I am Hinata Hyuuga

Act I - The Curtain Rises

Xxxxxx

Narrated by Hinata Hyuuga - 15 years old

Xxxxxx

I was going to be Neji Hyuuga tomorrow.

Black shirt and tight black pants, check. Sandals, check. Long hair, check. Conceited attitude, check.

I glanced into the mirror, outwardly sneering, inwardly wincing. Inside I shuddered.

Yes, there it was, the spitting image of my arrogant cousin. In the flesh, every last strand of silky brown hair carefully arranged in place.

Hah. Hair that wasn't mine. I fingered the expensively dyed extensions, hating how it ultimately contrasted with my otherwise raven, shoulder length croppy hair.

How does he take care of this? I wondered, before a stentorian voice screeched, "Hurry up, Hinata! You're too slow!" My little sister – she'll be the closest definition of annoying anyone will ever find.

"I'm coming," I sighed; as she threw open my bedroom door.

Surprise shone plainly on her face, and then understanding. "Karu wanted you to practice being Neji again?"

I put on a large blue jacket in front of the black uniform and placed a large green cap over my hair, covering it completely. "Yeah," I replied curtly. "Let's go."

A feeling of dread wormed its sneaky way back into my stomach. I felt like throwing up.

I leaned out the window of the sophisticated baby blue car, loving how the wind brushed against my cheeks. In a flash the green cap was ripped off by the wind, and the long brown locks entered the breeze.

"Hinata!" reprimanded my sister, scowling and digging her way into the trunk for another hat.

"Relax," soothed Karu, his fingers tapping patiently on the driver's wheel. "It's no big deal."

No big deal? I wondered, rubbing the fabric of the hat – red with two feathers – against my fingers. This was clearly expensive fabric, clearly from the money my mother graciously threw everywhere.

She is – was – an actress. A very good one, with those piercing, scrutinizing gray eyes that I've inherited. She has – had – a stunning personality, one generously benevolent – and a slow, large smile that I also have, though I don't use it nearly as much as she does – did.

She's dead, died when I was ten. I can't remember much, can't recall, don't want to. She's gone. Period. That's all there is to it. Clean, incisive cut, straight into the middle of my heart.

And she has left me in hell, clawing uselessly, in the world of acting.

Xxxxxx

"Hinata!" called someone for the third time today. Kasumi ran across the lawn with two more figures in tow – both thin and pretty. Ino and TenTen. "Wait up."

I smiled sadly. "I've been waiting."

They crushed me in a huge group hug. "I can't believe you're going," murmured TenTen, but it's Kasumi whose eyes were studded with tears. She was always the most sympathetic, the most sentimental.

"You can't go!" announced Ino, dragging me up to her house. "I'll kidnap you and – "

I laughed, but half-heartedly, my tears threatening to overflow as soon as we reached Ino's house; her home. It's where I became friends with them – bests. It's where I worked with homework. It's where I slept over. It's where I studied, where I cried over boys. At the young age of fifteen, I'd had at least two heartfelt – at least, it had felt so real then – crushes that had disappeared in flames.

It's where…my home is, practically.

I have no father. He's abandoned me, went to somewhere stupid and shabby where only assholes like him mope around. I live with my sister and my manager, Karu. He's nice when you get used to the smoking.

The fourth time today; "Hinata!" It was my sister, annoyed as usual, annoying, as usual. "You don't have time to boo hoo! We've got to go!"

I looked at my friends with genuine, unstoppable tears. They're the dam when the river threatens to flood. They're my solace, my inner peace, when I'm too angry to sort things out with myself.

They're my life.

TenTen slipped me a piece of paper. "My phone number," she whispered, trying to smile.

We crowded around, promising this and that. In my heart I know things won't ever be the same ever again.

I waved, blinking, and entered the prison of the sleek car. It zoomed away, and my friends were reduced to pinpricks, mere shadows of who they really were.

They don't know I'm an actress. Hell, I don't know if I'm an actress. The one secret they don't know is, ironically, the thing that is keeping me away from them.

Xxxxxx

At the mall...

