Come one come all to the ultimate event of amazing story writing. Heh... or not.

This story sucks, but I wrote it anyway. Read if you wanna... I'm not forcing you to. I'm writing it for kinda my own pleasure but reviews are welcome and so is positive input.

---About the story-----

Ok ok... first of all, I used wordpad to write this so if there's lots of mistakes... SUE ME.

Second of all, its about Hinata and Sasuke.... and soon going to be about Neji. You'll see all in due time what I'm planning.

It is supposed to be a HinaSasu fic... but if I feel like it I can change the way things work and make it something totally different. (which is not highly likely but could happen so be warned!)

Third of all, I kind of warped the way things are in this story. The branch familys are like enemys... they hate each other.. and stuff, like enough hate to have war and stuff. And also I've made Hinata and Hanabi act all hyper around each other becuz I believe that even if one is quiet and the other is serious, when it comes to being with your sister the number one thing your gonna be is hyper or hyper angry, or hyper hyper. So nyeah. =P

Ok lastly... I enjoyed writing this, so I'm pretty confident you'll enjoy reading it.

So... nyeah.

On with the fic!

Remember to R/R.


The way things are

Chapter 1

Hinata wove her hand back through her hair. She looked up at the clouds, a sad smile descending upon her lips. She trudged onward, towards her only comfort...the meadow of flowers. The same place where she constantly went when things seemed hopeless at home. Hopeless for the Hyuuga head family to live in peace; hopeless for them to avert feuds with the branch families; hopeless to just plain live.

She parted the branches of a low grown tree and stepped out into the color washed meadow....... her meadow. She walked onward, taking cautious steps as if not to harm the flowers. She crouched down low in a bed of wild roses. She fingered their petals with her soft, delicate hands, and then she gingerly picked a single flower. Sitting down, her legs crossed, she shut her eyes and wove her smooth fingers around a single petal. Silently she plucked it and whispered in a hushed voice, "There will be peace..." Again she wove her smooth fingers around a second petal and again she plucked it, "There will be war..." Tears leaked out from her closed eyelids but still she went on.

'Rip' "There will be peace..."

'Rip' "There will be war..."

'Rip, Rip, Rip, Rip, Rip'

Hinata opened her crystallized eyes, and stared down at the last petal. Unwillingly she plucked it, "There will be war..." She shut her eyes again, abruptly, as if the pain of the thought was unbearable. She fell back into the bed of flowers, letting out a sigh of misery, shunning her emotions with anger. "Why must there be so much pain?" she asked herself, her voice barely above a whisper.

"...Because that's life..." a calm, controlled voice answered.

Hinata sat up abruptly and forced her eyes to gaze up at the figure looming over her, blocking out the light from the sun. Hinata wiped away her tears quickly with the sleeve of her blue spring kimono. She looked up at the man again... he hadn't moved. He didn't seem to be looking at her... Hinata could tell because the sun fell on the side of his face that was turned away from her, illuminating it with a brilliant light.

"Who are... who are you?" she asked quietly.

The boy looked at her, his dark eyes seizing her up in a single glance. He ignored her question.

"Life is a bitch... don't cry over little things..."

The boy turned around then and slowly made his way back towards the woods, as if all thoughts of the young girl that had been crying were forgotten.

Hinata didn't know how to react, so she slowly stood up and asked for him to wait. Bending down low, she picked a single daffodil and then turned and shuffled over to where the boy stood waiting. His face was indifferent, as if he felt no emotions.

She wiped away a stray tear with one hand and held out the daffodil with the other. Blushing she asked, "Can you tell me your name now?" The boy looked at the flower, and then back up at her. His eyes emanated confusion and Hinata didn't know how to respond so she looked to the ground and kicked nervously at a rock.

"Um... I'm Hinata and um..." She shoved the flower further towards him and then cautiously looked up. His hand was trembling slightly but never the less he took hold of the flower. He twirled it around between his fingers, weighing its beauty, and then he looked back at her. His eyes bore into hers. Hinata looked away hastily.

