The Long Forgotten Ninja
Ch. 1 Bittersweet Memories
Hinata sat alone on her front porch gazing out into the dark and grey atmosphere. It was raining again, it was that day again. It had been a whole year since Don had died. This storm as the same storm that shrouded the village the day of Don's death.
Hinata rose from her seat and began to walk gloomily into the wet streets of Konaha. She finally arrived at a very large tree and under it with a tombstone. The area underneath the tree was completely dry, so she sat down under the tree and stared off into space.
Tears began to fall down her face more than usual. On this day, one year ago her best friend, even considered her closest family was lost forever.
It had been a difficult task yet with Don leading the mission, it didn't seem too hard. All they had to do was to intercept the invader who was threatening to harm the village. That seemingly easy mission turned to disaster when the enemy turned out to be Kabuto. She could only watch as Don had bust off with fury to kill Kabuto with all the hatred and vengeance he has left in him.
She made the mistake of going to try to help him. When she tried to attack the distracted Kabuto, she ended up getting repelled and almost died if it weren't for Don stepping in the way and taking the attack. It was all her fault, if she would have just stayed and let Don tell her what to do instead of acting on her own, he might still be here.
Just then Naruto came running by trying to get to his house as quickly as possible when he stopped when he saw Hinata crying under Don's tree. He came up to her and looked at her with a concerned face, "Hinata, are you ok?" He extended his hand to her and he took her back to his place.
Naruto sat her down at his table and wrapped a warm towel around her and dashed to his kitchen and came back to bring her some fresh hot ramen. Hinata just stared into her bowl of ramen in great depression. Naruto broke his chopsticks and looked at her more for a second and then realized what was wrong.
"Hinata?" he asked. She looked up at him, "Yes?" "It's been a whole year hasn't it? You know since that mission." Naruto looked down sadly, "I'm sorry." Hinata looked at him and managed to give him a faint smile, "It's ok Naruto, it wasn't your fault Don died. If I hadn't….." she started and then Naruto got up and banged his hands on the table, "Hinata, how many times have I told you? It wasn't your fault that Don died. It was a mission, you were his teammate, and you were only helping. It wasn't your fault that he died, he died protecting you! If he were here, he would tell you himself it wasn't your fault!"
"Well, what would be the point? He'd still be alive, but he's not because Kabuto killed him and it's my fault because I got in the way!" she shouted with fresh tears flying off her face.
Hinata got up and ran out the room crying. "Hinata! Wait!" Naruto said in vain. He wasn't able to get her attention, she was gone.