A/N: Ok, so I know I have a ton(well, two) stories that I need to finish, but I really wanted to write a story that's main focus is Hinata, not about how Hinata has only gotten to where she was because of her infatuation with Naruto. This will be a Hinata-centric story. Hinata is my favorite character in all of Naruto, and I don't like how a lot of the stories I've read portray Hinata as only becoming stronger when Naruto is threatened. That is why I'm writing this story, to show that Hinata is not only all about Naruto. If you don't like it, that's fine, just don't waste your time writing a review about how bad it is, because it's likely that if/when I see it, I just won't care. For those of you who do enjoy reading it, thanks for reading it. As you can probably tell by the rant, I care about the portrayal of Hinata a lot. I don't like it when people write about her the same way they would write about Sakura and/or Ino at the beginning of the Naruto series. Anyways, let me try to reclaim some of my dignity with the story I'll be writing after this shamefully small rant with little or no evidence. The picture is not mine, credit goes to whoever made it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, and wish that the disclaimer wasn't necessary.

Chapter 1: Moonrise

Hinata stumbled down the street, tears in her eyes, as the cold winter wind whipped her face. It was her 5th birthday, and nobody had remembered. Everyone was surrounding Hanabi. She had no ill will towards her sister, she loved her sister very much, especially since her mother had died, and her cousin, Neji, had shunned her. It was because of her that Neji wanted nothing to do with her, and Hinata was sure that her father felt the same way. It was because she was weak; it was because she couldn't protect herself from the Cloud nin; it was because she was the cause of her uncle's death. That was why, on the day that was supposed to celebrate her birth, she was disowned by her father and the Hyuga Clan. They didn't brand her with the Caged Bird Seal; they thought she was so weak that she would never awaken her byakugan.

She didn't know what to do now. Hinata thought about asking the Hokage for help, but he was probably busy, so she didn't want to disturb him. She sighed, and her tears soon stopped falling, enough for her to hear someone else crying nearby. Abruptly moving towards the sound, Hinata turned a corner to see Ino crying. She recognized her because they had been in the same class for six months. Moving towards her slowly, so as not to startle her, Hinata placed a hand on Ino's shoulder, and squatted down to be level with Ino. Ino looked startled to see anyone there, let alone Hinata.

"Umm, I-Ino, why are y-you crying?" Hinata asked even though she still had watery eyes herself.

"What are you doing here Hinata?" was Ino's response. It wasn't in a mean way, she was just curious as to why anyone else her age would be out this late, especially this late.

"I-I'll tell you once y-you tell me why you're crying," Hinata said with an unfamiliar assertiveness to her voice.

"Ok. I'm out here crying like a fool because Sakura stopped being my best friend. She even burned the headband I gave her when we first met, right in front of me. Just because of some stupid boy. I hate it." Ino started sobbing when she finished talking, and Hinata pulled her into a hug. Ino gladly accepted the comfort. "So why are you out here, Hinata?"

Hinata felt her tears start to run again and Ino felt them on her back. "I'm out here b-because I am t-too weak. My f-fami- the Hyuga h-have disowned m-me." For a second, both Hinata and Ino just sat there, comforting each other as their tears fell freely. Ino spoke up soon.

"I'm tired of being weak. Of feeling pain like this because I'm not strong enough to protect myself."

Hinata nodded her agreement, then spoke in response. "I am too. We need to become stronger." Her sentence surprised the both of them because A, Hinata didn't stutter, and B, they both felt as if they had silently made a lifelong agreement, which they both new they were never backing out of. And they were happy about it, because it meant that there would always be someone for either of them that new what the other would be doing.

"We should probably get out of the cold," said Ino, standing up with Hinata. "Come with me to my house. You can live there. We won't disown you, ever." Hinata looked at her, a bit shocked, then smiled. She nodded her head, and the two ran off to Ino's home.

