Maybe if I climbed higher, I'll be able to see it. She jumped onto more branches using her charaka until she reached the very top of the tree. Taking a deep breath, she concentrated and activated her dotsu, the bakugan. As soon as her eyes opened, she looked up into the sky and stared. Hundreds of stars surrounded the night sky and twinkled like the fireflies that wandered the forest during the Summer, while the moon shined brightly alone in the center. However, that was not what she was looking for. What she was looking for she still could not see.
I need to go higher.
But how could she? She was already on the highest tree in the forest. Suddenly a crow flew overhead heading straight into the other side of the trees. Seeing this, her eyes widened. Standing completely still, she concentrated her chakra into her feet. As the chakra slowly made its way down, she felt her feet grew hotter from the chakra flowing around her. After a minute of concentration, her feet had started to glow an intense blue and the heat was starting to spread around the branch that was beneath her feet. Taking in one last breath, she pushed her body down as much as she could and forced her body upwards, using the chakra on her feet to give her more strength. The force and the chakra on her feet was so concentrated and powerful, the branch that was below her snapped and broke off. It didn't matter though because she did it.
Hyuga Hinata had just jumped 100 feet into the air.
The air that surrounded her became as chilly as winter snow, but the stars had never shined so brightly and the moon had never seemed bigger. It was breathtaking honestly. However, she did not have time to admire the sky at that moment. With her byakugan still activated, she focused on the stars. They seemed so close at that moment, closer than she could ever imagined. They twinkled as if teasing her to come closer. She wanted to reach out and grab one of them. Just one was enough for her. There was a particular one, the brightest and largest star of them all - the northern star. The one that supposedly granted wishes and made dreams come true (though Hinata knew better), it was the star that she wanted.
Stretching out her left arm, she reached out to touch it. However, before she could even come near it, gravity had already set in and the sudden pressure caused Hinata to fall back to the Earth. She was falling quickly too. Despite this, she made no effort to cushion her fall nor did she make any effort to stop it. Her mind was only focused on her own thoughts.
No. No. No… Why? Why?
Just as she was about to crash into one of the of trees, something quickly dashed out to catch her. A tall man with black messy hair held her as he quickly jumped down from branch to branch until they had reached the ground. Once he had settled his feet, the man let go of Hinata before she could protest.
" Why did you do that? Why did you catch me?"
Hinata was angry. She was so close to reaching the stars, she was so close and yet this man had stopped her. He had stopped her. This wasn't the first time he had done this and she knew it wouldn't be the last.
" Don't be stupid, Hyuga."
Stupid? Had he just called her stupid? If she was so stupid, then why didn't he just leave her alone? Why did he have to always be there? Why was he always trying to interfere? She turned around to glare at him. The look on his face made her even more angry.
Sasuke Uchiha.
He was the last member of the Uchiha clan. He was the one who had helped Naruto defeat Madara. He was also the man who had been endlessly following her for nights as she tried to reach for the stars. The one who had been stopping her from having her wish come true.
Hinata hated him.
She hated the look that he was giving to her even more. Even though his face had its usual expressionless look, she could see the emotions in his eyes. To others, they would not have noticed anything different, but she knew better. Perhaps it was because she was from the Hyuga clan that possessed the byakugan, which allowed her to make out the faint traces of emotions in his eyes. She didn't know and she didn't care either. All she knew was that she hated the emotions that he was holding in his dark onyx eyes.
Sympathy. Sadness. Concern.
She didn't want to see any of those. She especially didn't want to see the last one. It wasn't his business. He didn't need to care. She was fine. She was fine as long as she kept reaching for the stars. As long as she could grab the Northern one, her wish would be granted and she would be fine.
" Just leave me alone. Go away!" She screamed at his face.
Sasuke only continued staring back at her. There was no reply nor answer. This only made Hinata angrier and more frustrated.
" Why can't you just leave me alone? Why do you have to stop me every time? Why are you always here?"
When he did not answer again, she turned around and started to walk away. This was not getting anywhere, he was only wasting her time. As she started to walk into the forest again to try once more, she heard him speak again.
" He isn't coming back."
His deep, smooth voice held no emotions as he spoke them. They didn't need to. Hinata could hear those words echo in her mind over and over again. It cut her like a knife. She could feel her heart sink as those words continued to repeat like a curse in her head. She wanted them to stop. She didn't want to hear those words anymore.
She didn't ever want to hear them again
Ignoring him, Hinata continued walking deeper into the forest. Just as she was about to disappear from Sasuke's spot, she felt a hand suddenly grab her wrist. It shocked her a bit at first, but she quickly got over it because she knew who it was.
" Don't touch me."
