritation all sweep through him so incredibly visceral, he can’t help but fall to instinct and react.

It’s all too easy to slap the Hyuuga’s pathetically tiny hand away from his face, push her soft body to the wooden floor and hold a kunai to her slim, pale neck, his heavy form over hers as his Sharingan flares red, sending harsh shadows lancing across her terrified face. “You. Hyuuga. What did you to me? Did Naruto put you up to this?”

The venom coils deep in his words, dangerous and ready to strike. But as far as snakes go, he’s a generous one. Giving chances isn’t something people like him do often. He wracks his brain, but his thoughts are sluggish, dreadful. The last thing he remembers is a tearful Sakura, a pathetic attempt on his life with a poison kunai, Kakashi’s smug remarks, and Naruto’s livid expression reflected in the grimy water below them.

He supposes they managed to catch him after all. But it makes no sense. He’s interrupted by the sound of sniffling.

If there’s one thing Sasuke Uchiha has never been able to deal with, it’s the crying of those weaker than him. They always irritated him. Too loud. To messy. It made him want to run and fight someone worthy the instant they started. She doesn’t make a sound really. Just quiet, trembling breaths.

Her dark brows knit together so tightly, he thinks they’ll never come apart. She was always too weak. A ghost trailing at the back of their class, watching Naruto with flushed cheeks and her cowardice bending her spine in half.

He’s never had pity for people like her. People who can’t help themselves.

Yet when her tears spill over her thick, dark lashes and roll down those ridiculously round cheeks, disappearing into the thick carpet of her hair trailing on the wooden floor, there’s an ache somewhere in him that frustrates him more than anything.

And it sharpens into something excruciating that he can’t quite place when she silently mouths-

“I’m sorry.”

#SasuHina #sasuhina month #an object in motion #sasuke #Hinata Hyuga

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lexpressobean · 4 years ago

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More ClanSwapAU! Ft. Team 8

Very briefly, Shino and Kiba swapped Clans, but Hinata (now named Nenza) was swapped from Main to Branch Family. More info under the cut but I'm just happy to have a neater doodle out, finally!

•••

Shino Inuzuka

This Shino is still quite smart but it tends to be overshadowed by how much more openly and stubbornly proud he is. He's also louder with a much shorter fuse due to a lack of tolerance for idiocy. As such, he considers his world's Kiba an absolutely infuriating weirdo sometimes... but like, he's still respectable since he really cares about his insects and the team unabashedly, despite how often Shino blatantly rejects his attempts at deeper friendship. So, Shino "deins" to let him usually lead the team around, at least until Kiba tries to stir things up with others for fun because he's Like That. He also has an obvious soft spot for Nenza as she is quite the fighter and actually tolerable, even if she's pretty aloof. She doesn't open up much but it just makes him want to help her out. The reason he has a difficult time being on the receiving end of a team is because Shino Inuzuka has a not so hidden "Lone Wolf" mentality that makes gaining his trust a VERY long and difficult process, but he naturally cares too much and acts altruisticly despite, especially when it comes to children. He can act very annoyed and bothered, but he always offers help where he can. Yet he absolutely REFUSES to be helped. He has a really hard time accepting people's kindness and is quite the cynic.

Niaka

Akamaru is still part of Team 8, but is Shino's dog named Niaka instead. Mostly because as funny as the Akamaru/Shiromaru conversation was, the actual Original Shino Inuzuka named his dog Yoshiro, and I'm just following that pattern with Akamaru. Niaka, under this Shino's care, has the temperament and character of a trained K-9. Do not touch him. Do not pet him. Do not do it. He doesn't fuck with anyone who isn't Shino until Shino gives the okay. And even then, he just doesn't like unfamiliar people or people who Shino seems to become more annoyed/angry with. He is Shino's VALUED partner (and so deserves your utmost respect) first, a trained Ninken second, and hardly "just a pet". So. Do. Not. Pet.

Nenza Hyuuga

ClanSwapAU!Hinata had a name change, like Menma from RTN. She is a very quiet but mostly because she's thinking. Otherwise she actually has a lot to say at any given time and will let you know. She is full of resentment for the Main House due to the death of her father Hiashi for the sake of the clan. She knows she's always been weaker then the son of the Main House, Hinote, her first cousin and father's nephew, but after the death of her father for his sake as a child, and the way he's spoken of by her Uncle and Grandfather, she makes it her life mission to become stronger for Hiashi's sake and show the Main House what a Branch Member is REALLY capable of. She soon loses her natural sweetness and shuts Hinote out. She becomes much more wraithlike like as she gets older, and people mistake this for weakness and passiveness, but once it's called for or if she's provoked, she gets down and dirty and is quick about it too, which throws everyone for a loop if they don't actually know her. She shows no fucking mercy. Her tongue is sharp, her minds on the money, and you best pray her eyes don't make you her next target. Yeah, she might look tired, but she's just tired of everyone else's bullshit. Luckily, even with Hiashi gone, her family member Ko looks out for her.

Kiba Aburame

Kiba isn't the most... self-restrained Aburame that you'd meet. And as a result, he comes off very unprofessional by Aburame standards. But by normal Shinobi standards, he's just young. This Kiba still indulges in antics but isn't so much a feral troublemaker as much as a self-assured weirdo who loves to debate things as devil's adovate and make people squirm. He's a lot more conscious of himself and his actions and so is more calculating about what he actually says and does, but it still comes out in a very Kiba fashion when he speaks his mind freely. He can be cooly logical about the most absurd things and so comes off immature and infuriating because THIS IS STUPID BUT, LIKE, HE *DOES* HAVE A POINT??? He trusts Shino, but won't admit he's kind of cool and isn't afraid to literally knock him off his figurative high horse. He trusts Nenza, and always tries to keep Shino's temper under control so she doesn't have to. Kiba is also fond of Niaka but Niaka does take a while to warm up to Kiba. He's the one constantly playing mediator when his teammates cause trouble that Kiba himself didn't actually cause.

•••

I think the best part of this is that Hinata in canon in most languages as her voice go through many different emotions thanks to RTN but I couldn't quite hear Shino and Kiba until I realized that Uryu Ishida would constantly be yelling at Sosuke Aizen who would just keep pushing his buttons as far as English dub goes I think that's just great.

#anime: naruto #clan swap au #aburame shino #shino aburame #kiba inuzuka #inuzuka kiba #hyuuga hinata #hinata hyuuga #dusk's doodles

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sweet-sammy-kisses · 4 years ago

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Delicate Flames Can Still Burn

Pairings: Kakashi/Obito, Itachi/Hinata, Obito & Hinata, Sasuke/Naruto, and other pairings TBD

Summary: Hinata knew she would never be good enough for her clan or her father's taste still she had to try.

Obito saw himself in Hinata and offered to help.

They never expected to find a family in each other.

Author Notes: I love the idea of black sheep Obito and Hinata becoming family with one another. I hope to keep steady updates and will try to post on weekends.

You can also read it on AO3

Hinata knew she was weak. In the eyes of her clan and her father, she was unfit to be the heir. That she had too many flaws that made her weak to them.

She was too soft.

She was too kind.

She was too compassionate.

She let her heart lead her.

She was not fierce enough.

She was not at top of her class.

She was not the pride of her clans like Itachi Uchiha or his brother Sasuke.

She had not graduated early or moved up in ranks as fast as they would like her to have. It didn't matter to them she was a member of the Rookie 9 class that had Sasuke along with other clan heirs not to mention the Yondaime Hokage son himself, no that was not good enough for them. Hinata was supposed to be better than that. They set impossible goals for her and no matter how hard she tried she would never reach them. She would always be destined to fail them.

Still, she tried. It was why she was still out here training pushing her body more after a day of training with her team.

There wasn't a part of her that didn't ache still it didn't stop her, she wanted the clan elders, her father, her sister to look at her with pride so she kept going.

Hands in his pockets and dragging his feet Obito Uchiha slowly made his way back to the Uchiha compound, the last thing he wanted to do was sit in his empty house on the edge of the clan land with only the shadows of what might have been keeping him company.

+******+

"Of all the times for Bakashi to go into hiding. Gai isn't that bad." Obito muttered under his breath as he kicked a small stone. When the loneliness got too much for him he would crash at one of his friend's places but with Kakashi hiding from Gai who was seeking his eternal rival, Rin on a date and Minato and Kushina were busy with Naruto. Not that Obito didn't understand his friends had lives of their own and with Naruto officially a Genin and having Kakashi, of all people as a sensei.

'Serves him right for having to lead a team with both Naruto and Sasuke who are worse than the two of us had been at that age.' So Obito was a little upset that Kakashi had been assigned a team with his adopted brother and his cousin. He loved it when he got the chance to look after the sunshine boy and his grumpy adorable cousin.

Even Kakashi melted when Naruto called him Niisan.

The sound of training reached Obito's ears and he paused in his walk as he tilted his head it was a little late for someone to be training at night.

Curiosity taking over him he went to investigate and blinked as he found the Hyuuga heiress nearing exhaustion but still pushing herself to do more.

Suddenly he was seeing himself as a young boy training to make himself better, to be worthy of his clan.

To make Kakashi see him and recognize him.

It took Hinata longer than it should have to sense that she was no longer alone in the training ground. 'Just another thing I need to work on.' Turning it took her a moment to realize who she was looking at.

Obito Uchiha it was hard not to place one of the Hokage former students. The class knew of how Obito had gotten his scars Naruto loves to brag about his big brothers, especially how Obito who had been dead last like he was had saved the genius Kakashi and given him his eye. Obito is Naruto hero and Hinata.

Obito recognized the desire in Hinata's eyes, the longing to be good enough.

He felt that way with the Uchiha.

He felt that way being in Kakashi's shadow and never seeing to get out of it.

Obito saw himself in Hinata and he wanted to help her.

"Would you like someone to train with?"

Obito's offer had Hinata blinking, "Surely a shinobi of your caliber has something better to do than waste your time on me." Hinata didn't understand why would he want to train with her, she could never keep up.

Obito's smile was soft as he knelt to look her in the eyes, "I see me in you. I know what it is like to fail to measure up in your clan's eyes and while I could care less what the Uchiha think of me I never want anyone else to feel like that. So will you allow me to aid you in your training?"

Hinata's smile was soft and a little unsure, "I would like that Obito-sensei."

Obito's smile pulled at his scars but still lit up his face like the sun, "Just call me Obito, kid."

#sherri writes #kakaobi #kakashi/obito #kakashi x obito #otp: lost on the path of life #itahina #itachi x hinata #my fics #obikaka

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maudlxne · 1 month ago

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@asparkleofmuses said | [ patch ] - Sakura @ Hinata?

Pale eyes watched the other's hands move skillfully to bandage her injured leg. Still silently feeling guilty Sakura was taking time out of her day to help with her training mishap. This wouldn't have happened if she had been paying closer attention.

❝ Thank you . . . Sakura. ❞

She whispered, her shoulders slumped with a slightly downcast gaze. She knew full well the beratement that awaited her once she got home if her father found out. How could she let herself get injured during training because she lost focus? Lips pursed a bit - small delicate fingers toyed with the edge of her jacket sleeves.

❝ Y - You really d - don't have to. It's my fault . . . I should have . . . been paying more attention. ❞

If she had the kunai never would have hit her in the first place.

#asparkleofmuses #ic #;; be soft but noy weak | hinata hyuuga #// i hope this works!

