Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
"Nail Polish"
By: AlwaysHiei
She's wearing nail polish.
She smiles at her friends and replies to some idiotic comment from someone with a shy, "N-no!"
It's so fake. Everything about her is fake. She's just covering herself up, hiding her true self from the world. Her nail polish is hiding her nails from everyone.
Sure, it's a bright, happy, pretty cover-up. Most people think it's really neat looking and compliment her on a nice painting job. 'It's hard to paint your own nails well' they say.
Well of course it's tough. Creating a disguise for yourself to live by, a good one, one that no one will see right through. That takes skill; she's been doing this most of her life, if not her whole life. She has to be good at it, faking her shyness, hiding her problems.
There's a small chip. On her thumb, the corner. A tiny part of her actual nail is visible.
I am able to see through her lies. I know she isn't being herself. I know the real Hinata has so many flaws in her character. It's so obvious to me.
Nail polish may look smooth, but more often than not, whoever applies it will leave some bumps.
Sometimes, for a second, she'll open herself up, on accident. She'll give people a glance of her past, her feelings, her pain. Her disguise isn't completely smooth.
Painted nails are considered very nice. Lovely to look at. It's all just about vanity. No one wonders what the nail underneath looks like. Maybe everyone assumes it'll just be a normal, boring nail underneath. Maybe most people would think that's all her nails were, normal and boring, if she took the paint off.
She's shy, introverted, and kindhearted. That's all anyone truly knows about her, and that's all anyone cares to know. She's nice to be around, she'll help you out when you're down, she won't be rude to you. That's enough for most people. No one wants to meet another troubled, cold, confused person. She is fine as she is, with the few details she reveals about herself, with her hiding her hurt behind this facade of sweet behavior and constantly being okay.
She splashed some color onto her nails thinking it looked better than her real nails. She allowed herself to blend in with the world, thinking this would be better for everyone, her out of their way, not troubling anyone.
That's not enough for me.
I know she has pain, I know she wants desperately for someone to see this in her, for someone to listen to her over her problems, help her. I know she wants to take off the nail polish, allow those white bruises covering her nails to be exposed to everyone. I know this.
And I want to know more about her, I want her to come to me and talk, come to me for help, come to me to heal her, come to me to take away her hiding place and show her, troubled past and all, to the world... and also protect from ever having any more bruises added to her nails and her heart.
I grab her hand, with the chipped paint thumb, take my own nail, bruised all over as it is, and chip a bit more of the paint off. Underneath, I can see the edge of a little white bruise. I keep chipping.
A little bit more of her real self, a little bit more of her past, her memories, all encased in her nail under the paint... it's not smooth, it's been battered too much in battle. The white bruise covers most of the nail, a stain on the previous clear state of the nail, a stain on her innocence. Her pain, enclosed as a bruise on her nail.
It's beautiful.
It isn't perfect. Sasuke had seen nails on people, free of all white blotches on them. Most people who do get these bruises don't get as many as her nails had, he noted as he cleared away more and more of the paint off her nails. But Sasuke didn't care. He thought they were gorgeous. She'd been hurt, but she made it through. Though it still marked her, she persevered through everything that happened to her. She was a strong person. A wonderful girl. A fascinating being. A beautiful person... every detail.
She didn't need to hide these bruises, the pain she'd gone through, the pain these rough times put her through. She didn't need nail polish, she didn't need to fake that she was always fine. Because these things didn't need to be hidden, they were a sign of strength. These were things that she didn't need to be ashamed of. Things Sasuke easily accepted about her.
And eventually these bruises would fade. They would go away in time, and her nails would be left flawless.
She'd heal the wounds left by cold people in her life, heal the pain caused by bad times. And left in the place of both her disguise and her wounds would be her perfect self.
These would all go away, these bruises.
And Sasuke would make sure that Hinata never acquired any more.
THE END
Holy cow! I wrote something. After... err... a very, very long time. And weirdly, I wrote this at my busiest time so far in the year. Yes, summer.I feel so bad, I've neglected my writing and my readers. Most of which I know I've lost. I've more or less stopped paying attention to the SasuHina fandom. I feel kind of retro... I don't really know what's going on in the fandom anymore, makes me feel out of style. I haven't even looked at the fanfiction area. Admittedly, I've just been watching ilmore Girl dvd's... well, no, I've done a lot of other things. But seriously, Rory/Jess (Literati), anyone? Love them. This fic isn't very good. However, I'm rusty in my writing, give me a break. I just gotta get back into the swing of things, and I did write this pretty fast... so I figure, this was a good way to start getting back into this.
What motivated me as the final push to get me back to this? Hahaha. I reread an interview HmFan did with me over a year ago... thought, "That was a fun interview (First ever) and I was a popular writer, and I lied what I wrote... I must write again." That happened an hour ago, yup.
Yes, yes, I know, I have Tired of the Day to get to... Yeeeeeesssss. Soon enough, but I'm pretty stumped on what to write in it. D:
Anyhoo, review please.
Seeya,
AlwaysHiei