It had been a week since Hinata had been disowned. And in that short period of time, the Yamanaka's had adopted Hinata, she and Ino had become best friends and sisters in everything but name, Ino had gotten over Sasuke and started taking her training seriously. Hinata had also stopped stuttering, and gained a lot of confidence from Ino. Because of her newfound confidence, her gentle fist had become more effective, and she had also awakened her byakugan. She and Ino had taken to sparring together, and they read as many scrolls as they possibly could from the Yamanaka library. They were almost always together, even though it had only been a week. Inoichi treated Hinata like his own daughter, and she was appreciative of that. Ino had also asked her father to train her more on her clan's jutsu, surprising Inoichi. He had never seen anyone as determined to get better as the two, except for maybe the jinchuriki.

It was also a surprise for Choji and Shikamaru when they came to check in on Ino. She had never left the Yamanaka compound during the week, so the two were a little concerned. They knocked on the door to her house. Inoichi opened the door, then smiled at seeing the two.

"Come on in. Ino and Hinata will be done sparring soon," he said, enjoying the confused looks on the boys.

"Since when does Ino spar? And what is Hinata doing here?" asked Shikamaru, not even bothering to try and figure it out himself.

"Hinata lives here now and is permanently under my care due to certain circumstances. And Ino started sparring about a week ago, about the time Hinata came to live with us. They've both been working hard. Want to watch them finish their spar?"

Choji nodded with a chip in his mouth, and Shikamaru shrugged. Taking that as a yes, Inoichi led them to his clan dojo, and quietly opened the door. The boys walked in, and their eyes widened at what they saw. Ino had her hair in a braid, was wearing a short purple dress with black ninja shorts underneath it. Hinata was wearing a lavender battle kimono on it, that had a star pattern at the bottom of it, and was wearing black socks that went just above her knees. Her hair had grown a bit, and was now down to the middle of her neck. Hinata was fighting in a jyuken stance, and Ino was fighting in a similar stance. However, unlike the Hyuga's original stance, this one was more fluid if that was possible. The girls both used their cat-like agility to integrate kicking into the fighting style, adding more power to it. The boys were entranced as they watched the two. It was like a dance, one that neither knew the girls were capable of. When the two broke apart, they finally took a break and noticed the boys. Hinata was the first to recover and talk to them.

"Hello Shikamaru and Choji." They found yet another reason to be surprised, because Hinata had not stuttered. As they stood there gaping, Ino moved to stand by Hinata. Inoichi grinned at seeing how powerful his daughters could be when they tried their hardest.

"Would you guys like to train with us?" asked Ino, excited at the prospect of showing them how she had improved over just the past week. The ninja academy would start in three weeks, and she and Hinata were going to do everything in their power to be the best in their class, possibly the whole school. Choji looked to Shikamaru for an answer, who just shrugged and moved onto the sparring mats, and Ino followed. Hinata watched them, trying to stop herself from laughing at what was going to happen to Shikamaru.

"Are you two ready?" Hinata asked. They both nodded. "Fight!" Before Shikamaru could move to launch an attack on Ino, she had had struck him over his ribs, leaving them bruised, and her the winner. How did she get so strong in only one week? He thought. Before he could speak, he heard Inoichi yell "Kai!" he was suddenly on the ground, with Ino straddling him pressing a kunai to his throat.

"Turns out that because of our clan jutsu, I'm good at genjutsu. How'd I do, Shika?" asked Ino as she stood up, put away her kunai, then pulled up Shikamaru.

"You two are going to be terrifying kunoichi." Ino and Hinata grinned at his comment, knowing that they were truly incredible.

3 weeks passed quickly, and Hinata and Ino found themselves skipping to their first day of school. The only person who had seen the two of them in that time was their father. They had non-stop trained and studied, only stopping to sleep and eat. They had arrived early, and most of the children were playing. Hinata looked at Ino and noticed how they had changed in just a month. Both of them had grown their hair longer because they liked it like that, and it made them feel even closer than they already were. Ino kept hers in a side braid that went down to her belly, and Hinata kept hers down. So far they were having a good day, until they saw Sakura marching over to them looking angry.

"So, I heard you two uglies are the best of friends now, right?" Sakura said in a snarky tone. Ino fought the urge to glare at her former friend, as did Hinata.

"It's not very nice to insult people, Sakura," responded Hinata as kindly as she could.

"Whatever. It's not like Sasuke is going to notice you looking like that. Especially with your hair like that." Several girls behind Sakura snickered in agreement. Ino was about to respond, but was stopped when a hand was placed on Hinata's shoulder. Surprised, Hinata grabbed the hand, and flipped the person over her shoulder, landing them on their butt.