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mavda · 4 years ago

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Beast Tamers

Ch.1 | Ch.2 |

Ch.3: A stroll at night

Naruto sends a notice first thing in the morning to the Hyuuga clan, and he receives an answer a couple of days later. He shares the info with Hinata in one of their strolls, with little fanfare, and Hinata takes it in in the same way, with the softest of hums as an answer. If Naruto had any doubts left in his body, the fact that Hinata shared with him that she did not care if her family could attend their ceremony was enough.

"When will we h-hold the ceremony?"

"Two months from now? Three?"

Hinata frowns and Naruto steals a peck from her lips. "I want you to feel comfortable enough before we get married, I don't mind waiting."

Hinata looks forward and is ashamed? Glad? Embarrassed to realize that she wouldn't mind getting married sooner, that she wouldn't mind getting more physical with Naruto, that she is already half in love with the man and that her home is in the Uzumaki clan even though she still has the Hyuuga surname attached. She is still fighting the guilt that eats at her.

"T-two months sounds fine."

"I will talk with the council, then."

There are places in the gardens where they are completely covered from prying eyes. There are some roses and bushes tall enough for even Naruto to fit. There is a bamboo grove that works as a wall, too, and a couple of trees that are as wide as they are tall. Hinata doesn't know anymore if it is Naruto who pulls them towards this places or if it's her. She doesn't really mind and Naruto seems to not worry about it, either.

Naruto doesn't have a problem with his hands anymore, and he likes to cup her cheeks when they start kissing. He then likes to move his thumbs over her cheeks in a caress and by this point Hinata is already feeling the shivers go down her spine. On her side, she likes to put her hands on Naruto's neck and scratch slightly the nape of his head, she loves to hear him gasp in between kisses and he has already shared that her nails feel amazing against his skin. Hinata can only wonder what else her nails can do on his body.

Everything is new to her and kissing Naruto makes her feel hot all over. She wants to press her body against his, she wants to circle her arms around his neck, she wants to open her mouth wider, she wants to touch him in places were clothes make it hard to reach. And judging by the way Naruto groans and looks at her, she bets he thinks the same.

There is a voice at the back of her head that calls for restraint, for composure and for her to behave appropriately, and she would have heeded the voice at any other moment if Naruto had been anything other than... well, Naruto. It was him that brought this unabashed side of herself, this freer version, this happier version, this version that was ready to throw herself at a life with him full of hope. And Hinata doesn't know how to express that in any other way that by pressing herself to him, and Naruto has his hands at her back in a second.

They stop kissing because Hinata is now too close to him and her face fits better in the crook of his neck. And Naruto doesn't mind. He can't remember any of the worries he had had before choosing Hinata as his wife. He can't remember the anxiety that filled him thinking about finding a suitable woman to mother his children. He isn't dumb, he knows this is his dick talking more than anything else, and yet... and yet, he fights his body's urges at night, looks at the ceiling were shadows play and ponders. And all of the things he would have liked to find in his wife, Hinata has.

Naruto rests his head atop Hinata's and rubs his cheek on her hair. "I'm having a meeting that will drag long today. I won't be able to come see you before dinner... or after."

"Okay."

"Remember to eat your dinner."

"Yes."

"You have anything planned?"

"Lord Minato was going to walk me through the... clan fundamentals."

"Good. Boring stuff, though."

Hinata giggles and Naruto buries his head on her neck, making her squeal. How could he get so lucky? He doesn't know.

Maybe this was life showing some compassion and letting him feel lucky for the first time in his life.

⁂

If there's anything Naruto can't help but dread is sitting still for hours on end. It had a lot to do with his hyperactive ass being unable to stay still when he was a child, but now it was more of his body needing exercise and movement because of the damned beast inside him. People got sore muscles, he got headaches and sharp pains on top of that because of the unspent energy sitting still inside of him.

Naruto rubs his neck for the umpteenth time and his assistant looks apologetic.

"This really dragged on, you know?"

Shikamaru Nara is one of the most brilliant minds of this age, and Naruto has the privilege of having him as his aide. Where Naruto lacks, Shikamaru shines. He has a lazy attitude, but doesn't spare efforts when needed.

"I yearn for my bed," Naruto whines.

"I'm sure Sakura has everything prepped for you."

Naruto scoffs, because that goes without saying. Where Naruto and Shikamaru fail, Sakura shines. "Hopefully she went to bed, it would suck if she stayed up waiting for me."

The answer comes when they turn to his bedroom. Faint and shimmery, but Sakura's outline can be seen from afar.

Shikamaru shakes his head, "Had it been me, I would have left hours ago."

Naruto smirks, "Believe me, buddy, I now."

Naruto's eyes sweep the area out of boredom. Half wanting to see the gardens around him and half wanting to stretch his neck, but there is a figure standing far away and he focuses on it, mystified, the figure doesn't move and Naruto discards options from his head as quick as he can. The moment he realizes that area is close to Hinata's, his feet change direction, Shikamaru is close behind, calling for him. The moment Naruto realizes the figure is a woman he starts to jog towards them. And the moment he realizes it is in fact Hinata standing there, in the middle of the night, in an open space, with the compound's wall a few hundred meters away from her, he runs.

Hinata hears him when he's close enough, and after recognition lights her face, she smiles. Naruto grabs hold of her and scans his surroundings. Hinata is talking to him, but Naruto's ear are ringing. He has to calm himself, there is nothing near her, there is nothing near them, Shikamaru is next to him, and Naruto feels Shikamaru trying to ease his grip on Hinata to move her away from where they were. But Naruto wants answers.

"Where is your assistant?"

Hinata is confused and doesn't understand the urgency in his voice. She notices Shikamaru and is suddenly self-conscious, "He-he's sleeping. I went o-out to get some fr-fresh air."

Naruto frowns and feels his emotions swirling. "Take her back to her room," he says, as he lets Shikamaru rest his hand on Hinata's shoulder.

"My lo-" Sakura is jogging towards them. "Stay with Hinata," Naruto orders and Sakura nods once. Naruto is off like a storm, he walks, knowing that there is no haste now, and tries to keep his breathing under control. Hinata is calling to him, but he doesn't hear her.

Naruto enters Hinata's bedroom and looks at the corner of the room, there, sitting with the covers tidied, sits Neji. Naruto stands in front of him with his arms crossed, menacing. "Do you know what you have done?"

"There is no excuse, my lord."

No, there is none. But Neji knew that already.

Naruto squeezes his arm with strenght. He realizes his anger is being heightened by the beast and breaths out of his mouth with a snarl.

"My lord!" Hinata reaches the room with Shikamaru and Sakura glued to her back. "My lord, Neji d-didn't know," she walks right next to him, alone, as Shikamaru and Sakura stand far back now, "I left on my own, I-I didn't wake him up. I-"

Naruto closes his eyes. "It's all right, please, don't worry." Hinata quiets but is restless in her spot. "He will go back to the Hyuuga compound."

"My Lo-"

Neji's voice is clear and shuts Hinata's immediately, "As you wish, my lord."

Naruto grimaces and when he opens his eyes he sees Hinata. Confused and surprised, with watery eyes. Naruto didn't tell her, she doesn't know.

"Hinata, he is supposed to be your bodyguard..."

"I didn't- I didn't wake him..."

Naruto doesn't know how to explain to her... that Neji made the decision to let her go on her own.

"He is a ninja on a mission, Hinata, he knew."

Hinata locks eyes with the floor and Naruto knows that if he keeps his eyes on Neji, he will lose his composure sooner or later. "I will see you tomorrow, my lady."

He kisses the top of her head and leaves. "Send more guards to this area. Sakura, you guard the room."

"As you wish, my lord."

The room is silent and Hinata tries to remain calm. The guilt is eating her alive. For Neji to go back to the compound because he couldn't fulfill his role. Shameful. And it was all her fault.

"I-I am sorry."

Neji remains still. Soft and kind, yet weak and useless when born in a ninja clan. There was never a chance for her to become anything else than the shy and stuttering mess that used to follow him around in an attempt to mimic him, in the hopes of overcoming anything at all. There was never any future for her but to remain at her father's side and rot. Who would want a failed heiress? Who would want a woman that could fold with a glare? The answer was obvious, rotten men.

And somehow, life had decided for Hinata to find the one heir of a clan that somehow fit her like a glove. Destiny was fickle and mean spirited, but sometimes, it gave chances.

Soft and kind and finally in a place where she wouldn't need to hide those traits.

"I knew." Neji shares and Hinata looks as confused as ever. Innocent. "I was awake when you left the room, I knew I had to follow you, and yet I didn't. Lord Naruto is correct in sending me back."

Hinata is shaking her head no and Neji wants to laugh. "I'll talk w-with Lord Naruto, he doesn't have to s-send you back."

"I knew you went alone and I decided to let you go on your own, my lady. As a member of the Hyuuga clan that also has the clan's technique, and as the future wife of the Uzumaki clan's heir the chances of you becoming a target for ransom or assassination have grown exponentially and yet I-"

"Still!"

"You could have died, my lady. Lord Naruto is correct in-"

"With your eyes... with the Byakugan you saw the c-compound's surroundings, didn't you? With your abilities... you can easily c-cover the whole compound, can't you? You saw that there-there was nothing, right?"

Hinata is spewing the clan's secrets but she barely registers the fact. She is just trying to find anything to hold onto. Neji... Neji might have been aloof and distant throughout their childhood, but he never did mock her, never made jokes at her expenses, never hit her, never insulted her... Gods, was her childhood such a sad story?

Neji knows he only needs one more push to get out of Hinata's life. With this show of betrayal, Naruto will have the perfect excuse to reject any other offers from the clan. No one will ever be able to touch her, to order her, to berate her. He only needs to say it... I didn't. I didn't use the byakugan. I sent you out there alone and unprotected and I didn't care. I didn't.

I didn't

It's not hard. I didn't. I didn't. I didn't.

But Hinata's voice trembled and Neji can't do it.

"Lord Naruto is correct in sending me away," he repeats.

And he can hear Hinata's shaky breath. Relief.

"I won't hear any m-more on this. I will-I will talk to Lord Naruto t-tomorrow."

Neji stays kneeled on his futon. And Hinata goes back to hers, turns her back to Neji, and without looking back, with her eyes closed out of pain an frustration, she orders him for the first time in ages, "go back to sleep."

⁂

Hinata has her head glued to the tatami and there is nothing Naruto can say to let her stand upright.

"It was my fault, m-my lord. It won't happen again... I will have a guard at all times, I promise... P-please let Neji stay."

Neji sits far back on the room, with a blank stare. Naruto doesn't care for the man. But this is the first time Hinata has asked for something, and although Naruto can't wrap his head around it, the fact is, this is important to Hinata.

Which means it should be important to him.

"As you wish, Lady Hinata."

Hinata doesn't raise her head. Naruto walks to her and kneels, "Hinata?" He whispers.

"Thank you."

And he realizes that she's crying.

#Naruto #Naruhina #fanfiction #Beast Tamers #ch.3

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quitequietquitecute · 4 years ago

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NIGHTCALL

It had been a while yet since the last war ended and that its aftermath had cicatrized from Konoha's village face... Almost two years now that a new memorial had been erected in the cemetery, containing the -too numerous- names of those whose body had vanished and who had perished in that senseless massacre... As his father's one - like his teammate's and comrade's and a lot of the village's folks - that can be found carved on it.

He was barely twenty, yet his life entailed two tragedies, two major trauma. It took him a lot to recover from the first disaster : his sensei's death.

Unfortunately, he was endowed of a proficient brain, and that, not only to play shogi or to elaborate strategy, although it was what he was renowned for ; but also for everything what had appeal to overthinking : from self-loathing, to self flagellation or to questioning oneself or by redoing the past with all possible issues he could -have- come up with IF he had enough time, if he was fast enough, if he was ...enough... to every "if I had" that was tormenting him, even now, if less often, still vividly.

