Himawari Like the Summer Flower Chapter 1, a naruto fanfic

Disclaimer: Naruto is the Property of Artist Kishimoto Masashi serealized on Weekly Shounen Jump Magazine.

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Life; everything in it is preordained…

We are all born to live what was destined for us.

It doesn't matter if you wanted it or not.

Fair? Who said any of our lives were going to be fair?

All men were not created equal…

Only those who were destined to claim happiness will live happily…

While all the rest of us are trapped in misery like caged birds.

Just waiting…waiting for the only thing in life…

Every man shares…

[his death

Himawari--Like the Summer Flower

Chapter 1: Summer Flower

Ever since I can remember, I knew that being born into such a prestigious family such as the Hyuga would require me to follow certain rules.

There were many rules…disguised as customs and traditions, to live by if you were part of the Hyuga clan. And I was raised to embody every single one of them since the day I was born into this world…

I'm not really sure if it was because I was so young…

Or simply because it was all in my nature to be so obedient…

But I don't remember ever questioning the rules.

"You must never enter the far west garden…"

was also one of those rules that all Hyuga children were taught to obey, and of course I never even thought of asking…

"why?"

It just became so obvious that the far west garden was off-limits that soon the children treated it as being almost…

non-existent.

One very hot summer day, me and a couple of the neighborhood children were out playing ninja games as usual.

"Phew! Man…it's hot today!"

said one of the children.

"Ick! I'm all sweaty!"

said another.

"Let's do something else, you guys. It's too hot to be running around playing ninja!"

said the other.

"Fine. Why don't we play hide-n-seek? That way only one of will have to move around while the rest can just hide?"

I said to them.

"Agreed!!!!"

they all shouted.

"So why did I have to be the one to find everyone?"

I asked myself as I lazily began my search for the other children. I remember swearing that that was going to be the last time I ever suggested another game.

"Found you!"

"Awwwww! No fair, Neji's too good!"

"::Sigh:: Yea, yea…now to find the last guy…"

After some grueling minutes of playing "it," I managed to find all of them except one.

I continued searching for the last child to end my turn, but I just couldn't seem to find him. The burning sun was shining right above our heads by then and the search became more and more of a chore.

"Ugh! Where in the world could he be!?"

I started to get really agitated with the whole situation, and was just about ready to give up and go home.

When I heard a voice.

It was almost too faint to make out but I heard him.

I was so glad that this session of hide-n-seek was finally coming to end so I just ran as fast I could to where the voice was coming from.

"Finally! I got you now!"

I thought.

But I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw exactly where the voice was coming from.

The garden I had forgotten it had even existed until that very moment.

"That idiot!! He knows we aren't supposed to go in here!"

I looked up at the entrance of the garden we were told never to enter.

I put my ear to the entrance door to listen for the boy's voice again. It felt so strange standing there in front of the garden I barely was aware of. I quietly listened for his voice and for some strange reason, right at that moment, it seemed like the whole world stood still. The noisy cicadas seemed to have stopped buzzing, and the voices of the people in the surrounding houses were hushed.

Even the wind seemed to have stopped blowing. The only sound I was hearing was my own heartbeat as I placed my ear on that gate.

Then, I heard it…

The faint humming coming from inside of the garden.

"That idiot!"

I thought.

"Not only has he broken the rules, but he doesn't even care he did and is carelessly humming to himself!?"

I knew I had to be the responsible one and get him out of there. I ran around the corner along the gates which surrounded the garden and looked for another entrance.

"That idiot must have snuck in through a hole in the gate trying to find a place to hide and didn't even notice himself wandering into the garden."

As I searched for another entrance, I found a small hole near the bottom of the gate near the back end of the garden.

"He must have gotten in through here!"

I thought, and crawled into the space.

When I got to the other side, I was shocked to find myself surrounded by plants!

"What!? What the…what is this?!"

They seemed to be some stems of plant-life. Was it some tall grass?! These were so tall and full that the ground where I was crawling grew dark and cool from their shadows.

"Hmph! So much for taking care of the garden. These things are so overgrown. No wonder he chose this place. This is the best place!"

I dusted the dirt off my knees and got up to begin searching for that boy. But when I stood up out from underneath the overgrown grass, my eyes caught sight of something I have never ever seen in my life.

"W-WOW!!!"

was all I could say when my eyes were suddenly seeing a barrage of vibrant orange and yellow flowers. The overgrown grass was not grass at all, they were the stems of these flowers!

I remember standing there for a few seconds shocked.

The magnificent flowers, waved to and fro as the wind blew through the garden. For some reason, I totally forgot the reason why I was there and just stared at the flowers waving back and forth like waves of the ocean. It seemed to relax me and I felt myself beginning to feel a little sleepy.

"Is someone there?"

Suddenly I was pulled back into reality when I heard a voice from the other side of the garden.

I looked towards where the voice was coming from and was shocked for the second time that day.

There, among the sea of the effervescent flowers stood a young girl.

She wore an elaborate azure layered kimono accented to look even more by the surrounding orange and yellow flowers.

Although she had a tiny frame, the layers of her kimono did not overwhelm her at all.

Her black glistening hair coming down to her shoulders were decorated by numerous gold hair ornaments giving her porcelain skin a true glow.

At first, I thought I was dreaming and she was just a figment of my imagination.

We stared at each other like that for a few more seconds.

"Wh-what…who…who are you?"

was all I was able to say at that moment.

Her pink lips like a cherry blossom blooming early in the winter snow slightly parted to tell me…

"Himawari."

A Sorry Excuse called "Afterword"--

So here is the first chapter to Himawari--Like the Summer Flower. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. The idea for this story has been going around and around in my head for a while now and I finally got up the courage to start writing it.

Just some notes: "Himawari" means Sunflower in Japanese. With most flowers, the Japanese like to have a sort of message or "hana-kotoba" attached to them and with the Sunflower, its flower message is "I will always watch you." or "You are strong." This message might come from the Greek myth related to the sunflower.

Lastly, if you did sort of enjoy reading this chapter, and would like to see more, please review, and tell me what you thought.

Thanks!