Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
I poked and harassed the food on my plate around with a metal fork. It wasn't that the food was bad. I just wasn't hungry nor was I in the mood to eat anything right now.
Dinnertime was unusually quiet today. Not like it wasn't like this every day though. There would always be at least a little small talk like, "how was your day?" or "wonderful weather we're having, hm?" that Father would try to make. But not today.
When Dad finished his meal, he gave a small cough to draw our attention to him. I looked up at him with a bored expression clearly written across my face.
"As you know, I will be leaving tomorrow for my year long business trip," Hiashi said to us as if this was the last day we had with each other.
"Yes, Father." Hanabi and I both monotonously answered at the same time.
However, Neji hadn't said a single thing.
"I expect you to behave like proper children. I do not want to be in the middle of a meeting all the way in Europe to get a phone call from Tsunade hearing that any of you are misbehaving," he gave each of us a firm look. "Understand?"
Sheesh, it wasn't like we were going to throw a house party or something once he's gone. He should know by now that we're about as much fun as a rock that moved.
"Yes," only Hanabi had replied.
All I wanted was to go to sleep.
A few minutes later, I excused myself out of the dining room.
Once safely inside my own bedroom, I collapsed onto the bed, face first.
Father was always on this business trip, and that meeting. His trips were always so long, it was hard to believe that it was "just" a business trip.
I rolled over on my back and stared at the blank ceiling wall. There were not many decorations in my room. I just never bothered to.
Only a few framed pictures of mother and I adorned the whole bedroom besides the bed and furniture. It seemed like a waste to do so much work when you knew that some memories didn't last forever. Clutching a pillow tightly to my chest, I shut my eyes and memories of the sophomore year at that private boarding school flooded my brain.
I hated it there, and everyone who attended. Superficial snobs they all were, and despite the school's reputation for high standards, the majority got in due to their parent's trust funds.
I couldn't survive another year of being Hinata Hyuuga there. My pillow covered my face and I let out a muffled scream. There was only one person I could get help from.
And that was Tenten.
But knowing her, she'd probably think of something insane to do.
I decided to call her over tomorrow. The day when Father leaves. Father didn't allow any friends to visit the Hyuuga household, only close ones that he knew personally, which wouldn't mean any friend of mine that he would know.
Not that I had many friends.
Someone knocked on the door.
"Hinata, are you alright?" Neji's low voice could be heard through the door. Though no matter how hard he had tried to hide his emotions, he was always the responsible one, in charge of doing his taxes (which I'm pretty sure what an accountant is for) to making sure I didn't go jump in front of a train.
"I'm fine," I muttered, words barely audible.
"Uncle questions why you have not come back to finish your dinner." His voice was solemn. Like the preacher at a funeral, the best I could compare it with.
I sighed and gritted my teeth. "Tell Father that I am not feeling well and that I apologize for the inconvenience."
Which was a total lie. But I wasn't sure if Neji bought it.
A pause. Then footsteps leaving and going back down the stairs into the living room.
I exhaled deeply and got up out of my bed to where my piano lay. It was a wooden grand piano, made of fine mahogany and birch. It's been in my possession for as long as I could remember. I was once told that my mother was a pianist too.
Father forced me to attend piano classes when I was younger, which I found to be torturous. I loved music, but couldn't stand the stiffness in which the teacher lady taught me. It was like reading lines out of a textbook, you could easily tell she didn't want to be there as much as I didn't.
But whenever I played, it felt like all of my troubles would go away, for the moment at least. Though they came back. Always.
Pulling out the soft cushioned chair from under the piano, I sat on it and pulled open the wooden lid that covered the black and white keys.
It was another bad day, like a passing rain cloud. Just hovered right above my head. With lightning, too.
My fingers rested on the keys I knew by heart, that I could play blindfolded, backwards, if I had to. I pressed a key or two, but folded the wooden lid back over them.
Sometimes, Hanabi would pass by my room and watch me play the notes. She said I was good, but the look on her face made it obvious that she thought it was a complete waste of time. What did she know? Her idea of classical music is probably "dumb Mozart or whatever the hell Hinata listens to" as I overheard her when she thought I wasn't there.
I was actually quite a fan of Mozart, though. He was brilliant, indeed, but the recognition and fame that people associated him with gave no justice to his dark childhood. Which intrigued me.
I gave a heavy sigh and closed the smooth wooden lid. My heart just wasn't in it as much as it used to be a few years ago.
With nothing better to do, I took a shower instead.
The bathroom was empty when I walked in. It seemed like everyone was still downstairs, most likely listening to Hiashi's announcements. I didn't want to hear any more garbage for today.
I stripped off my clothes and stepped into the hot water.