De facto, he had passed through every phases, beginning with the sorrow, then the wrath and from the denial to the guilt, in the pit of depression, sporadically coming back from a phase to fall back in another, and this, despite a duly consummated revenge.

Obviously, nobody knew _ except one particular person to whom he authorized himself to break _ timid has he had always been and of a lone and calm temper as he was :

It was the next day of his father's death anniversary. It was a dark night. Laying flat in his bed in the darkness, he could not sleep. It was worst than usual. He was not able to grab a scraps of slumber but in the morning, when he should wake up and go to work. It's been almost fifty straight waking hours...

The weariness was weakening his mental state, it was all the more grueling...

When one had heaped so much waking hour at once, they lose the common time track. It felt like yesterday was no more yesterday or there was no more morning, no more evening, no more night or things as day. Just the solar and moon revolution that seems to put you on the sideline bit by bit. It was a fact well established that peoples tend to refer to sleep to define the end and beginning of their day. Yesterday, for him, was like tree days ago for most people, then.

And while he was thinking about the human conception of the time, his mind was finding a bit of reprieve.

Yet the time was not an escape door but a one-way street, converging in a lonely vanishing point that failed him to save his loved ones... Everything was bringing him back ... at that... incurably. He wasn't able, long enough, to think about anything else.

Although exhausted, he woke up from bed, put on some clothes and exited his house for a walk :

Like the night before, whither his stroll brought him to the cemetery. Where he had met Hinata - as gloomy and drained as him - collected in front of the tall white stone.

Both of them then had faced each other and intently stared, lost and dazzled, puzzled to encounter another human being here, standing in the dark with the same goal : moping about the loss of the loved ones, disappeared "that day".

Then, they both took place ahead of the memorial in silence, the woman giving way to the newcomer.

Neither of them said a word. Side to side in a profound internal contemplation. But in the same time... There was like a feeling of communion floating around them from the incidental encounter. To be here. At hand...

He sensed something moist and tepid, a bit callous but still mostly soft, taking a grab of his hand. He then warmly let the small things slide in between his longer fingers which numbly locked on her strong tiny hand. It felt like these was at their entitled place.

The young woman had noticed he was shivering through their touch, she tightened the grip on his hand. Feeling the firm soft pressure, he took a look at her. She was sending his way a sight of sheer understanding. No smile, no wince, no pout ... just a deep, uncanny, almost inquisitive gaze, full of melancholy which she only let go to see by scarce chance to those able to catch it. That was a call to slack off, to come undone, to let off steam and relieve the pressure... and how he was craving for it... but his tight throat was not allowing anything out.

Reading such misery and distraught in her comrade's eyes, she knew it was locked, that it was not yet the time. Delicately, she had rested her head on his shoulder and hugged his nearest limb with her free arm.

They retired in a tacit agreement, seeing the first morning glimmers in the sky. Going back to their sham of pretending to have had a good night sleep.

But they were only leaving physically :

Hinata was concerned, felt pain not to worry and think about the peculiar state she sees her friend in ; that fact had thankfully eluded every of her very own concerns _ Actually. It was a good opportunity to flee her own issues that she was embracing cheerfully.

Shikamaru found himself unable not to think about the Hyuuga's heir ; her gestures toward him and her gaze ; his mind inhabited with everything he could have nor should have said her, frantically occupied to conceive in his mind all scenarii, coupled to the crave to see her again mingled with qualms.

At the end of the day, both of them tried to meet, actively seeking ... never finding each other... Lamblike, they came back home.

...

That was only at 3 a-m. when he can't bear to ruminate anymore that the Nara get out of his bed and excited his family compound. He knew -for he remarqued it during mission with her- that she usually get up around 3 a.m. and 4 a.m in the night. He passed by the memorial. Not here. Neither in the cemetery, would have been too easy. She was not on her training ground neither.

He was heading to the Hyuuga district then. He managed to not awaken attention, not to end with a grumpy byakugan possessor's platoon that would have fun blocking every of his tekketsu pursuing him. He stopped on a building's rooftop then watched around... That was quite extensive, it was like a small town full of little boxes, sober and beautiful but all the same... until he was spotting an opened area in the middle of the domain.

He swiftly jumped roof to roof in his black shirt and pants, looking like a shadow. When he was there he observed the place, finding what he thought would be : a classic but charming and harmonious garden, endued of a small, reeds bordered, nymphea constellated, pond.

On the porch from one of the adjoining house, he saw a black shape. It was the well made body of a woman in her training suit. While she lifted her eyes to the night sky to watch at the luminary, she caught under the light of the moon the crouched and very recognizable silhouetted form of the Nara clan's head. Undeterred, she had jumped and was joining him on the roof, about to say his name, he beat her to it.

"I ... I need to tell you how I feel" He grunted in a breath before he lost the nerve, his voice hoarse.

He took her hand and she followed his lead, whereas he drove her through the night, down the hills ... Nothing could bother them here.

She was here, silent and attentive. So he told her how he wasn't able to sleep, how many days had passed since the last time he was able to rest, how much he still suffered his mentors loss, that it was like he wasn't really here or like he was 'outside' everything, that he cannot make it out and how he was feeling helpless and how it gnawed at him.

At first it was pretty difficult and required a lot of efforts, then he had erratically let things get out in a throbbing rhythm, with no further form or thoughtfulness.

He finally slowly admitted, a bit ashamed, that he thought she was the only one he could talk about. To that, she responded mutely, approaching him and clasping her arm around him gently.

"I know..." She finally whispered with apathetic voice ... Only, understanding too well what he was feeling.

In fact, it was the only thing to do, there was nothing that could be said. There was no remedy but time and habit to that kind of wounds.

The only reason she still held on was because she was stultifying herself in training every single time she was beginning to think about things that was making feel her gloomy or guilty ... even with that, often she was breaking up, lone in the night.

They both knew it.

That's why he was here.

He needed to talk, pour out everything, breaking up a bit ; without fearing sarcasms, trials, harassing, bossing, nagging or being told not to crack, hearing platitudes about being strong and "being a 'man'", being forced to relativize. And he knew he could tell Hinata about his weaknesses, she won't use it against him, to mock him or give him a silly nickname because he divulged anything to her.

She was the ideal person, since she was in a similar status.

She was the understanding embodiment... Whose he needed.

He slowly slacked into her arms after a few time and flabbily gave the embrace back before crashing to his knees. Then his arms tightened around her thin waist while he layed his cheek on her stomach. She fondly caressed his hairs like she would have done to a sad Mirai, feeling yearning and happy to be there for him, living the present.

Half an hour later, she had noticed the tenseness had gradually disappeared from her exhausted comrade's body. Entirely. He was finally asleep... in this awful stance... In this state, no need to try and wake him up... Plus they was not far from his home, so she took him on her back and brought him back to his bed, before surreptitiously slipping away to her own room.

She had not trained until morning and, in place, she slept soundly.

...

When he woke up, in the middle of the afternoon, he asked himself if it was real or just a dream ; not remembering how he got back to... Though, actually he had something else to think about : he would have explanation to give to have missed a council meeting...

He sighed knowing he will not hear the end of it : "... what a drag ..."

He had bitterly learned his powerlessness at great emotional expense. Him whose intellect usually succeeded to resolve the slightest problem, him whose mind always wanted to find meaning in everything : two times, he found stronger than him in the death.

The second fateful date was like a "coup de grâce" and during a long time, it was, for him, as if nothing had logic anymore. And yet everything continued as if nothing ever happened.

So, he was doing the same, he had switched to auto-mode :

To wake up in the morning _ it was the most annoying and painful moment, everything else was a mechanic habit that required no efforts. To prepare for the day _ to wash up ; to have a breakfast without appetite, to dress up. To Leave home for the day : to walk from point A to B ; to work ; to try and listen - enough to give the right answer ; to go back from B to A ; to eat ; to start again ; to resume at the beginning ; to come back home. Sometimes. To cross someone knowing us ; to greet him ; to agree his words ; to smile a bit if required ; or ; to have a visit ; or ; to be invited from time to time, but less and less often and no longer knowing if we are alleviated or sad _ since it was always a bit uncomfortable to be in groups _ but still happy to see people we like seemingly having a good time ; to ignore the ill-at-ease feels and concentrate on present ... to finally come back home ; to lay in bed exhausted, but still being unable to sleep because as soon as we do nothing the brain starts working again ... just to works ... and it's the end of the respite ... insomnia :

Not to sink until daylight and to have to wake up for the "next day"...

And it was endless.

At last.

Except days off.

He often would decide to spend with the woman and the daughter of his regretted sensei, whose he had promised to protect. Eventually, a third variable was added to this equation. The only little eccentricity - although quite humdrum too - in his daily, that was making explode, even for an instant, the sort of bubble that he was trapped in most of the time.

And in those too brief moments ; as during picnics in company of the women of his life that they were arranging on sunny days in the Nara's domain woods. There, whereas he was laying in the shadow, after lunch, in the warm moist air of the afternoon, in a cute small clearing neatly maintained by his clan members, he seemed lazy.

In fact, he was falling from exhaustion and he was slumbering while Kurenai tidied her stuffs with Hinata's help and Mirai was performing roulades and running around sometimes stopping seeing something interesting on the ground, grabbing grass and sticks and mimicking "Auntie Hinata" -or "Auntinata"- knitting grass or just was crawling under their benevolent watchful gazes.

- That was one of those days.

The sun was starting to decrease when Kurenai decided it was time to go. Hinata had guessed when seeing her sensei getting up then start picking up her stuffs while saying Mirai they were about to go home to prepare the departure. The Hyuuga girl was watching the scene but was throwing glances every now and then to the inanimate form on the ground, a bit concerned.

"I am gonna leave you. I go back home with Mirai" The older woman finally said, to make know she was about to leave.

Hinata nodded smiling but furtively glanced to the sleeping beauty.

"Good evening Kurenai-sensei" She bowed.

"Wish Shikamaru a good night for me" She said amused.

"Yes, I will make sure he don't spend his night here." She replied, throwing the sleeper a slightly worried glance.

The toddler was eyeing the goodbyes with interest stamping a bit before letting loose her mother's hand.

"Kiss Auntinata !" She exclaimed before launching herself to the young woman.

Hinata crouched to be able to receive the child's embrace that was jumping on her to give her a big slimy kiss, laughing.

" See you tomorrow Mirai-chan" she said softly giving her a kiss back on her forehead.

" Auntinata make a kiss to uncle Shika for me ?" She asked with a big hopefull smile to the big girl, pulling on her baggy mauve vest.

Hinata was a bit surprised but smiled shaking her head : "Yes, for sure Mirai-chan, I will. When he wakes up."

"Yay ! Thanks auntinata !" then she gone back trotting to her mother, very happy under the tender gaze of the two brunettes.

Kurenai took back the small hand in hers and gave a small head sign to her former student before finally leaving. Hinata had watched them go as long as they were observable. When they were not, having disappeared behind tree trunks and bushes, the kunoichi then lifted her white eyes to the visible part of the sky.

It was adorned with autumnal warm colors but beginning to grow darker with purplish night shades. She sighed and slowly approached of the deadlike Shikamaru.

She had squatted down and then kneeled toward him before gently effloresce him, whispering : "Shikamaru-kun" ... Nothing... "Shikamaru-kun..." She shook him shyly. Few second later. Nothing.

She had lingered on his completely relaxed face, mouth ajar. She smiled a bit amused ; he had a leaf on his cheek, she took it off and gave a light caress to his cheekbone. She saw his mouth close and adorned a silly expression ; one she had never seen on his face before. It make her stop, surprised and flushed by the realization of her own act.

