Title: A Compliment

Style: Oneshot

Characters: Hinata, and Naruto.

Everyday, she looks herself in the mirror.

Everyday, before she leaves, she tells herself, "I can do this."

Everyday, she fights to be greater than her yesterday's self.

Everyday, she goes unnoticed.

She stared at herself in the mirror in her usual attire. A baggy hoodie, and loose pants. She stared at how her fingers always stayed together, intertwined, poking each other. How her arms provided her with a shield. She stared at how her hair was so perfectly cut to hide her face. The more she stared, the more sadness started to take over.

She let her hands drop to her side, and she stuck out her chin. She moved her head to the right... then to the left. She sighed. She then took a small hair clip, and placed it between her teeth. She pulled half of her hair back, away from her face, and clipped it together.

The sides of her cheeks and ears were now exposed, along with her face. She bit her lip, and undid the clip again.

She placed the clip gently on her dresser, and left.

****

She held the clip in her hands again, and clipped her hair back. She turned away from the mirror before she could catch her new self. She left her room and made her way downstairs. She made it as far as the bottom of the stairs, before she caught her reflected image in a glass pane. Her face looked naked. She touched her cheek, and felt very uncomfortable that none of her hair was in her way, and that her cheek had been exposed.

Her brows furrowed, and she bowed her head in anger. She was angry at herself. Her hands moved out of her own control and undid the clip in her hair. She unclenched her fist, and looked at the tiny purple clip in the palm of her hand. She sighed and put the clip in her pocket. She reached for her hair, and made sure that it were back in its original place, curtained around her face. She stepped out of the house.

****

She sat on her bed, and across from her on the dresser was the clip. She scratched the back of her other hand nervously before shakingly reaching out for it. Again, for the fifth day in the row, she clipped her hair back. She stepped out of her room, made her way downstairs, put on her sandals, and rested her hand on the door-knob.

She felt the side of her face with the other hand, and felt the back of her hair being held by the little clip. She finally opened the door and stepped out into the sunny compound.

"Good morning, Hinata-sama!" One of the branch family members happily greeted as Hinata slowly made her way outside the Hyuuga compound.

"G-good morning, Isamu-san," she greeted back in a small voice.

Hinata stood behind the door to her compound. If she opened this door she would be outside, in the village... outside her compound. Outside her comfort zone. She slid open the door, and took one small step out. A bunch of people were around, walking, minding their own business. Hinata's first instinct was to keep her head low, and walk.

She kept pressure on her lip by biting it, and a single tear escaped her eyes before she gave in, and undid her hair again.

"I... I can't even do something as simple... as keeping my hair away from my... my face," she whispered to herself.

Hinata wiped away the single tear, but before she knew it, she started to cry, and turned back to go back home. Not today... today is not the day for this.

She stood in her garden, surveying the tops of the trees, they swayed gently with the slight breeze. The song of birds echoed in the garden square, the flew around, swirling in the air, almost as if they were acrobats. Yellowed leaves floated to the ground. Everything around her was beautiful. Everything around her was so proud.

She felt out of place. Like she did not belong.

Hinata clenched her fists in anger, angry at herself for being so pathetic. She walked towards the great tree stump in the far corner of the garden, and faced it like an enemy. Hinata gathered chakra in her right hand and plunged her hand, fingers first, into the tree stump. A loud deafening crack echoed in the garden, and a few splinters rocketed out of the stump. Hinata's strength forced the stump to cleanly break in half.

Hinata fell back, onto her knees, and held her hand, staring at it in an accusing manner. She was accusing herself for being so weak.

I can break this... and yet... I can't step out of here with my hair tied back. Why... why am I so weak?

Hinata exhaled slowly. She dug into her pocket, and in her palm was the offending clip. Hinata gripped her jacket tightly. Before she could try to think about stopping herself. She tied her hair back, and ran outside the compound.

Outside.

She walked fast. Her hair away from her face.

She walked fast so that she could reach her destination, and to not think about her hair, her appearance.

Hinata turned left and ahead of her was the main market street. People were walking in and out of shops, carrying goods, shifting produce, advertising their merchandise by yelling out to the rest. People buying, people eating, people having a good time. Hinata took a few bold steps into the vicinity. She was now between the mass of people. She was in full view. Everyone could see her.

Hinata was nervous. She reached for a strand of hair to pull on, only to realise that her hair was held back, and nothing to shield her face was there anymore, and she paused in mid-step.

"Hey! Hinata!" that voice.

She turned, to meet the voice, her hand still plastered to the side of her face.

"N-Naruto-kun!" she exclaimed.

Her face was changing colour to a slight pink shade. She put her hands together, next to her heart, feeling how her pulse had just escalated. She took a deep breath to calm down. She did not feel right. She felt devoid of the protection her hair gave her... she could not help it. Her hand moved to undo the clip... before:

"Hey, you know... you look different today-ttebayo."

"R-really?" her hand rested on the clip, but she did not unclasp it.

"Yeah, it's your hair isn't it?" Naruto asked surveying her face.

Just as she thought she would start to blush more, what she felt was entirely different. Her face did not feel like it was heating up, rather that it was... cooling down. Her blush was subsiding, and a smile grew on her lips.

"Thank you... Naruto-kun. Thank you."

Naruto shrugged, "it's no problem, dattebayo. I'll see you later, ok?"

He walked away. Hinata put her hands to her chest, and noticed her heart rate was decreasing. From the bottom of her heart, she thanked Naruto.

Maybe, one of these days... she will try giving herself a shot with a ponytail.

Author's Note: I don't know how this came to my mind, it just did. Let me explain. Hinata is having a hard time trying to improve herself, everyday is an obstacle. And so on. Now, just to make something clear, this isn't a Naruto/Hinata fic (even though I ship them like burning). It's more like, the character to have complimented her could've been Shikamaru, Chouji, Sai, anyone. I specifically made sure it wasn't anyone from her team though, because Hinata is obviously more comfortable around them. I wanted the person to compliment her (to boost her confidence) to be a person she looks up to, or admires. The reason why I chose Naruto, was simply because I never saw any proper interraction with the other male characters in either the anime/manga, other than with Naruto, Kiba, Shino, and Neji. So, I didn't think the compliment would've been... natural? If you get what I mean. And I can hardly envisage Neji complimenting Hinata on her choice of hair, that day. As for the girls, I could've included them too, but... I came to a conclusion that Naruto was best suited. Uhh... yeah. I hope that made sense, lol. Otherwise, this is just a fic of self-improvement, and yeah. Reviews ARE much appreciated!