"Sasuke... My name is Uchiha Sasuke." He spoke the words slowly, weighing them.

"Konichiwa, Sasuke," She said bowing. When she looked up though she was shocked slightly. The boy was crushing the flower in his hand. He was watching it disentegrate into little pieces and rain to the ground with a satisfyed smile playing across his lips.

Hinata's eyes widened. He was somewhat frightening, but none-the-less, it wouldn't be very kindly of her to tell him so. Instead she should invite him to her home for tea.

Summoning up her courage she began to ask, "Would you-"

She stopped speaking when the boy looked back at her. His icy cold eyes seemed to tell her to shut up.

"I shall be leaving now." He dropped the rest of his crumbled up flower to the ground and turned away from Hinata. "Remember to not cry... crying is a sign of weakness... and if I am calculating this correctly... you are not weak. Just confused... nothing more."

He stalked away and Hinata stood staring after him, pondering on his words. 'No,' she decided. 'I am weak... I am at the height of weakness.' She then stopped her train of thought. 'Or maybe... maybe it is the thinking of myself as being weak that really makes me believe it. Perhaps if I train harder... if I train harder then I would be much stronger.' Smiling she turned in the opposite direction that Sasuke had took.

Moving forward she smiled blissfully. "Arigato, Uchiha Sasuke...." she whispered. "Thank-you for opening my eyes."

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Hinata quietly slid open the door to her room. She slipped in and shut it behind her, trying to make the least bit of sound possible.

She had been out all day, training, after her encounter with Sasuke. She hadn't told her father, and so she was sure he would be angry about her being out so long without an escort and his consent. It was past ten O'clock, and way past her curfew.

Hinata hurriedly grabbed her night gown from her small night stand and stealthly made her way towards the shower room. She got in, shut the door, and peeled off her dirty clothes. She turned on the tap, stepped into the bath and savoured the hot water washing all the dirt and sweat off her body. Her shampoo smelled like lilacs and she enjoyed the fragrance as she let it drip down her hair.

"Sister! We have a guest! Where were you today?!!" Hinata's eyes grew wide as she heard her younger sister yell at her from outside her shower room. "Hina.... Father is angry. He wanted you to be here to accept the guest, he acted all embarassed about it and stuff...... but you needn't worry 'cause I filled in for you!" Her sister sounded proud of that, and it didn't sound as if she had missed Hinata's presence in any way. "Oh and if you hurry up I'll show him to you!" Hinata's younger sister seemed gity and uptight about the guest.

Hinata shut off the shower and grabbed a towel, quite annoyed with herself at having forgotten that they were having an important guest arrive today.

"All right then Hanabi... you can take me to him..." She quickly dried herself up and slipped on her night gown. She had her towel wrapped around her head as she finally exited the steamed up shower room.

Her younger sister stood there grinning up at her. Hinata crouched down and took both her hands in hers and stared intently into her eyes. "All right then.... let's go meet this person." She got up and started towards the doorway but her younger sister's giggles followed her. Hinata stopped.

"Sister... you forgot your robe! You can't just walk out of your room like that."

Hinata flushed a deep shade of red. So she had forgotten something .... again. This was getting quite tiresome.

Sighing she turned around and dragged her feet to where her sister stood. "Oh... let's just forget about this guest for a bit. We'll go meet with him tomorrow... ok?"

Hanabi groaned with disappointment, "Aww, come on Sis! You'll think he's really cool! He's all quiet and mysterious all the time!" She grinned up at her. "Plus I heard that he's someone that Father is indebted to... whatever that means."

Hinata's eyes widened. "Is that so..." she placed her hands around her towel wrapped head and unfurled it, letting the wet curls of her hair splatter down her face. Grinning at her sister she grabbed her dark blue robe and shrugged it on. Tightening it from the front she nodded towards her sister. "If he's as important as you say he is, then I should say 'hi' at the least."

Hanabi pumped the air with her fist. "Yeah!" Grabbing onto her sisters hand she lead her out of her room and up the hall way. They passed servants and the such until they got to the guests quarters, which consisted of the most furnished rooms in the whole household. There were 2 doors to the left and 2 doors to the right.