She redone timidly her tentative to wake him : "Shikamaru-kun?"

Still nothing.

He was still soundly asleep and proving it by straightening him up in a siting position, turning him a bit before placing herself under his torso and locking his arms around her neck. He was still passed out. She lifted him up on her back, leaning a bit forward to balance the weight then grabbed his tights to her waist, before running the straighter way to his home.

Being a full-fledged taijutsu practitioner kunoichi, it was not a big deal and they were done to his room few minutes later.

She had dropped him in his bed after taking her shoes off, on the porch. She tooks his sandals and puts them besides hers on his room's engawa.

She sighed and looked at him a moment a bit upset. She knew for a fact it was not that he was supposedly "lazy" that he was dozed off ...

She understood it because she neither had no full rest ; still not able to sleep well even with the passed years _ though she was never a long sleeper _ waking up with a jolt every night around 4 a.m. ... So she gets up and go to train until it's time, then have a shower and do as if she was just waking up... consequently to that continual lack of sleep, she felt worn all the time, mainly when she was not moving ; especially from midday until the end of the afternoon ; then around 7 p.m, the light decrease and she feels like a second breath. So, instead of going bed she go to train until she feels tired again a bit before midnight ; where she fall from exhaustion... only to be waked up with stupor again at 4 a.m, perspiratory and panting.

She had yawned, it was a bit startling since it was usually an hour of the day her mood shifted to its excitement phase in which she needed to unwind. She thought about going to bed herself while staring her sleeping friend. She leaned over him a bit, tenderly stroked his brow line while unconsciously munching on her bottom lip.

She remembered her promise to Mirai with a smile and whispered : "Good night Shikamaru" before tilting forward and planting a kiss on his forehead, very soft and slowly.

Actually, she was not sure she would have dared doing so if he was awakened.

She was about to retreat when without warning, two longs arms pop from each side and wraps around her, attracting her to the bust of the sleepy form. She had let a small 'eep' getting out of her lung in surprise, unable to breath for a moment. She construed the situation. She was awkwardly laying on his upper body, locked in his arms while he seemed to still be as asleep as ever

"A-ano.. shika-" she was cut off when he turned in the opposite direction, without letting her go, making her follow the move and leaving the ground ; before he buried his face in her bosom.

Hinata was flustered and paralyzed, reddening like hell, heart drumming, feeling weirdly thrilled. She relaxed a bit, breathing again. She sensed then the cold nose of his comrade melted with his hot breath on the tender skin of her neck ; she shuddered insanely, feeling ... strangely... vibrant.

She was blushing but quite liked that situation ; if it wasn't for the embarrassment and the lack of congruence of it, she certainly wouldn't mind staying here. Even if it was not morally ‘appropriate’ to... sleep with a men she's not married to ...at least as a Hyuuga member, she must behave a certain course of action.

While thinking to it, she stopped to exert a pressure against him and on the contrary to her morale wrapped her arms around him to hug him back.

She then heard him sighing with pleasure, groaning, almost vibrating, like a cat. She shivered. Heart jumping. Reading it as an awakening sign, she tried sheepishly : "Shi-shikamaru-kun" though ashamed by her own boldness leading to that circumstance, weird but quite pleasant.

He suddenly pressed her more firmly against him, almost possessively, breathing deeply her scents before exhaling a contented sigh.

...

Now the brunette's heart is thumping erratically in the chest, she feels dizzy and about to ... faint...

She opened her eyes : it was dark outside, although it wasn't unusual for her to wake in the midst of the night... the unusual thing was the room she was in and the body onto she was laying off. She lowly realized the situation and remembered.

When she regained consciousness, she displayed a bit her lambs on the surface she was laying on and then felt herself ... Waving ? ... up, down, up, down... She swayed. Then was the warmth below her. An arm around her back. Cuddles on her shoulder she felt through the multiple layers of her clothes.

Daringly, she lifted her reddening head to ascertain her assumptions : he was awake. He took his eyes off of his bedroom's ceiling, sensing her moving above him, guessing she was now looking at him.

The bedroom from who she was in, the body whose she was on ... Were Shikamaru's. Her head on his shoulder, her face beside his neck, her arm wrapped around him and her leg comfortably folded on his hips. She heard her friend's pounding heart resonating in her flesh, deep, but not as calm as it should be. Her own heart was beginning to pump harder too.

Actually, he felt comfortable to know his own pinkened features was concealed by the darkness ; enough to too rashly approach his hand from her face, took off a strand of her hairs from her cheek before he pushed it behind her ear, brushing it softly in the run -eliciting a faint shiver from the girl- then he granted himself the ultimate daring to look at the sleepy face of his partner. He knew she was blushing, guessing it, according to the doe's eyes she was giving him.

They stood there awhile, getting lost, eyes locked in each others, fixedly, closely, almost intimately ; not knowing what to say and not daring to put it to an end ; enjoying -although not willing to admit it- a unique moment, something unheard-of.

" ... I ... " It was Hinata's haggard voice that brought them back to the reality. " ... ano ... you... " Still not knowing what to say, but not allowed to stay there, on top of a man, forever ; even if she was not really bothered by it.

"... Yeah ... I know right. "

He tried a bit strangely, through his usual tired low voice, to help her out of the scabrous situation of wich he was not totally aware of neither, but neither bothered by.

" Just remember falling asleep in the wood " he commented, then, a bit embarrassed, added : " I guess you carried me there. " shifting his gaze away scratching his neck with his free hand, before looking back to her and ending to say a weirdly deep warm "thanks" in an almost... lecherous whisper.

At least, it's how Hinata had perceived it for it gave her body such a shudder, while she was again all captivated by his sight.

Always above his body, she was staring at his lips, awfully near ... Noticing it, she recoiled a bit, ashamed of her lascivious demeanor while on top of a good friend, getting perhaps a bit too 'friendly'. But still, a part of her was feeling like it was totally only "natural" to be so lax around him. Actually he was spurring it, with all his Slacked Might.

Now she thought, was it correct to be that close of her comrade, to feel that nice in his arms, to feel so good under his touches, while she was thinking being in love with Naruto ?

And him... he was more or less sentimentally engaged to that Suna's girl, according to what people was saying about. Surprisingly enough, her throat tightened to that thought ; was she jealous ? ... of Temari... She never felt that way even watching Sakura hugging Naruto. She was deeply confused.

Shaking her thoughts out of her mind, she mumbled :

"...it... it's no nothing... I ... I could not leave you to sleep on the wood's soil...and... and you did no-not wake up so... so... I..." she was hum and haw, it was an odd thing because the last time he had heard her stammer as much was almost seven years ago, in front of Naruto.

It was like ... for him.

A cranky idea dawned all of a sudden, but he did not dare admit it or to make the connection and accept it. No. It was not possible... Was it ?

He seemed in wonder : she read it as it was wrote on his face despite the twilight. Hinata had no idea how to take it, it was unsettling. She never had questionned herself so much over just a slight look... save Shikamaru... ; she finally sorted out.

However, she remembered that when she was hearing his name or something out off a snippet of conversation about him, or just sounding like it was about him _there was few keywords that triggered her concern_ she was instinctively pricking up her ear, her attention called. It begun in her clan and continued quite often.

"There is something inside you, it's hard to explain ... They are talking about you ... but you are still the same."

Oddly, she heard the elders offended, call to mind that young man said too youthful for his task and status ; but mostly extrapolated about him without a care of who he was, lending him ambitiousness and was accusing him of said inexperience and for his disrespect. Nothing legit, for who knew Shikamaru as well as she do.

...Well.

"There is something inside you, it's hard to explain ... They are talking about you ... but you are still the same."

Except perhaps about 'respect' ... when it comes to people that annoys him, he could be quite pungent, she must admit.

Unconsciously, staring at him, she was prettily smiling, remembering those events and almost laughing at her own conclusion.

No. She was the one who had changed. Her confusion was leaving room to some sort of confidence, she was welcoming that realization. She felt like she was smiling the largest smile she had ever made, while he was stunned by the sight. For once, his brain was at a stop.

Time too.

She was computing the hours she had fainted around and woke up and assessed, it was : "impossible" then came with a : " I-I slept at least ten hours ... at once ! " astonished.

Before she had noticed, it was more and more luminous in the bedroom, the faint cold morning light leaving room to pink and gold on the horizon. Taken aback she checked to find a clock and find the dial displaying the numbers " 6 : 53 " ... Her breath was cut from her lungs.

Shikamaru ogled her, smiling, a bit quizzical through her new commotion. He revealed himself playful :

" So. What does it do ? "

The brunette was staring at him awhile flabbergasted, before she get a kick of doing such a prowess and laughed at his teasing mood, hiding her face in his shirt. He didn't thought he was so funny but he just felt like joining her in the mirth listening to her small ringing laugh

"We should do that more often" she said in a jovial outburst, without a second thought.

Then rehashing her own words, she felt flush crawling to her face, realizing what was implied. Shikamaru was as dazed as her, but then it was a smirk that had climbed to his face. She tried to clear thing up and explain ; let's rather say : to sweep the shame-dust under her carpet-tong :

"I-I want to say... that ... we could get lai... ano ... we could lay together... I mean... we could do it... kami-sama... I-I-I mean ... sleep ...with me... hm”

Getting a bit stressed... She was (over) thinking all possible meanings that every words was endowed with and what it could imply trying not to use them and finished to stumble on every word she tried not to use since every one could imply something horny even "sleep" if you intend to... the worst part was she was the one to blame for thinking that way, not even her clumsiness or stuttering, just her own lewd mind.

Now she felt so awkward... and wanted to face-palm.

The Nara was looking at the at least distracting show that his poor shy friend was rendering while fighting with herself ; a war whose manifestation took the form of a revealing slip's chaplet, relentless and iterative.

He was feeling a jarring melt of emotions : he was amused yet bothered for her, compassionate to her trouble and tenderized to her attempts ...

But above all, unsettled to told himself that the only reason that explain it really was the thing he was thinking about : all those tries and seeming fails, was just because there was an optional meaning in her chosen word endowing sexual innuendo that stressed the one he thought so 'pure' and 'innocent'.

He was baffled by her endeavor to not be considered as a pervert, but making it worst. And she had put herself under so much stress that she even end up saying unambiguous sexual proposition involuntarily.

It was over for her. The timid kunoichi felt totally drained and ashamed by her pathetic display of clumsiness, tripping over every possible slip she could have made. She don't remember having such a terrible stuttering even in her youth... How is it even possible ?

" ... I mean ... I want t-yo...ano I-I ... I want to -to have..you ; she was wide-eyed when she heard what she intended to say crushed by a massive stutter, but she don't gave up : " ano...Sorry ... " she took a deep inhale " have a nap with you !" she finally sputtered succeeding to say something.

It was the coup de grace for Shikamaru equally. He cannot seriously listen to those words coming from the Hyuuga heiress, with her timid uncertain stuttering voice and her scarlet red face adorning those white doe-eyes of hers, before she surrendered and hid her flustered features in his black shirt after seeing the face of her genius friend so dumbfounded. He finally burst out of a warm sounding frank bubbling laugh that had her all shakened.

She lifted up to look at him, surprised by his mirth, but, weirdly, even being the cause of it, she suddenly felt a lot less stupid. No. It was not stupid if it allowed her to hear this wondrous sound. She felt light and good, happy and even ... loved ... for he was still holding her in his arm, so she took advantage of it to curl up against him.