We bought makeup. We bought school supplies. We bought things like hair spray and tampons (Karu turned slightly red). We bought boys' boxers. We bought socks, mittens, scarves, even though it was fall.

What's the use? Next weekend we'll just be shopping again.

Ever since I've been whisked into the world of acting, I've started to become more secluded. It's hell, acting is – and I've only practiced.

It's still practice starting tomorrow. Practicing to be the new guy before really acting. I yawned, stuffing my face into my silk pillow.

"I'm ready for the makeup!" yelled Karu. "Are you almost done yet? There's only half an hour left!"

"Damn it!" I shrieked. "Give me a break! At least twenty more minutes for a freaking shower!"

I undressed, took the shower, and redyed my hair brown. Uncomfortably I wrapped a piece of cloth around my chest tightly, and slip on boxers that were too large. I dressed with speed, hurrying to wear the all-black and shiny uniform. Afterwards I stared at myself into the mirror, into my pearl-grey eyes. "I'm not Hinata anymore" is all I need to whisper.

In an instant I'm Neji Hyuuga.

"Ready?" called out Karu. "I've already dropped off Hanabi at her school! Hurry, just for this once!"

"I'm coming!" I snapped, and rush downstairs, hair billowing, and sat down at the cosmetics table. Karu rearranged a few powders and started to apply it to my face. Boyish outlook, the nickname was, that he gave it. Boys tended to have rougher skin and deeper eyes.

When he was finished, I looked every bit of boy as a...well, a boy. Neji, to be exact. Dark, smooth hair. Light eyes. High cheekbones.

I grinned to myself inside. If my friends ever found out they'd be shrieking their heads off right now, freaking out.

We arrived at the school where students were milling around. As soon as they saw us, an excited murmur swept through the crowd.

"Aw, crap," I muttered, facing Karu, who had a cigarette twirled around his fingers. "Did you have to drive this car?!"

He shook his head, smiling slightly, and ushered me on.

I grimaced, took my school bag, and stepped outside. Automatically the sun hit my face, and I squinted.

I walked on, trying not to notice everybody staring blatantly. Idiots, I thought, and then noticed something.

Everyone...they're all guys here!

I nearly had a heart attack right then and there. All male boarding school? I nearly screamed. What was Karu thinking?! This was just so - agh, stupid! I couldn't act here. My disguise would be obvious! I -

The crowd pushed me forward, and I tried to stifle the urge to cry. We stopped at a large auditorium where a teacher in two pigtails stood.

"Listen!" she roared, her voice extraodinarily large for one single woman, "It's important for you all to choose roommates right now! Last year, it was chaos and rumors. This year we're doing it clean."

A buzz went through the crowd. Choosing our own...?

"All partners will not be co-ed!" she spoke into the microphone.

...Co-ed? I glanced around, almost stepping on someone's toes in the process. The whole other side was filled with girls in black uniforms as well. They were giggling at something or the other. I fought the urge to panic, in this crowd of boys.

Ever since my first crushes, I had resolved to be with boys as little as possible. It was just too hurtful, how they led you on and crashed the relationship with a few words. Akira had actually wanted my money, and Kenji, my reputation.

I nearly fainted with relief just then. Maybe I could make friends here -

"What do you think you're doing?" inquired a voice behind me. I felt my foot slide down a few inches. Oh. I had stepped on his foot.

I turned around to give a hasty apology when I found myself staring into the depths of black, moonless eyes. I gulped.

"Checking out the girls already, huh." I blinked, and realized that he was sneering, his face looking just like how his voice might sound.

"I'm not," I replied sharply, and forced myself to stare away from his smooth, handsome, dare-devilish face. I still felt his gaze penetrating on my back.

The teacher handed out slips of paper. "Actually," she announced loudly, smirking, "You aren't exacty choosing. Put your name," she said, whacking a boy who had blond hair, "on it, and we'll draw them out randomly."

I sighed, hating this.

"Got it?"

"Hai, Tsunade," droned the students.

When it was my turn I instinctively started on the "H" and "i", and then realized. I blushed vainly at my own foolishness and scribbled it out. A tap on my shoulder; I turned around.