" Stop being foolish."
" Stop touching me."
" It won't work."
" I said stop touching me!"
Flinging her arm to get rid of his hand, Hinata turned to slap him. Before her hand could reach his face, his own hand had grabbed her wrist again. This time, his grip was too strong for Hinata to get rid of. After a minute of struggling, Hinata finally gave up trying to leave. When Sasuke saw that Hinata had finally calmed down, he loosened his grip and let his hand fall to his side.
She knew it would be useless to try and run from him, he was too fast for her. She knew it would be useless to yell at him again because he would just stay silent or repeat those same words over and over. Night after night of her struggling to reach the sky, night after night of him stopping her, Hinata had reached her limit.
She felt exhausted.
When she felt Sasuke's grip had loosen on her wrist, she let her hand drop back to her side. Unable to look at his eyes, she chose to stare at the ground. Neither one of them spoke, so they both stayed standing across from one another in silence. She was tired of struggling. She was tired of him. She was tired of everything.
All she wanted was to grab the northern star. All she wanted was for her wish to come true. It was such a simple wish, yet it was so hard to make it come true. Why was it so hard? All she wanted was a chance to see him again. All she wanted was a chance to allow him to live again.
All she wanted was for Neji to be alive.
Yet, deep within the darkest parts of herself, she knew. She knew no matter what she did, Neji would never come back. Neji, her cousin and protector, was gone. Neji, the one who helped train her to become stronger, was gone. The cousin who was more like a brother was gone.
Neji was dead.
All Hinata was really wishing for was an impossible miracle.
An impossible miracle that will never come true.
The thought made her eyes water.
" They say that if you can grab the northern star, it will grant you any wish…" Her voice trembled as each word left her mouth. Her vision became cloudier as she tried to hold back her tears. Still, she continued.
" I wanted to believe that if…" She didn't understand why she was telling him. She had no reason to. He wasn't her friend. He wasn't her anything. He was just always there to stop her.
" If I could grab it…" She didn't understand why he cared so much for her. They weren't friends. They barely knew each other.
" Then he would be able to come back."
Hinata could feel the tears that she had been holding back finally fall. They rolled down her cheeks and fell onto the ground. It stung her face as the tears continued falling from her eyes.
She hated that Sasuke could see this. She didn't want him to see this. She didn't want anyone to see this. This ugly and weak part of her that she had been so desperate to hide ever since Neji had died. No matter how hard she tried to stop though, her tears continued on. She had reached past her limit. She was at her breaking point. The emotions that had been bottled up inside of her were leaking out all at once. Her thoughts were scattered everywhere. The world around her became blurry. The air became tensed, making it difficult to breathe. Finally, after a few minutes of trying to breathe, she felt her legs starting to give in. Just as her legs started to crumble beneath her, a hand gently placed itself on her head.
Surprised, Hinata looked up to face Sasuke. What she found staring back at her lavender-tinted eyes were a pair of gentle onyx ones. It almost frightened her at how gentle his expression seemed. However, she didn't want to move away from him. The warmth of his hand comforted her and made her feel significantly calmer. No matter how comforting it was though, Hinata still did not understand why he was doing this.
" Why are you doing this?" She asked.
She could feel the hand on her head stiffen a bit at the question. She also noticed the way his eyes darkened as the emotions disappeared for a brief second before flickering back on. After a few moments of silence, Sasuke finally looked at her again.
Slowly sliding his hand until it had reached her face, he gently placed it on her cheek letting his fingers brush away the tears that were still flowing out. It was a small gesture, but it was a gesture that Hinata found comforting.
" Because I understand."
It was spoken in such a quiet whisper that Hinata almost missed it. Yet, she did hear them. She heard them loud and clear. They were only three words, but those three simple words were all that was needed to be said for her to understand. She felt her own hands reach for his. As they placed themselves on the hand that was still holding onto to her cheek, she felt herself start to cry even more.
When Neji had died, many people had come up to her to offer their words of condolences. Some had blamed her, while others had tried to sympathized with her. But no matter who it was, she knew they all secretly pitied her. None of them had the close relationship she had with him. None of them would ever experience the horror of watching a loved one die in front of them. Those words of sympathy were just lies to mask behind the pity that they had felt for her. She knew all of this and hated it. She hated being pitied. She hated how those people were fake towards her, even if they had good intentions.
That was why when Sasuke had spoken those words, she had started to cry. It was not just due to the sincerity of the words, but the meaning that stood behind them. Because despite how simple those words were, they were words that were spoken with understanding. It was an understanding that could only be found between two people who had experienced the same loss. For the first time, Hinata had found someone who could truly understand her.
And that was all she needed for the moment.