With every new realization comes its batch of questions, but for the moment she was quite oblivious, she just lived the present ... but the morning was yet quite luminous and she has no more time ... and the day of the week, of the month, and of the year came back to her with her duties. She searched for the clock again and was appalled by its indication :

To this point, she understood. She had fell in love with her colleague. She knew not since nor when _ certainly quite some time _ but the realization just dawned on her ... just as the sunlight.

" ... almost 8 o'clock ! My ... I-i did not see the time pass. I sh-should go Shikamaru-kun. "

" ...hn... don't go. It's still early... " he grumbled reluctantly coming out of his torpor.

How was it that the time passed so quickly snuggled up against him?

Instinctively, Shikamaru had locked his arms around her, feeling her receding.

" Ano, Shikamaru-kun... I would like to .. but... " He rose a brow to that in spite of himself.

She was blushing bit by bit, together to the fact she noticed : he was now looking at her, he held her tightly, he restrained her departure and to the fact she admitted that she liked it... that he wanted her to stay there...

" ... but I have to attends meeting, it's my duties toward my clan as well as my festival preparation commitments ... "

" What a drag ... " he grumpily muttered loosening his embrace, then a little side-smile adorned his now mid-amused, mid-bored face

" ... I was looking for a good reason not to attend the monday morning meeting... these are the worst ... "

Hinata was giggling to that and he was quite pleased with the fact. It enlightened his mood so far it made him bolder than usual and almost foolhardy ... his face producing the expression one does when they are about to say bullshits. Although it was not is forte, he tried nonetheless :

" ... they could be understanding if they knew I fortuitly found a lovely kind of kami in my bed when I woke up " ... when he heard himself saying it he thought it sounded better in his mind and promptly regretted it, his ears was burning in shame.

No need to tell in what state did it put Hinata.

... to be continued ...

It’s an english translation of my french fanfic : https://originalpairingfiction.skyrock.com/3337900696-Nightcall-L-Appel-Nocturne.html

I update it a bit every 2-3 days. (I’ll reblog it when I do)

I actually tried my best, but it’s not my native language, let me know about my mistakes so I could get better.

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tentendeservedbetter · 4 years ago

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home is where my team is - Chapter 3

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“Today will be the final test I have to take in order to become a Genin, just as you and father have been before. Please, watch over me.”

She bowed slightly, her hands together in a prayer sign in front of her nose, before opening her eyes and pushing herself off of her knees to stand. She quickly patted her black pants, getting rid of any left over lint from the pillow she sat on, and she stared at the Dainichi Buddha that stood tall and proud with his eyes closed, in the middle of the elevated floor surrounded by the four other slightly shorter Buddhas on each cardinal sides.

Lines of black tiles, rectangular and short with white paint engraved in kanjis, sat in rows and columns along ascending stairs that flanked beside the Buddhas closer to the wall, with bigger tiles reserving their spots closest to the statues. The big tiles soon transformed into framed photos with a tablet in front of it as you descended the stairs, with the most recent addition being the only one in colour.

The Hyuuga Shrine found in the northern part of the Hyuuga Compound is a homestead for the gods and the names of their ancestors and recently departed. While the Konoha cemetery was where most of their relatives would be buried, allocated under their appropriate place reserved for specific clans or among the fallen, this shrine was more so a safekeeping of their past, of their legacy, and of their tradition. The walls, though faint and dull from age, had traces of paintings of the Hyuuga clan's rich history and unique style of fighting, tracing all the way back to before the formation of Konoha as they know it today.

Rarely did Hinata come to the family shrine to pray, and rarely does she pray at all. She was unsure i f she truly believed in the gods that protected their family, and she was much more unsure of whether the spirits of her ancestors were truly watching over her. If anything, they were probably looking down at her with disappointment in their eyes and disapproving shakes of the head at how the heiress of the Hyuuga Clan turned out.

Poor Lord Hiashi, they were probably whispering amongst themselves. It was bad enough that he had no sons, but the eldest daughter is weak in nature! What will become of the Hyuuga clan at if Hinata were to remain heiress?

She only came to the shrine when she needed time alone and away from the entire compound, a place where she may talk freely to the air and without having to feel the weight of disappointment from the elders of her clan. Solace was found in the shrine that was hidden amongst the trees, away from prying ears and scrutinizing glances. Though, it was the limited access to the shrine that allowed the shrine to be almost always empty; this sanctuary is only allowed to be accessed by the lucky few that were born into the Main House of the clan.

The lucky few like herself.

Hinata wasn't fond of that rule, thought she was never fond of anything concerning the divide between the Main House and the Branch House. She was taught from a young age about the relationship between the houses from the elders that watched over her: the Main House was the brain of the clan, the most important organ that allowed all the knowledge and secrets hidden within this family to carry on throughout the generations, while the Branch House was the vessel that protected this important organ, working only as a reactionary mechanism of the Main House.

The Branch House's purpose in life, the reason they were born, was to protect the Main House from outsiders who sought to obtain the ultimate knowledge of the Hyuuga Clan, and inherently, want to obtain their prized kekkei genkai: the Byakugan.

But the shrine is a place for someone to seek solace and guidance in the gods, with the Buddhas being those who transcended into omnipotence, a teacher to all who wish to pursue their knowledge.

Why, then, should the Branch Family, who, despite only being seen as protectors of the Main Family, not be allowed to enter this shrine that praises the gods that guided the principles of their clan? Do they not carry the same clan name? If their sole duty is to protect the Main House, then they are in an equally honourable position as them; without the members of the Branch House, the Main House lineage would have to fend for themselves. They should have the right to seek solace, the same right as the Main House have to seek faith.

That’s what Hinata wished she could say.

But she knew that the house dynamic in the Hyuuga clan was much more complicated than that, running deep into the roots of their lineage. She knew it was a game of power, a game of authority. They were the Hyuuga clan, after all, and they were considered to be one of the most prestigious clans in Konoha, one of the four noble clans to actually found the village; control was a given to a clan as secretive and powerful as her own.

That’s why they performed that cruel technique that even the Hokage had to turn a blind eye to; to maintain power and control.

Maybe one day she could change the way the Hyuuga clan was. Maybe one day, the Main House would come to co-exist with the Branch House in a more equal way. But if she wanted to do any of that, she needed to be stronger than she is now.

And the only way to do that is to pass today’s test.

If you’re there, Mother, Hinata thought as her eyes returned back to the coloured image along the ancestral lineup. The woman in the photo, with deep blue hair that hung behind her shoulders with a few strands shaping her face and pale irises, looked back at her with a soft smile. Please give me the courage you had.

She took her white hoodie and backpack from the floor beside where she sat and put it on as she started to walk across the wooden floor towards the doors of the shrine. As she gets to the bottom of the stairs, she took one last breath of the incense scented room.

She had plenty of time to spare before heading out to the Hokage Rock, her usual morning practice session (or, as she liked to think of it, her usual morning torture session) with her father and grandfather was put on hold for the time being. But first she had to pick up her lunch from the kitchen- her grandmother was likely there to make sure Hinata would pack more than enough to eat, insistence that if she wanted to become stronger for the clan, she would build her body that way.

It was conflicting with what all her aunties would say. They would tell Hinata to cut down on the food, or else she would gain weight. Or worse , they would say when her grandmother mentions being stronger, you’d look like a guy with big muscles . It didn’t help that ever since she turned 10, for some reason, her waist had gotten wider and her chest was bigger than most girls her age. Luckily, the hoodie she had was not only useful for the cool January weather they have in Konoha, but also helped hide her body from judging eyes.

She crossed a short way into the main house found in the centre of the compound, trying to maintain her step as she crossed the floorboard that lined around the perimeter of the house. She kept her eyes glued to the ground whenever she could see an elder Hyuuga walking down the hall, trying to ignore them and save herself from an impending lecture.

As she entered the hallway towards the kitchen, Hinata turned the corner quickly, when she suddenly felt a sharp collision with someone that made her rebound back onto the floor.

Her face twisted slightly at the pain of her nose hitting against the other person’s shoulders, and she let out a small ‘ow’.

“Watch where you’re-” a sharp voice suddenly scolded her, before abruptly stopping. Hinata looked up towards the person she had just hit, and she could feel a slight sense of dread building up in her stomach.

“O-Oh,” Hinata managed to mumbled, as she scrambled to get herself up, not wanting to seem completely knocked out from what was a simple collision (even though her nose was still stinging). "Neji-niisan."

Her cousin stood before her in his usual shinobi garb of brown shorts and eggshell washed shirt, looking down at her from his slightly taller stature, his angular eyes narrowing. His headband with the Konoha symbol gleamed slightly when he tilted down, the metal rectangle being stitched onto a brown headband instead of the usual blue, with long buckles hanging from each of his temples and going past his shoulders.

Neji was her cousin through their fathers, his father Hizashi, who had passed away when she was too young to remember what had truly happened, being her father’s younger twin. He was Hinata's senior by only a year. He had graduated from the Academy and became a Genin during the previous year, yet he looked much older than the average 13 year old that he should be. It could be because of how hardened his face looked compared to a lot of kids around their age, making his face look sharper than it actually was. He balanced it out with his long brown hair, that flowed up till his waist as it would traditionally be grown by the men of the family, held by the end with a hairtie.

Hinata was often time envious of Neji. He was considered what a Hyuuga should be, disciplined and stoic, and efficient when it came to mastering the basic forms of their family’s fighting style, the Gentle Fist. She wished she had not only his natural gift of picking up skills with ease, but also his confidence and surety with every calculated strike he made- it would definitely make her life easier if she were that way.

That, and she wished she had his looks as well. She had heard the long running comments made by the women of the family; “ Hiashi’s eldest is cute and all, but Hizashi’s child is the prettiest out of all the cousins” and “I wish my daughter looked like Hizashi’s child”.

And most of the times, Hinata agreed with them.

“I’m sorry!” Hinata quickly exclaimed, feeling nervous by how his white pupils seemed to be looking into her soul. “Are you alright?”

She could see that he was trying not to show his scowl at her, but was proving to have difficulties when she saw the corners of his mouth twitch downwards, lines evident on his pale skin.The dread seeped in deeper, and she could feel her shoulders curl inwards, trying to make herself small under his gaze.

Neji never smiled at her.

He always frowned.

Even when Hinata was younger and tried to talk and play with him, Neji never smiled at her. He only forced out a reply here and there, and that’s only if her father was around.

“Lady Hinata,” Neji replied courtly, his tone much cooler than before, but he still glowered at her. “Please watch your step. You can hurt yourself by not being careful.”

“O-oh,” Hinata muttered as she glanced away, his piercing eyes making her nervous. “Okay. But are you-”

Before she could finish her sentence, Neji immediately walked past her with a quick step, turning the corner she came from without a single word, leaving Hinata alone.

“...hurt,” she finished in a whisper, the dread now turning into hurt at being dismissed this way.

She really did try her hardest to get to know Neji but to no avail. The young boy never seemed to want to talk to her, never mind be around her. If he was, it was only because Hinata couldn’t be left alone and needed someone from the Branch House to watch over her; and usually, Neji would be the prime candidate, handpicked by Hiashj, being the closest to her age compared to the other clansmen. It has always been this way, their relationship has always been rocky, but Hinata never understood why Neji always refrained from talking to them.

Were they not cousins before anything else? Was he not supposed to her older brother, the one she should seek guidance from?

What had she done to Neji, except be born into the Main House?

But at the same time, if she were him, would she not resent her as well?

Hinata didn’t have time to ruminate over what had just happened, and tried to push it down to the back of her mind, as she often does. She fixed the straps of her bag so it fit snug on her shoulder and continued to walk down the halls at a slower pace.

