**My beta bailed on me no longer have a beta.

Hinata could feel her heart shattering into some many pieces that she could never hope to count and those shards were multiplying with each change of expression on his face. It started with naive happiness, then twisted into mild confusion, finally cascading into major confusion. She suddenly wished the way he openly shared his emotions, something that she had always envied and admired, would just stop. He didn't know what the simple change in expression was doing to her.

The confusion turned to shock, his brows came forward knitting together looking down at her as the shock turned to pity. There was no feeling you could feel for someone that was worse than pity. It was rude. Looking down on someone in disappointment because you felt sorry for them.

She wanted to run. She didn't need to hear what he was going to say. His face told her his answer.

Against every fiber of her being, she stood and waited for him to reject her long-held feelings for him. In a way, she felt ready for it. She had been preparing for rejection almost as long as she had liked him. She never really thought she had a real chance with him so she needed him to say it. She needed the closure, the slammed door in her face. Deep down, she wanted the full crushing feeling so that there was no doubt or hope. If it was truly a lost cause, she wanted to know.

"Well..." He rubbed the back of his head and fidgeted from foot to foot nervously as his pitying eyes moved to avoid hers. "I-I just… I just started dating Sakura."

She stared up at him in disbelief as new feelings started to mask her pain.

Betrayal by Sakura. She had known her feelings toward Naruto, but she could deal with that later. The strongest emotion was pure fury toward Naruto for not giving her a straight answer and just telling her he didn't feel the same way that she did. He had to cower behind Sakura. The anger led to a reevaluation of her entire crush on him. She had put him up on a pedestal, as though he could do no wrong, and he couldn't just man up and break her heart so she could start to move on. He was keeping it open-ended, knowing his answer would leave her with hope. She didn't want to hope, not if there was no chance.

She felt sick, she felt like hitting something, felt like hitting him, she felt like fighting just to get the built up energy out. She pushed it down in her chest and calmly answered.

"N-Naruto-kun," She stated stiffly despite her stuttering voice. Her eyes narrowed at him sharply, quite unlike her normal wide-eyed, dazed look. Naruto noticed her sudden change because his demeanor changed too. He went ridged and on edge, starting to eye her like she had suddenly grown a second head. If she had to guess, it was probably because he knew that she borderline idolized him and he never thought she would become firm with him. The mere idea made her angrier. "Th-th-th.." She bit her lip hard to keep her stutter away. She wanted to make sure he heard her loud and clear. "N-Naruto-kun, that is not an answer." She stated clearly. She felt her eyes hardening without her commanding them to do so. She may not have been glaring, but it probably wasn't far from it.

"I… well … you… I-I...uh" How ironic, the great Naruto was brought down to a stuttering schoolboy. Hinata knew what he was trying to do and she didn't appreciate it. He was trying to keep her as a friend. He was stepping on eggshells around her to avoid resentment, but he was only serving for her to resent him more. The statue of him in her heart was crumbling and he was hitting it with a sledgehammer. She didn't want to be treated like this, it was demeaning. The man that told her she could achieve it all was treating her like a glass doll all the sudden.

He fidgeted and finally reopened his mouth. "I can't return your... feelings." His blue eyes wandered back to her face. "I'm really sorry, Hina-chan." He looked a little ashamed of himself, but it wasn't the prominent feeling being portrayed on his face. Once again he was looking at her with his horrid pity. She opened her mouth to tell him where to shove his pity when she heard the door open.

They both turned to look at the last person she wanted to see while she was in this state.

"Hey Naruto, Tsunade-sama is looking for..." Sakura then noticed Hinata was in the room. "Oh, good morning Hinata-chan." Sakura smiled at her with greeting before assessing the situation. She looked between the two of them. Her smile drooped and her eyebrows furrowed as she looked at them both with suspicious written on her face. "Sorry, am I interrupting something?" Hinata's previous anger at the pink haired girl flared up. She could clearly see that she was interrupting something.

"N-No, Sakura-chan, nothing." For once the stuttering wasn't coming from Hinata, it was coming from behind her. She turned to look at Naruto who was nervously looking between the two women. Hinata wasn't sure what she was more upset about. Naruto's rejection, or rather his inability to do so, or Sakura's bitter betrayal of their friendship. Sakura knew how she felt about Naruto and never came to her about wanting to date him. She wouldn't be nearly as upset about all this if Sakura hadn't flat out told her she didn't return Naruto's feelings.

Sakura stared at them both, slowly putting the pieces together. Hinata looking at her with distaste, Naruto being very unlike himself and stuttering. As she realized what was going on, her face went from confusion to terror, and then pity as her face turned red in embarrassment. Oddly enough, there was no remorse in her stare. Hinata got even angrier at the look of pity. "Hinata..." She started.