There stood that boy again, smirking as ever. "Can't spell your own name?" he taunted. I turned around again, angry.

Neji Hyuuga. That felt so alien, writing down a cousin who I hadn't seen in - what was it, twelve years? I didn't know him at all.

"Pass in your papers!"

I did so. The teacher - principal, I later came to know - placed the girls' papers in one box and the boys, another. "I will draw out two names at a time," she proclaimed. "Let's start with the boys."

A few whines emitted from the girls.

"That's sexist!" a pink-haired one argued. She looked the type that was sweet and innocent until a unsuspecting boy came along. "It's not fair!"

Tsunade ignored her. Reaching in the boys, she caught two slips of paper between her index finger and thumb. "Naruto Uzumaki and Shino Aburame."

The blond boy she had whacked earlier jumped up excitedly. He looked around eagerly, getting the keys to Room 101.

"Kiba Inuzuka and Shikamaru Nara."

A boy with a dog on his head stood up gamely. So did a boy with a pineapple on his head - wait, no, that was his hair.

"Sasuke Uchiha and Chiyo Tamaka."

Another female teacher who had short black hair and high, high heels whispered in the principal's ear. Tsunade nodded in a slightly embarrassed way, speaking into the mike again, "I put a girl's paper accidentally in the boy's box..."

She placed the paper with "Chiyo Tamaka" into the girls' box. "The new roommate will be..."

She fished out another paper, one that had erase marks on it. I - that was -

"Neji Hyuuga."

My eyes widened. That was me. Who was...Sasuke?

Beside me, the boy who had earlier talked to me shifted slightly as he raised his hand. I swallowed. Him? Out of all the jerks in this school, I was stuck with the jerkiest? My luck is - no; I have no luck!

"Neji Hyuuga?" inquired the principal once again.

A burst of anger flooded my mind. I hated this. I hated this!

I stood up defiantly, "I'm not going to be paired with him!" I despised everyone who stared at me.

Tsunade acknowledged me as a nuisance. "Catch," she said with a hint of steely boredom in her voice, as if she'd seen this millions of times. I caught the keys. My knees felt weak, and I sat down, not hearing the rest of the partners.

Sasuke glared at me, and my anger crumpled. His eyes were icy. "I'm not too enthusiastic, myself," he growled.

She rallied off the boys names. "All done," she said, and then turned to the girls' box. "Before I announce the girls' names, I need for the boys to go to their rooms to check if their keys work."

Three lines formed as we trickled out the auditorium and up a small set of stairs. Boy - pun intended - it was roomy here! They don't call it expensive for nothing. I remembered, guiltily, at shouting at Karu in the morning. He was my manager, always taking care of small things. I shouldn't have yelled at him.

I entered the key into the door, Room 103, and then I felt a shadow behind me.

Sasuke glared at me. "Hurry up."

Fury spouted in my words as I shot back, "I will when I feel like it! Make me."

His mouth tightened, and he turned me around menacingly. His clenched fists unclenched as he pushed my chest roughly. I stumbled, my elbow twisted beneath me, and looked up at him through my now messy hair.

"Stay out of my way."

My shoulders throbbed as I stared at him furiously. "You freaking pervert!" I spat out, my body against the wall. My palms were sweaty. "Don't touch me!"

Sasuke stared at me like I had sprouted two heads. Alarm entered my mind like a clanging bell. I had just acted - like a girl!

His brows furrowed and his eyebrows rose, a mingled look of disgust and shock etched on his face. He then quicky regained his cold composure, ignoring me instead, and pushing open the door.

I was still half-standing in the doorway, chest heaving. Dang, that hurt!

One thing was certain, I thought as I gingerly entered the spacious room.

This is turning into a hell of a hell.


That's my first chapter! I never thought I'd write something like this. Please review and tell me if I should continue.

December 29 - Sorry! Did you notice anything different in the name drawings, AestheticPhobia? XD If you see any more mistakes, feel free to tell me about it!!

Edit: 3/15/08

Edit: 3/23/08 - changed dashes into xxx's.