"Big Brother!" Someone yelled from behind her. Several of the girls in front of her had stunned looks on their faces. The voice that was behind her now moved to in front of her, and Hinata looked to see Sasuke. "Why did you flip my brother?!"

She was going to respond, but the boy she had flipped spoke before Hinata could. "It's alright Sasuke. Hinata, was it? That was very impressive. Especially since you're just starting the academy, and I already graduated," he said, standing up and moving towards her, only to squat so he could be at eye level with her. "I'm Itachi. It's nice to meet you." He placed a hand on her shoulder, and smiled at her. She blushed a little, then smiled back. Itachi moved away, and spoke to Sasuke. "You should hang out with Hinata, and her friend Ino. They are both quite powerful from what I can tell. I'll see you after school, okay Sasuke?" Sasuke nodded, then moved over to Ino and Hinata while Itachi smiled at all of them before leaving.

"C'mon, class is going to start soon!" Sasuke said enthusiastically, dragging his new friends to the classroom, leaving multiple stunned fangirls.

It had been 3 months since school, had started, and Ino and Hinata were bored out of their minds. They had already covered the stuff they were doing in class 3½ months ago, so they were going to ask if they could try to take an older class. The bell finally rang, and Sasuke said goodbye to them before he left to go train with his brother. Once everyone had left the classroom, Hinata moved up to Iruka-sensei, with Ino behind her.

"Iruka-sensei?" Hinata asked as Ino moved to stand beside her. Iruka-sensei looked at his top students, already having an idea as to what they wanted to ask him.

"What is it?" was his response.

"We were wondering if maybe we could advance to a higher class. Is there a placement test we could take?" Ino asked this time.

"Sure. Do you two have time right now?" They both nodded, so he grabbed two from his desk drawer. "Here you go. You have an hour. Just hand them to me when you're done. Okay?" They both nodded, then went to separate seats on opposite sides of the room. They finished the test in 15 minutes, surprising Iruka even though they were his best. "Do you want me to check over the answers now and tell you the results once I finish, or do you want to find out tomorrow?"

"We'd like it if you could grade it for us now, Iruka sensei," said Hinata, anxious about how she did. He nodded, then went to work. It took him about 15 minutes to grade the papers, so Ino practiced sending out waves of chakra to get glimpses into the minds of anyone who the chakra pulse went to, while Hinata worked on trying to channel different types of chakra for her gentle fist. When he looked up, done with grading, he decided to give them a few other tests after he told them their results.

"Hinata, Ino," he said, calling their attention. "You answered every question on the test correctly. If you wanted, I could give you the remaining parts of the genin test to see if you're ready. Would you two like that?" He was a bit nervous to ask this. They were only 5, 6 at the most. He wasn't sure if they were ready to face the shinobi world. They are going to eventually, may as well let them now. He saw that they both nodded, so Iruka told them to follow him, leading them to the yard. He gestured towards the posts with targets, then spoke again. "You need to be able to have at least ten kunai and ten shuriken hit the post. 10 senbon is extra credit. Okay?"

"Yes, sensei," Hinata and Ino responded in unison. Hinata went first, getting a perfect score plus extra credit. Ino went after her, and she got the same score. He told them the last part of the exam while they collected their weapons. Hinata did the ninjutsu first, perfectly making 3 clones and henge-ing. Ino went after her and also performed the jutsus perfectly. He honestly couldn't believe what was happening. Two five year olds had passed the genin test, and had the highest score they could possibly get. He smiled at the two, pride filling him. It was finally time to speak.

"Congratulations you two! As of today, you are officially Leaf genin!" His smile grew as he saw the girls smile and hug each other, almost bouncing with happiness. "Come with me you two. We have to go to the Hokage to get your headbands. We weren't prepared for graduates right now." They broke apart both having a large smile on their faces. He could tell, from the short time he'd had them as his students, that they would be remarkable kunoichi.

A/N: So that's chapter 1! Today's a stressful day for all Americans, so odds are, I'm going to be writing a lot more. Anyways, See ya!

XOXO, Zera