She got to the part of the complex where the faint sounds of pots clanking against one another and fresh fish and eggs sizzling on top a pan could be heard, and Hinata could feel her mouth salivating. She was just in time for a quick breakfast on the spot.

She slid the door with a gentle hand, revealing a pair of woman, both relatively young and wearing a white bandana across their forehead, swiftly shifted between the countertop and the stove. Another woman, middle aged with a few grey hairs, stood near a giant pot on top of a coal fire near the open doorway on the opposite side, letting the steam from the rice cooking waft out to the back court. An elderly woman with grey hair secured in a bun and slightly hunched shoulders shuffled along the countertop, a bento box sitting in front of her as she stuffed sliced vegetables inside.

"Lady Hinata," all three women acknowledged her as they did a bow to the young heiress. Hinata bowed to them, them being her aunties, even if they were apart of the Branch House - she was still raised to be respectful of her elders.

And even then, Hinata found that it was harder to maintain a separation of houses between the women of the Hyuuga clan- regardless of the house they belong to, and regardless of whether they are of a lower branch, it seems that often when the women and girls are together without the demeaning eye of men, there is not as big of a drift between them, save for maintaining standard titles protocols.

It didn't help that often times, marriage between the Main House and the extended Branch House. After all, her own grandmother, her father's mother, was from the Branch House, further along the line, and married her grandfather of the Main House. These marriages blurred the lines of formality at times.

Though, what the women lacked in standard house tensions tends to take the form of more personal grudges towards certain family members, from meager things like forgetting to return the favour to downright gossiping about an aloof relative over tea.

Ah, the benefits of having a large family.

While Hinata would try to avoid having a conversation with relatives (mostly because it causes her an existential crisis with their incessant questions and because she already had enough whispers about her), these three aunties were the ones she was most comfortable with. They were often the ones in the kitchen, the ones making the meals during the day for the entire clan; diplomacy was the least of their concern when they had to make copious amounts of food.

"Good morning, Aunties," Hinata replied in a soft tone, smiling as she stepped towards the elderly lady, to look at the contents of the bento box. She could feel her stomach churn at the amount of rice that was on the exposed layer, and that was just one of the two. "Grandmother, you know I can't eat that much food..."

"Nonsense," her grandmother said without looking at Hinata, her frail little body shaking as her hands closed the lid of the bento box. She started to fold the cloth, a baby blue cloth, around the box in a slow manner, the slight twitching of her hand with each tug worrying Hinata, but she didn't stop the woman from doing it. "You need all the energy you can get to become stronger. How would you bring honour to the Hyuuga name if you do not become a strong heir like your father, and his father before?"

Maybe I don't want to be the heir , Hinata wanted to say, but just smiled shyly, eyebrows pulling in. "I can be strong without eating a meal for two."

“Mother Homura," one of her aunt's with the white bandana started from the stove. "Lady Hinata does not need to eat more than she needs to. They won't put her on any taxing missions right away."

"Aunt Kayake's right, Grandmother," Hinata nodded along. "I'm just doing a test-"

"If it's the same type of testing they did with Hiashi, then you most definitely need more than this," Homura replied, her eyebrows, fine and grey, raising as she tried to turn her body to put the bento box back onto the table.

"N-no, it's alright!" Hinata took the box with both hands before Homura could set it down. She started to guide Homura towards a rocking chair in the corner of the kitchen, where a tea set has already been placed on top of a table nearby. "This is enough! Thank you."

"Have they already assigned your team?" the woman stirring the pot of rice, her Aunt Suzume, distantly related to Hinata as is Kayake, started, drawing Hinata’s attention towards her after she allowed Homura to take a seat.

"Yes, we were assigned to them yesterday," Hinata said, unraveling her grandmother's hands to hold onto the bento box in the blue cloth. "I have been placed on a team with Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame."

"An Inuzuka?" The other woman with the bandana, Kayake's younger sister and Hinata's Aunt Mitsu, giggled. She continued to slice open the shrimps from their shells on a cutting board, placing them in a separate bowl. Mitsu leaned forward slightly towards the other three woman, keeping her voice low so that only Homura, with her age causing her poor hearing, could not hear.“The Inuzuka men are quite rugged, don’t you think?”

“Mitsu, we do not care for your love affairs,” Kayake waved her sister’s comment off, returning her attention to the stove, but Suzume’s face contorted in a frantic frown.

“Mitsu! Do not plant such ideas in Lady Hinata’s mind!” Suzume scolded her with a hiss, lifting the rice paddle from the pot, waving it slightly as if she were about to hit Mitsu with it. Hinata could feel her neck start to flush slightly as it started to reach her cheeks at her implications. “She is still a child!”

“Tell me, Hinata,” Mitsu ignored them and ushered Hinata to come closer. The young heiress gravitated towards them. “What are your teammates like?”

“They’re…” Hinata started, hesitating slightly about the words she could use. How were her teammates like?

She was apprehensive of being placed on Team 8, and she was sure Shino and Kiba were too. She saw how Kiba’s friends, the two boys and the girl he always sat next to, snickered and whispered amongst themselves when they heard Hinata and Shino's name, and something about them being 'weirdos'.

Hinata wasn't surprised by their words. She knows that, compared to the rest of her classmates, she was off. Painfully shy and quieter than a mouse, Hinata was a stark contrast to what the usual kid her age was like. Her mannerisms, her voice, hell, even her looks, made her a wallflower, a pale white wallpaper that people know is there, but never bothered to be looked at. Only her blood made her truly visible. The only times that people willingly engaged with her is when her family's name is mentioned during a lecture, in which all the kids would turn over to wherever she was sitting to look at her, to see her reaction.

Most of the time, she would look away.

She didn't like looking at people. She didn't like making eye contact.

She felt it was too heavy, too intimate, too much for her soul to handle. She feels like people try to analyze too much of what she says, trying to reach into her soul, trying to unlock the pandora box that is her emotions.

And she didn't like that.

That's why she liked Shino a lot. She knew they would get along well, he was equally as quiet as her, though he was by no means shy. If yesterday's team meeting probed anything, it was that Shino Aburame was vocal, raising himself as an equal to whoever he spoke to. But he respected their space, respected Hinata's space, not looking at her unless she initiated (though, it could be because his glasses made it hard for her to see his irises, making her feel at ease).

Kiba on the other hand, she wasn't sure what to say. He was on the opposite spectrum to her, being outgoing and rowdy with his ways, and the confidence he exudated made Hinata envious. She didn't mind loud people- she found them fascinating and admirable.

But he was also subtly witty, something that she didn't think she would describe the Inuzuka as. Usually he is vocal about how he feels, calling someone out on their nonsense without a second thought, but yesterday showed her that there was more to him than meets the eye.

She had to admit thought; while envious of Kiba's personality, she was incredibly intimidated by him. It's not as if she didn't see his bad side, when he would dive head first into a fight against another kid if they talked smack about him to his face, his fists brimming purple with bruises and face speckled with blood. And he always came out victorious with a grin on his face, and Iruka-sensei fuming as he had to drag him off of the poor kid who tried to get a rise out of him, only to be crying on the ground with a bloody nose.

Just remembering it sent chills down her spine.

She definitely did not want to get on his bad side.

"They're nice," she said, fidgeting with the bento box as she glanced away, the way Mitsu looked at her with anticipation making her nervous. "A-and, they're very interesting."

"Interesting in what way?"

"U-uh-"

"Mitsu, you'll get in trouble if Lord Hiashi hears what you insinuate," Kayake warned her sister with a weary look towards Homura, but the old woman barely heeded their words, enjoying a cup of tea as she swayed slightly in the rocking chair.

Mitsu giggled at her words and straightening herself, before continued slicing the shrimp's shell in her hand. "Can't I ask the young heiress about these things? It's not like they won't ask her about it later."

Hinata could feel herself blush at her aunt's notion.

There was someone that she admired in her life...but she was not going to disclose that to them, not until the entirety of hell freezes over.

"Do that when it is time to do so," Suzume scoffed. "Knowing Lord Hiashi, however, it would be a long process."

I hope it doesn't happen anytime soon, Hinata thought, biting the bottom of her lips slightly. Talks of marriage and whatnot were not her main concern- perhaps one day, but right now, she had more things to worry about than her supposed betrothal.

"Isn't it interesting though," Kayake suddenly started after a pause, turning back to look at towards the two other women and Hinata. "That they always put an Aburame, an Inuzuka, and a Hyuuga on the same team whenever the graduating class had all three?"

To this, Hinata's eyebrows raised slightly. Her words were too precise not to ignore. "A-always? Who was apart of the last of this group formation?"

All three women looked at one another when Hinata asked her question, their faces suddenly become weary, and Hinata could feel the room fall still all of the sudden. She glanced between them, not knowing what to do, and suddenly felt like becoming very small to hide herself, not knowing what had warranted this tenseness.

"Lord Hiashi hasn't told you yet?" Suzume asked in a suddenly low tone, hushed as if she didn't want anyone else to hear. When Hinata nodded, she glanced around for a second, her eyes flitting cautiously towards the door, before landing back on Hinata. "Well...it doesn't hurt to know but...the last time they had a Aburame-Inuzuka-Hyuuga team was with-"

They suddenly heard the tatami door wiggle a bit and abruptly stopped talking, waiting for the person to reveal themselves.

“Lord Hiashi,” all the women in the kitchen said in unison as they bowed, and Hinata turned around towards the tatami door, a tall man in a deep blue yukata and a darker grey jacket standing between the frame.

Her father had his usual stoic face, his eyebrows naturally arched to look like he was frowning most of the times and his mouth in a straight line. He gave an acknowledged bow to Hinata’s grandmother, his mother, before looking over to Hinata.

“G-good morning, Father,” Hinata quickly whispered with a slight bow of her head, gripping the sides of her lunch box. Hiashi stared at Hinata for a moment, as if analyzing what he saw, trying to pick out any sort of flaw in how she appeared.

“Today is your final test, is it not?” Hiashi asked in an even tone, never breaking eye contact from Hinata, who glanced away towards the lines of the floorboard. “Why are you still here? And look at me when I speak to you.”

“Yes!” she squeaked at how much sharper his tone became, and straightened her gaze. “I just had more time left so...so I thought I could take my time today.”

Hiashi narrowed his eyes.

“ Heedfulness is the path to the Deathless. Heedlessness is the path to death. The heedful do not die. The heedless are as if already dead* .” Hiashi quoted the proverb from ancient scriptures without missing a beat, and Hinata could see the frown lines deepening on his tanned face. “If you were going to mindlessly be on the compound this whole time, then you could have been practicing your forms. Your sister has already mastered all of the basic forms; you have yet to perform them efficiently.”

“I-I,” Hinata started, now feeling her neck burning in embarrassment of being put on the spot in this way, but she couldn’t finish her sentence, feeling the heat rising to her face.

“Mother,” Hiashi turned his attention towards her grandmother, who had simply been keeping her mouth closed as Hiashi gave Hinata the third degree. “Hinata is grown and she can make her own meals. You’re spoiling her by making her lunch.”

“Hiashi,” Homura said with a slight hum to her voice, soft and slow, as she started to sway lightly on the chair. "If you believe this to be true, then you should make your own tempura from now on, do you not think so?"

To this, Hiashi eyes slightly widened in hesitation for only a split second, but he quickly fixed himself back to neutrality. Hinata had to stifle her laugh, and she looked down to hide the amused smile she couldn't suppress.

Leave it to Homura to be as eloquently blunt as her son.

"That is not the same," Hiashi replied coolly. "The food you make is for the entire family."