A good thirty minutes later, I was comfortably in a T-shirt and shorts, lying on my bed, and with a pillow clutched tightly to my chest like before.
Everything was always so silent in the Hyuuga Household. It was frightening at times, especially after a bad nightmare or horror movie, but for the most part, it was okay. Just okay.
At least the quiet allowed me to think.
After a long time of staring at the boring ceiling wall, I turned over on my right side of the body and opened my secret drawer. I took out a picture of my mother that I found in Father's cabinet when I was small and stole. You couldn't see her face clearly, the picture was worn-out and old, but you could tell that she almost resembled a raven. Her dark hair shone indigo, but her eyes were not like mine.
They were black, but smile of her lips could make you feel her warmth.
There were no family pictures anywhere. Especially not any of my deceased mother. I remembered bringing the subject about her once, when I was young, to Father. I quickly learned to never do so again.
Before I could do anything about it, drowsiness took over me and I fell asleep with the pillow on my chest.
Everything was pitch black. Nothing could be seen.
Then, as if someone flicked on the light switch, everything went bright. Everywhere you could imagine, nurses and doctors were running around quickly, none of them noticing me.
I stood in the middle of it all, feeling left out in all of the commotion that was going on.
I tried to tap one of the nurses on the back to get their attention, but she didn't respond to me one bit at all. I tried tapping another one. Same reaction.
It was almost as if I was invisible to everyone surrounding me. They all rushed past me, not bothering to even ponder on the idea of why there was a girl standing in the middle of a hallway, looking like an idiot.
The elevator doors opened and a whole squad of medics swarmed around the body being wheeled in on a hospital bed. Once I had managed to get a nearer look on whom it was, my heart froze and I suddenly found it hard to breathe.
The girl looked like she took a dive in blood and dirt. She was bleeding, a lot, everywhere, and all over her body. Raw, red blood dripping profusely. I took an even closer look at her. She looked like someone I knew.
She was… me.
"Quick! We're losing her!" Doctors shouted to each other, attempting to resuscitate her.
I woke up panting heavily and covered in sweat. Third nightmare in a roll. Not a good sign.
Running my fingers through my hair, I noticed that it was also drenched in sweat. It was all just a dream, Hinata. Don't worry, it's not real.
But it felt so real, so very real.
I exhaled and went to the bathroom to freshen up. Once again, no one was awake except for me. But that was probably because of the fact that I went to sleep earlier than all of them. I turned on the faucet and placed my hands under the cold water.
Then, I began to rub my face with the freezing water and looked in the mirror. My hair was a mess, with loose strands of deep violet sticking out here and there, making it look like a suitable home for a bird. And that fact that my face was still red from sleeping didn't help one bit at all.
I probably shouldn't look in the mirror that much anyways. There wasn't anything to see.
Someone knocked on the bathroom door abruptly.
"Hinata? Father wants all of us to be downstairs right now for his departure." Hanabi said. From inside, I could hear her give a loud yawn and then her walking away.
I quickly brushed my teeth and changed into a set of clothes. Then I sat down on the toilet seat for fifteen minutes just to kill time before going down.
Neji and Hanabi were standing in the living room by the time I got there. He looked up at me, annoyed that I was late before turning his gaze away from me.
Father was in one of his ugly dull business suits and carrying his luggage with his right hand. I guess I had missed the "good bye speech" that he normally gave out to everyone every time that had to go somewhere for a really long time (months). He probably felt it was part of his duty as a good father or something.
He left the house and walked down to where his chauffeur was waiting for him to take him to the airport. Goodbye.
"Tenten?" I had called Tenten twenty minutes after he left.
"Hm…?" she sounded like she was still in bed, sleeping.
"Are you still asleep?"
"Hm…yeah…"
"I'll call you back later then."
"Yeah, sure." She mumbled.
She hung up on me and I sat on my bed, feeling a little bit useless.
But that was so like Tenten. Count on her to be still slumbering at eleven.
I went downstairs into the kitchen and tried to grab some breakfast. But I only managed to swallow half an egg and a bite of an apple.
Even if Father left for two years and never made contact with any of us, we wouldn't have been surprised. He would try, but his attempts led to nowhere, trying to bond with us. As if taking us out to a golf match was bonding material.
Neji and Hanabi were sitting on the blue rug, playing Monopoly (most likely against his will).
"Hah! You stepped on my property, two hundred fifty bucks, please."She grinned. Poor Neji. She stopped when she saw me approaching. "Would you like to play with us, Hinata?"
I could feel the way she forced out that offer. "No, thank you. You two enjoy your game, though."
"Kay."
A/N: Kind of like a prologue I suppose. A bad one, at that. I promise the next chapters won't be as dull as this one.
lots of love x