Hanabi stopped for a second as if trying to remember what room it was the guest had been placed in. "Uh... Oh yeah! This one!" She moved forward quickly and let go of her sisters hand as she put hers on the door knob for the room she had choosen.

A thought abruptly dawned on Hinata as her sister turned the knob. 'What was she going to say? Just a simple 'hi' and then 'bye'? It was kind of pointless... and anyways the guest was probably sleeping! Father would kill her and Hanabi if they awoke an important guest from his slumbers....'

"Hanabi.... nO!" Hinata ran forward at the last moment as her sister flung open the door. Instead of hitting into her sister, who had moved out of the way, Hinata went hurling into the guests room instead.

'Wham!'

"Ow....." Hinata sat up. She had just hit into something that was brick solid, and she had pummeled backwards at the intensity of the impact. Dragging herself to her feet the girl looked around the room. It was pitch black. No light was turned on, the only light that there was came through the one open window in the room and from the doorway to the hall. Moonlight sifted in and played upon the furniture and bed. Hinata put out her hand to feel what she had hit into. She pulled her hand back in shock. The thing was warm and it was breathing.

Hanabi walked into the room then. She flicked on the lights and when she did so Hinata screamed and fell back again. She just realized that she had hit into the body of the guest who had been standing in the middle of his room for some odd reason. Hinata quickly got onto her feet and bowed. She was shaking all over.

"I'm sorry. Please forgive me." Hinata absentmindedly picked a stray strand of wet hair from her eyes and brushed it back. She blinked as she found the courage to look up.

Her eyes widened in shock. "S- Sasuke?"

The boy stood looking down at her, his chest rising and falling at an unbelievable speed. Something was wrong, Hinata knew it, but she couldn't help but enjoy the fact that their guest was Uchiha Sasuke.

She laughed nervously as his eyes didn't avert from her face. She turned and looked to her sister who stood grinning beside the doorway.

"Hey Nii-san, this is my sister! " She ran over to Sasuke and pulled really hard on his hand.

'Pop'

"AGHHH!" Hinata fell backwards again, onto her already sore hide, while Hanabi stood staring at the place where their guest had just been.

"It was a shadow replication, Sister..." Hanabi uttered in awe. She turned and looked to Hinata who was finding her way back onto her feet painfully enough. Her eyes were wide.

"Why did he leave his shadow replication here?" Hinata looked around, getting more confused. Her eyes landed on the window. "It's open..."

She walked over with Hanabi at her heels. She stared out of the window and down the roof at the garden. It looked as if someone had walked through that way into the forest... but why... and who?

"Sasuke..."

Hanabi looked at her sister with awe. "You know him?"

Hinata shook her head. "Not really... we just talked today... that's all..."

Hanabi pouted and placed her hands on her hips. "Well you coulda told me! I wouldn't have wasted my precious time dragging you down here if you already knew who he was!" With that, Hanabi stormed out of the room. Hinata was going to follow suit, but then the window caught her curiousity. 'What was he doing out there?'

She shut off the light of the room and then crept over to the window. She pulled her robes up as she slipped onto the window sill and dragged herself out onto the roof. Slowly she inched her way down to the edge of it and found a thick vine weaving its way up the side of the house. Cautiously she lowered herself to the ground. She landed with a thud, and then ducked. 'There are guards around here... why did he risk wandering around?'

Hinata wouldn't have dared to do this ever before, but for some reason it was like she had turned over a new leaf that day. She wasn't going to be the frightened Hinata she had always been; she'd take risks... and hopefully not get caught... and... and... and...

'Oh forget it!' the girl thought, and she turned abruptly around to go back up into Sasuke's room. She climbed the vine and clawed her way up the tiled roof and pulled herself into the guest's room. As she landed in the night entrentched bedroom, a calm voice spoke up from the darkness.

"What are you doing here


OoO who could that be? -looks around warily-

Newayz R/R!!!!