"Tempura is usually reserved for dinners," Homura said as equally calm. "But you still insist on eating it for breakfast as well. You should eat better; you're a grown man."

Hinata could see her father's jaws clenching, muscle along his jawline flexing- being told off by one's mother in front of an audience was not on the top of every clan leader's to do lists.

"Hinata." His eyes returned to her, and she quickly kept her lips in a line. "It is best if you left for your test. You don't want to keep your team waiting for you."

I didn't even eat breakfast, Hinata thought, but refused to say this outloud. She didn't want to be scolded anymore than she needed to be. "Yes."

“Do not be a burden to your teammate,” Hiashi said courtly, before stepping aside to let Hinata walk through the open doorway.

Hinata gritted her teeth, feeling her throat suddenly lodged with emotion, but she kept it to herself. She nodded, and quickly exited the kitchen, giving a quick bow to her grandmother before she made her way towards the courtyard to leave the compound.

I won’t burden anyone, Hinata thought as she inhaled and exhaled slowly, trying her best to maintain her confidence, but she could already feel the tips of her eyes started to sting with tears. I promise, I won’t burden anyone.

----

When Hinata made it to the top of the Hokage Rock, she was surprised to see that Shino was the only one there, waiting underneath a tree. She glanced up to the sky, the morning sun bearing white in the east slightly above the horizon. It was nearly time for their test, she could tell, but where could their sensei and Kiba be?

She wasn't sure where Shino was looking at, his dark frames shading his eyes from anyone to see, but from the way his face tilted down, she could tell she was looking at the ground with intent.

Should I call out to him? She thought, ready to raise her hand to wave towards him, but hesitated slightly. No, he looks busy...I don't want to disturb him. But, then again, I should ask him where everyone else is...

Hinata continued this debate on whether she should call out to Shino or walk up to him as she crossed clearing, but she wasn't given the opportunity to think it through. All of the sudden, she heard a high pitched bark becoming louder from the trail she just walked on, and a voice yelling, "Akamaru! Wait up buddy!"

She knew who it was immediately, and spun on her heels to look behind her. Unfortunately, she was not prepared for the small flash of white coming towards her at full speed, already a metre away from her.

Hinata didn't have time to react, and she wasn't sure whether she could or not- by the time she blinked, the flash of white had jumped up towards her and hit her chest, pushing her backwards and making her land on her behind, before laying flat on her back.

Talk about a double whammy. This is the second time she was sent flying onto her back. Her tailbone was starting to hurt a bit. It didn't help that she had her backpack on during the fall, and had placed her bento box inside, making the impact harder against her lower back when she fell, the side of the bento box digging into her sharply.

Hinata blacked out for a few seconds, eyes closed in shock and her ears momentarily blanking. When she slowly opened her eyes, she was greeted by a little brown nose against hers and the sound of slight panting.

Her eyes started to take in everything beyond the nose, seeing it attached to a white puppy with long, floppy ears and small, brown eyes that looked at her with excitement. The puppy barked at her once, and she could feel a thump thump thump on her abdomen, his tail wagging happily.

"H-hello...Akamaru," Hinata managed to say in a soft voice, remembering the puppy's name from how Kiba had introduced him as yesterday. This only made Akamaru even more excited because he barked a few times and his tail wagged faster, before he gave Hinata's cheek a little lick.

Hinata could feel her heart soar at this little gesture by the puppy. Is this what feeling wanted is like?

"Akamaru!" Kiba's voice exclaimed as he ran up towards Hinata, who was still being licked by the puppy. "Get off of her! Sit!"

Akamaru did as he was told with a slight whine, and hopped off of Hinata's chest, sitting down beside her as he looked expectantly at Kiba. Hinata managed to prop herself up with her elbows, lifting her back up into a sitting position. She glanced up to see Kiba standing near her feet, both hands on his hips as he gave Akamaru a disapproving look.

Hinata could feel her heart start beating fast while looking at her now teammate; he was much more intimidating from where she was sitting, narrow eyes shifting around with a frown on his face. Kiba had always scared her slightly, with his red markings making him look like a warrior on his way to a battleground, and the way his eyebrows, sharp and fierce, made his narrow eyes look even more piercing. She was half ready to apologize, but then she saw his frown disappear as he softened his look, now looking at Hinata with...was it concern?

"Sorry about that," Kiba said, almost in a mumble, and Hinata could see that his cheeks flushed pink suddenly, as if embarrassed. "I swear, he's usually better behaved than this."

"It's okay," Hinata replied softly, and Akamaru barked at Hinata, taking a step closer.

"What d'ya think you were doing, Akamaru?" Kiba looked at Akamaru with a stern look, his arms crossing over, eyebrows pulled in. The puppy stopped in his tracks and looked up to his owner, his dog wagging in the air.

"Arf! Arf!"

"So what? You could've hurt Hinata!"

"Arf! Arf, arf, arf!"

"I don't want to hear it," Kiba huffed. "Now sit and think about what you did! You're not getting any treats until you obey!"

Akamaru let out a whining sound, his happy demeanor dropping as his tail stopped wagging, his eyes looking back at Kiba big and glistening in woe. When Kiba raised an eyebrow at Akamaru, waiting for the puppy to continue, Akamaru stopped his attempt at persuading Kiba to let him be and he laid down on his stomach sadly, a whine emitting from his throat.

"...you need a hand?" Kiba asked after a moment when Akamaru settled down.

Hinata, meanwhile, was preoccupied staring between him and Akamaru in awe, watching them have a conversation she couldn't understand, only going by Kiba's words. What kind of technique helped you communicate with animals? She knew about shinobi being able to summon animals for their services, forming a blood pact between the master and the animal, but she often heard of summoning animals being able to speak in their tongue.

When she noticed Kiba's hand reaching out towards her, she looked at him for a split second, feeling less intimidated by her new teammate. Should she accept his aid?

I won't be a burden, she reminded herself, while shaking her head lightly. I won't be coddled.

"N-no," she said quickly, her inflection making her voice crack, and she stood up, brushing her behind while doing so. She added in a much more normal rhythm, "Thank you, t-though."

"Hinata, are you hurt?" a low, monotone voice suddenly said behind her. She nearly jumped by how close the voice, low and soft, was, but she stopped herself from doing so upon recognition, and turned around towards the source.

"I-I'm not," Hinata said with a slight smile, tilting her head up to look at Shino, him being taller than she, even with her sandals. She placed her arms slightly in front of her, refraining from showing any signs of pain from her back. "I'm fine."

Shino stood by with his hands in his coat pocket, half his face still being hidden the collar, not saying anything for a moment. Hinata couldn't tell where he was looking, but from the way his arched eyebrows pulled in slightly, she assumed she was looking at Kiba. He softened his face again quickly, as if realising that they were staring at him.

"Did something break in your bag?" Shino asked smoothly, without moving whatsoever. He paused again for a split second, before continuing, "Because I heard a crack when you fell."

"Oh!" Hinata exclaimed in a light voice, swinging her bag around in front of her quickly, remembering her poor bento box that she had inside. She opened her bag and peered inside and…

"Oh no," Hinata moaned as she looked at what was supposed to be her lunch. The rice, vegetables, everything was outside of the bento box, scattered everywhere and she could see the box has a slight fissure along the side, likely due to her landing.

"My l-lunch," Hinata mumbled, and she could feel her stomach churn at the sight of food being spoiled. She really should have eaten something before leaving.

Shino leaned over slightly, head barely moving downwards but Hinata could tell he was looking into her bag. He stood there motionless for a moment, before tilting his head slightly on the side, looking beyond Hinata.

"Can't you keep your dog on a leash?" Shino said suddenly, his voice low and a bit forceful, inflecting slightly at the end as if unsure how to end the sentence.

Hinata could feel a shift in the atmosphere amongst them at Shino's words, and she stared at him wide eyes before looking over at Kiba. Kiba stared at him for a split second, eyes blinking at Shino, before his eyebrows pulled in quickly, jaw clenching, when their teammate's words were finally processed in their minds.

"What did you say?"

"I said 'can't you keep your dog on a leash'," Shino repeated in an equal tone. The atmosphere was tense as they stared at each other, and Hinata took a slight step back, not wanting to be caught in between, fidgeting with her fingers slightly.

"His name is Akamaru, " Kiba replied sharply, his words punctuated with a slightly louder tone, and Hinata could see the flame of anger spark in his eyes as he glared at Shino. "And Akamaru isn't some pet I can put on a leash. Like how you don't put your bugs in a container ."

"We're talking about Akamaru, not my insects," Shino replied stiffly. "Maybe you should train him to listen to you more before using him on our mission. Because it looks like he doesn't even obey simple commands."

"Arf!" Akamaru barked lightly, looking between the two of them, but Kiba ignored him.

"She said she was fine, didn't she? It wasn't like he was attacking her- and besides, you don't need to tell me what I should do with my ninken!"

They had an important test that would determine whether they could become Shinobi, why were they having an argument at this very moment?

Hinata wasn't sure what to do with herself at that moment, finding herself hesitating to even look at either of the boys, fearing they might explode into an altercation if she dared to see. Should she stop them from arguing? How would she even stop them? What if they start getting into a fight? Would she be able to stop them? No way.

She was too weak, too cowardly, no way would she be able to stop a fight.

"U-uh, guys," Hinata started, but her voice barely came out, a light airy tone that was easily overpowered by Kiba's voice.

"What's your problem with me, huh?" Kiba started, suddenly taking a step forward passing Hinata to stand directly in front of Shino, his fists clenching. "If you got something you want to say about me, then say it to my face!"

"I have nothing to say to you," Shino replied. "I was talking about your dog."

"If you have a problem with Akamaru , then you have a problem with me ," Kiba said, his voice filled with venom as he looked up to Shino, who didn't flinch in the slightest. "Yesterday you had a lot to say- why are you acting all mute now?"

They stood there for a moment, neither of them moving. Akamaru let out a slight whine, and shuffled closer to Hinata's leg, as if seeking some sort of comfort, but she couldn’t move. The pressure in the atmosphere is making her head tense up with adrenaline, and Hinata could feel her forehead starting to scrunch up. She couldn’t activate the Byakugan, not now, no, and she tried to focus by glancing between them, waiting for someone to say something.

Shino was the first to break the silence.

"If you don't know how to use him, then you shouldn't have brought him today," Shino said slowly and dully, as if talking to a child who didn't understand what he did wrong. "It would only hold us back. This test is important and we can't jeopardize our chances."

Kiba gritted his teeth, and Hinata could see his fists started to clench.

Oh no.

Was he going to swing at him? She shifted her legs slightly apart, ready to intervene, but she could barely move otherwise.

Before Kiba could move, the wind started to pick up pace around them, swirling in front of the trio and forcing them to plant their feet on the ground and concentrate on not being blown away. Hinata could see the leaves from the trees nearby creating a sparse tornado as a sudden figure appeared in the middle of the vortex.

“K-Kurenai-sensei,” Hinata mumbled as she watched with wide eyes as the leaves settled around the figure, revealing their long black hair and deep red outfit.

"Looks like everyone came here on time,” Kurenai looked between them with a nonchalant smile. “I was going to give you guys some time together, but it looks like something was happening. Is everything alright?”

Kiba unclenched his fists and placed them in his hoodie pockets, balling them up inside. He gave a dejected, “Yeah, everything’s fine.”

She glanced over to Shino, who didn’t say anything and was looking away from her, before her eyes landed on Hinata. Hinata felt flustered and started to glance away, her nerves getting the best of her as red eyes scanned over her, waiting to see if she had anything to say.

"Y-yes," Hinata said, still glancing away. "All fine."

