Now that he is gone, she is all alone. Not a single being in the world knew how she felt at that moment. As she watched his back growing smaller and smaller with the distance growing between them, she felt her heart breaking. It was almost audible, and she was shocked that no one else could hear it. As she watched him leaving and as her heart shattered, she vowed to get stronger. She vowed to get stronger until he noticed her, and in turn reciprocated the affection that she so obviously harbored for him. As Naruto left by Jiraiya's side, Hinata vowed to make Naruto hers.
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The pale-eyed girl hid behind a tree, admiring her blond crush. Not a soul in the world could have seen her and called it anything but stalking, yet she didn't mind because she knew no one could see her. Her source of determination, her long-time crush, lay in the grass, staring at the sky, troubled. She wanted to go to him, to comfort him, but she didn't know what she could do for him. It was annoying...she didn't know what she should do, and that was something she never liked feeling. So for now, she contented herself with watching him, allowing the battle of what to do to rage silently inside her. So preoccupied was she that she didn't notice the presence sneaking up behind her until she felt a hand on her shoulder and heard the amused whisper, "You know, you're so much like your mother right now, it's scary."
The lavender-eyed girl whirled around and met the bright azure eyes of her father, Rokudaime Hokage. The pale eyes she'd inherited from her mother narrowed as she punched her father on the shoulder, though careful not to let her crush hear. "Tousan!" she whispered savagely. "What is your problem? He might hear you, damnit!" With that, she jumped into the trees and raced to a safer, more sheltered place in the forest, knowing that her father would follow. Once they reached a clearing well away from the boy gazing at the sky, the blonde girl hit her father on the shoulder again.
"Hey, hey! What's with all the violence?" he asked, mock hurt. In reality, she could see that he couldn't even keep the grin off of his face. "Why are you beating on your poor old dad?"
"Because you were following me, that's why!" the younger blond growled. "I don't need you spying on me; it's an invasion of privacy!"
"Kaori," Naruto said gently, "I wasn't spying on you; I was looking for you. Your mother wants to talk to you, something about you moping about being depressed."
Kaori grumbled and conceded defeat, reluctantly leaving her father and heading home to talk to her mother. Naruto shook his head, smiling, and wondered aloud, "I wonder how long it will take the people at the tower to notice that I'm not in my office doing paperwork like I'm supposed to be?"
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Kaori walked home in a foul mood. As she neared the Hyuuga compound, she sensed her Uncle Neji training in the yard. She made sure to steer far clear of him: her uncle was not pretty when you interrupted his training. As she quietly slipped into the house and removed her shoes, she bumped into her Aunt Hanabi, who was apparently heading out.
"Sorry, Obasan," Kaori mumbled as she walked past. She'd never been particularly fond of her aunt, which suited Hanabi fine because she'd never been particularly fond of Hinata or her children, either.
Kaori continued to head towards the dining room, where she knew she'd find her mother. Her mother had taken up a hobby of embroidery since she'd been pregnant with Kaori, her oldest, and now that she was expecting again she had nothing better to do since she wasn't allowed to go on missions or to train. "Ohayo, Kaasan," Kaori said without enthusiasm. As her mother looked up, Hinata gave her a warm smile and opened her arms to give Kaori a hug. As Kaori embraced her, she felt a little better: Kaasan's hugs always made her feel better.
"Kaori, dear, you realize that it's no longer morning? It's past lunch time," Hinata said, amused. Kaori was a little irritated: she did not like to be seen as amusing, no serious shinobi would, and that she was.
"Hai, hai, I know," she said exasperatedly: she was not in the mood for a grammar lesson. "Tousan said that you wanted to talk to me about my being mopey (no, it's not a word, but deal) and depressed..."
Hinata sighed. "Well, you are," she said simply as she returned to her embroidery. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"No,"
"..." Hinata looked at her daughter thoughtfully. "You do realize that when a parent asks, 'Do you want to talk about it?' they're really just saying, 'Spill it,' right?"
Kaori rolled her eyes and stared at the table for a moment. Apparently engrossed with the pattern of the wood on the table, she traced it with her fingers as she said, very quietly, "Ken is leaving."
Hinata was puzzled. "Ken?" she asked. "Nara Ken? He's just going to Suna for six months to visit his mother's family, right?"
Kaori nodded miserably. "The thing is I don't want him to go. He's one of my best friends..."
"More like obsession," said an amused Neji from the doorway, shirtless and sweating from his training session, which was apparently finished now. "She's just like you, Hinata, stalking that boy all over the place when she thinks no one can see her."
Kaori flushed crimson as her mother started laughing and asked huffily, "Well, Kaasan, if it's so funny why don't you tell me why I'm, according to Tousan, just like you because I'm 'stalking' someone, hmm? And I'm not stalking him! I'm just watching him, hidden so no one can see me."
"Kaori, dear, that's the definition of stalking," Hinata said patiently. "Second of all, I used to tail Naruto around ALL the time when I was your age...he was my inspiration, my reason for persevering even in the face of adversity." Hinata gazed at her daughter with mild interest. "What is he to you?"
At first, Kaori was shocked that her mother had admitted to stalking her father so easily. "W-well..." Kaori flushed deeper and started to play with the ends of her short, boy-cut blonde hair, and Neji had another flashback to when Hinata used to flush so bad that the blood rushing to her head would cause her to faint. If only Kaori had been twiddling her index figures, she'd have been a blonde Hinata. Laughing uproariously (in his mind, out loud he was just sniggering) at the thought, Neji departed to get home to his wife, Tenten. Kaori, not appreciating her uncle's lack of tact AT ALL, flushed more and fell silent.
"Oh, come now, don't let my nii-san get you," Hinata said encouragingly. "He's only teasing."
"Yeah, well..." Kaori got up and mumbled something about training.
Hinata settled herself back to her embroidery, and said randomly to no one in particular, "I'm craving sashimi."
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Ken lay on the grass while staring at the sky, mimicking his father's favorite pass-time. He really wasn't paying any attention to what he was observing at all: he was pondering the six months he'd be spending in Suna starting tomorrow, and he was contemplating how to deal with his moody uncle Gaara. He felt his best friend Kaori's chakra signature approaching, and pretended to be asleep, hoping that she'd leave him to his thoughts.
He got a kick in the ribs accompanied with a, "Wake up, lazy ass!"
No such luck, eh?
"Oi, Kaori," Ken said monotonously. He opened his eyes and stared blankly at the sky.
"What are you doing?" asked Kaori.
"Watching the clouds..."
"...mind if I join you?"
"No."
Kaori lay down on the grass next to him and stared at the sky for a few seconds, and Ken felt he might actually get some peace and quiet. Then...
"Ken?"
"Hm?"
"...There are no clouds today."
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Eh, what do you think? This is a random idea I got when thinking it would be weird if Hinata were blonde…Do not question my thought process, Einstein wouldn't understand it. I'm not sure at all where I'm going with this, so yeah...
People who review get a lollipop from my Halloween bag of super-cool goodies. People who flame are called temes when no one is listening. Criticism is accepted if it's constructive. Idiotic comments are stared at dumbly for thirteen seconds, and then ignored. Why thirteen seconds? Because the number thirteen kicks ass.
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...for you non-awesome, non-Japanese-speaking people...
Translations
Rokudaime: sixth
Tousan: father
Obasan: Not to be confused with Obaa-san, Obasan means aunt
ohayo: good morning
Kaasan: mother
hai: yes
sashimi: type of food made with raw fish, similar to sushi