"Alright then," Kurenai replied after giving them another questionable look, and she reached into her dress pocket and pulled out what appeared to be a small clock. "Since everyone is here, we can get started with the test. Gather around."

All three of them obeyed and followed Kurenai as she walked towards a wooden picnic table underneath a tree nearby. After leaving their bags on the table, they formed a semi circle around Kurenai, with Hinata standing between Kiba and Shino as Akamaru rejoined his master by his side with a few little bounds off his small paws. It took a good amount of self-restraint for Hinata to not look at the puppy and coo at how cute he looked as he sat down, his tail waving around slowly as he waited for Kurenai to speak.

"Since this is my first time having a Genin team, I decided that this test would be much easier that I had originally planned,” Kurenai started, her gaze resting on them as she spoke. “Your test will be…”

There was a fraction of pause in her sentence, and Hinata could feel the anticipation in the air as they hung over her every word. What was the test going to be? Are they going to have to prove their worth by winning a match? Would have to fight each other?

Or worse; would they have to win a fight against Kurenai?

Hinata gripped a string of her hoodie, her hand already placed over her chest while she was standing and listening to Kurenai talk, and she swallowed.

“A little game of hide and seek tag," Kurenai said, and Hinata could have sworn there was a flash of amusement on her face. "With a little added twist of capture the flag. Sounds fun, right?"

Hinata glanced over to her teammates, and she could see Kiba shift his eyes around to them as well, apprehensive and wary about her intentions.

"You've played those games before, haven't you?" Kurenai asked with a slight quirk of her fine brow, looking between them as they stared silently back, uncertainty in the atmosphere.

"We have," Shino responded for the group. "As children, though. "

Hinata noticed the slight hesitation in Kurenai at his words, her lips pursing slightly, but it left as quickly as it came. She smiled instead, and continued in a much softer voice, "Then you should already know the rules. But there are a few things I added and changed for this test."

She held a hand up and placed a finger onto the metal plate of her red headband, right beside the Konoha symbol edged deep. She tapped it with the tip of her deep red nails.

"This headband right here is the flag,” she said in the same tone. “The goal of this test is to get this headband off of my forehead."

Hinata felt an overwhelming sense of anxiety and worry building up in her stomach at Kurenai's words, and her eyebrows refused to relax from the frown. This doesn't sound like a hard task, but considering that this is a Jonin they were facing, only a rank below the Hokage, makes this little task...well...much more difficult than anything they had ever gone through before.

From her ranking, and from what Hinata remembered from the previous day, she knew Kurenai's strongest skill was in the realm of Genjutsu. Genjutsu in itself was such a vast field, limited only by the users' own unbrittled imagination. It is the art of illusion, after all, preying on the senses of your opponents by affecting the specific parts of the brain in order to make them believe that the illusion are true, making them vulnerable to experience things that are not happening in the physical world. Unlike Ninjutsu, though, it was much harder to control, with the user having to be able to control their chakra as well as being able to come up with a way to reach the opponents senses, those being five more extra things to worry about, unlike the other ninja arts.

The expanse of Genjutsu was not taught during their Academy years, instead focusing on Ninjutsu and Taijutsu to prepare them as shinobi. The only Genjutsu they had to learn was the Clone Illusion Jutsu, but even that D-level jutsu was incredibly hard to master, taking many a year to make at least one competent clone illusion.

Even Iruka rarely employed that technique during the mock battles he would have with another teacher, opting for the easier Ninjustu, Clone Jutsu , telling them that clones are better used to distract the enemy and less taxing for them to control.

"Okay," Kiba replied slowly, eyebrows furrowing slightly. "What's the hide and seek part for?"

“That’s the fun part," Kurenai replied. “Like a usual game of hide and seek, I'll hide around the Village with the flag, and you three would have to find me in order to capture the flag. I’ve decided to make it easier, though, since this is the first time I’m doing this test. The only places I’ll hide is on the Hokage Rock or the training grounds. Nowhere else in the Village."

A game of capture the flag that required them to find the flag in a pretty expanded area ...

This was definitely not an easy task, but it was definitely not a hard one. They’ve played these kind of games in the Academy, in the form of a treasure hunt in the middle of one of their training grounds in order to utilize their survival skills for a few hours, but it was limited to a certain area and one target. That, and they usually had a much more obvious trail to lead them on the right path.

It was clear to Hinata as why Kurenai set up the test in the way she did. She must have read their datasheets when they were first assigned to her: with Kiba hailing from the Inuzuka clan and having a keen sense of smell, and Hinata having the Byakugan that allowed her heightened sight, this test was to see how they would do in tracking a target. Hinata wasn’t sure exactly how Shino fit into the team, but she knew he was extremely perceptive, more so than she was, even without her clan’s abilities.

Hinata felt like she should have an advantage for this task, with her Byakugan and all, but she still had an immature grasp of the skill. It was taxing to control, and took up a good amount of her strength to maintain; even with all those years of training, she couldn’t understand how to control it efficiently.

And that’s what worries her the most.

She should have an advantage, but this advantage was easily be a disadvantage.

"That's it?" Kiba said, a smirk growing on his face. "That makes this too easy!"

"There’s three extra rules, though,” Kurenai added as she smiled at Kiba's enthusiasm, as she held up the clock. “The first one is the time limit. I’m only giving you exactly five hours from when we start to find me. I’ll leave the timer here.”

“Would that be wise?’ Shino suddenly asked. Hinata looked at him questionably, as did everyone else, and it took him a minute to continue his though. “It’s possible that one of us could change the clock, and give us the advantage of having extra time."

“Good point Shino, but this is mostly for you three,” Kurenai said. “I don’t need a clock to tell time. Besides, if one of you touch this clock, it would self implode. You could try it yourselves if you don’t believe me though.”

Hinata gulped as she stared at the clock in her hand as it sat on the table. No way is she going anywhere near that.

“This leads me to the second rule. If none of you get the headband before the designated five hours, then you all will fail the test and be sent back to the Academy.”

That made sense. This was like a final exam, it made sense for her to be this strict on them.

"The last thing is the most crucial part, so listen carefully," Kurenai continued. "The reason why the Academy decided to put you in a team because each of you possessed the abilities to become impeccable trackers.”

"But after meeting all of you yesterday, I gave it some thought," she said slowly. "I figured that there's no point in having all three of you become Genin when we could use the person with the best tracking skills so far. Therefore, the first person to find me and capture the flag will become a Genin. The other two will return to the Academy."

“Wha-” Hinata muttered in shock, taken aback by her words, her fist clenching tighter on her chest.

"Are you even allowed to do that?" Kiba asked. "There must have been a reason to put us all together like this!"

"Yes, there must have been. But at the end of the day, I'm the one who has to teach and guide you to becoming a remarkable shinobi during your time as a Genin," Kurenai emphasized. "The Academy doesn't have control over who passes here on out- but I do. And I have decided that whoever is the most capable gets to be Genin."

That’s not fair, Hinata wanted to say, but she held her tongue, realizing the stupidity in her thought. The ninja world is never fair to begin with; so why would this testing be?

"Remember you only have 5 hours," Kurenai said as she hit the button on the clock. The clock hand started to tick, and Hinata instinctively took a shuriken from the blue holster around her leg, readying herself. “Do you have any more questions?’

"Do we need to give you time to hide or-" Kiba started, his question tapering off as he took a stance, readying himself for Kurenai to move. Hinata’s eyes never left her sensei, who simply smiled at them.

"There's no need," she said as the wind suddenly picked up pace around her, the grass around her twirling at a rapid pace. "The real me is hiding already. This…"

Hinata’s eyes widened as Kurenai’s legs started to blend into the background, fading away and being replaced by pink petals. Her body morphed against the gradience, rising up to her body as more petals fell, as she watched in amusement with how taken aback they were.

"Was all a genjutsu."

Her face faded as an echo in their minds, and the wind stood still as the last petal from the top of her head fell to the ground on top of the rest. The three of them stood still, none of them knowing what to do for a split second.

Shino was the first to move, taking a step forward towards the stacks of flower petals.

“Hey, wait,” Kiba started as Shino squatted down, holding one of the petals between his thumb and index finger, carefully surveying. “What are you doing?”

“Checking if this is real or not,” Shino said. “It could be useful to track her down.”

“Whoa, don’t hog the whole thing to yourself!” Kiba exclaimed as he ran towards Shino, Akamaru barking as he ran behind Kiba.

Hinata snapped out of her faze and found control over her feet, trailing behind Shino, unsure of what to do.

“You got her scent?” Kiba asked Akamaru, who let out a bark. Hinata could see Kiba’s nose move a bit as he inhaled sharply, moving his head around until he set towards east to where they were standing facing the other side of Konoha. “Alright. We got this. Let’s go Akamaru!”

“Hold on,” Shino said suddenly, making Kiba halt in his spot, and turn around quickly.

“There’s no ‘hold on’,” Kiba said, crossing his arms as he frowned. “This is a test and only one of us can pass.”

“That’s why I said hold on,” Shino continued. “There’s something weird about it.”

“And?” The Inuzuka asked sharply, his patience running thinner by the second. “What about it.”

“Listen,” Shino replied equally as fast. “It’s weird because her reasoning for only passing one of us is incredibly vague. Don’t you find it strange that they would go through the trouble of putting us in specific teams only for one of us to pass?”

Kiba grimaced, staring at Shino for moment, as if conflicted with his words. He then replied, slight hesitancy in his voice,“It...It doesn’t matter who I’m with. Even if I weren’t with you guys, I’m pretty sure the rules would be the same.”

Hinata felt a slight pang in her chest when he said those words, the bitterness seeping through like tea through a filter. She had to grit her teeth to refrain from being too hurt.

“Besides, she said it herself,” he continued as he started to turn his back towards them. “She’s in charge of us. There’s nothing stopping her from booting us back to the Academy. And there’s no way I’m going back there.”

“Kiba,” Hinata tried to start, but she couldn’t finish her sentence. She didn’t know what to say.

An uneasy silence fell over them.

“She’s headed towards Training Ground 1,” Kiba suddenly said in a quiet tone, never turning back to look at them. He tilted his head down, and said “Let’s go, Akamaru.”

With a bark of agreement from the puppy, he sped off at full speed, towards the direction of the training ground he mentioned, the one closest to the Hokage Rock and filled with hills and forest near the wall that encompasses Konoha.

That’s one of the larger ones , Hinata thought, as she stood there, trying to gather her thoughts. She could see from the corner of her eyes Shino looking at her, not saying anything, as if waiting for her to move.

Her gut was telling her the same thing that Shino was doubting; the reason for only one of them felt too vague, as if Kurenai wanted them to break that rule. Sure, they all have skills for tracking, but there’s something more to it than that.

But no, that wouldn’t make sense; she was very clear that she only wanted one. Why would she deceive them into believing a fake rule? Was Hinata thinking too hard into this?

“He’s right,” Hinata said when she made her decision, and she glanced up towards Shino. She looked directly at his glasses, dark enough to cover his eyes under the sun in the atmosphere, and maintained. “Even if we all work together, only one of us can pass.”

“Hinata-” Shino started, but stopped abruptly. He just stared at her in silence for a moment, and Hinata couldn’t tell what he was thinking, or even why she was standing there to begin with.

“I’ll see you there, Shino,” Hinata offered softly, and she started to run off towards the direction, focusing her chakra towards her legs to help them pick up her pace.

I won’t be a burden to myself, Hinata thought, a new sense of determination swelling in her stomach. I can take care of myself.

Can I?

#home is where my team is #naruto #team 8 #hinata #shino #kiba #naruhina #homeiswheremyteamis

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