Hinata didn't want an empty apology. If Sakura really cared about her feelings, she wouldn't have accepted his advances in the first place or at least would have come to her about accepting his feelings. She wasn't a friend worth keeping if she couldn't give her that much. She shook her head. "Y-you're not interrupting Sakura-chan." She said her name with sugar-coated venom. Hinata held her head high like a true Hyuuga. She didn't feel tears, only pure anger, anger at the two in the room and anger at herself for not coming to this realization earlier. She knew the depression would hit her later, but right now she wanted that anger to give her strength. "W-We're done. I-I was just leaving." She looked back at Naruto. "Y-you should go too. Y-you don't want to leave Hokage-sama waiting." She started toward the door with full intentions to walk right past Sakura without another word, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her.

"Hinata-chan, please listen." Sakura started, but Hinata didn't want to listen. She was a very forgiving person, but she knew Sakura would have been outraged if it was the other way around. If Sasuke was still in the village and she started advancing on him without a single word to Sakura, Sakura would have had a fit and not listened to excuses either. Not that Hinata would ever do that; she was a better friend and person than that.

Hinata looked Sakura in the eye as her porcelain face twisted its nose up to show the deep betrayal and anger she caused and simply replied, "N-No, thank you." forcing her shoulder out of the grip, she kept walking.

She walked in silence, looking, but not seeing. She walked straight to a vacant training ground, looked at a training post with a scowl, and she struck it. She struck it again, Over and over and over until it completely disintegrated. Her glare went to another training post and she started beating the hell out of it. She continued on her rampage until she heard someone behind her. Swinging around ready to hit them next, she stopped in her tracks.

"What are you doing, Hinata-sama?" Neji looked at her, bewildered and taking a step back from her chakra filled hands. "Hinata-sama you're crying."

She stepped out of her attack stance and touched her face. She was crying but hadn't noticed. She sniffed and blinked her eyes, trying to wipe away the tears with her sleeves. "I-I'm fine Neji-nii-san just… upset."

"You don't usually... attack things like that. You're being erratic." She looked down to avoid his shocked eyes. She wasn't in the mood to have anyone else look down at her. Neji was more understanding than the rest of the Hyuuga, but he would still scold her for not doing things in the way of the Hyuuga. The tears started again and she clenched her hands to her chest, trying to will the pain away that had been held back by the rage. He didn't scold her for not practicing the much more controlled forms of gentle fist like she thought he would. Instead. he put his hands on her shoulder to steady her. "Uhm, should I be worried? What happened Hinata-sama?"

She shakily looked up at his worried face. "I-I went to confess to him today." She couldn't even say his name. She was coming down from the numbed high the anger had given her. She started sobbing.

Neji looked at her with a worried, bewildered look. "He rejected you?" He asked though it was clear from her statement that the answer was yes.

"S-Sakura-chan said yes to his advances." Neji looked at her with sad understanding. She could see the tinge of anger he had toward the two who had dared to hurt what was his to protect. He awkwardly pulled her into his arms to let her sob her pains away. She wiggled her arms out from in between the two of them to slide them around his back and clutch his shirt tightly. She dug her face in the crook of his neck and cried. He rubbed her back sadly, knowing there was nothing more he could do for her. If she had been any other Hyuuga he would have more options, but this was Hinata and she was special. She just had to cry it out and make her way over the betrayal and rejection.

"Let me take you home." He whispered to her. She nodded in agreement but didn't move, so he did. He lightly pulled her arms out from around him and turned around, lifting her onto his back. She didn't so much as wiggle, she just let him tug her on to his back and loosely held onto him.

He walked home with a broken-hearted woman clinging to his back.

He sat her down in the chair at her vanity before she realized they had made it home and she looked at him through tired, red, and puffy eyes in the mirror. He took a brush from the table and started brushing the tangles her thrashing in the training yard had made, staring at herself in the mirror, she had to look away. She didn't want to see herself, feeling like a disgrace.

She had never hated what she saw in the mirror so much. She was sobbing over someone she no longer saw as worth her admiration. How could she have been so blind as to look over his flaws? In the mirror, she saw the hair she had grown out despite it being a pain to care for because Naruto had once mistaken her for a boy when they were young. It had been constantly in her way, but she thought he might notice her as feminine. He had liked Sakura's long hair.

She reached forward, pulled open the drawer of the vanity and pulled out a pair of scissors. Before Neji could stop her or even realize what she was doing, she grabbed the length of her hair in one hand out of his and in one heavy snip, it was all in her hand.

Neji stared in silent horror as she set it on the surface in front of her. He opened his mouth but closed it when he saw her looking at herself in the mirror. Her eyes had visibly lightened from the action and she was contented.

She felt a sudden weight taken off her shoulders, both physically and mentally. The simple cut of her hair made her feel like she was cutting off the feelings of attachment she had toward Naruto. She had thought of him every time she brushed the tangles or washed the dark mass. Now her hair bore no connection to him or her as it lied on the table.

Neji was confused by the change the act had on her, seeming so much more at peace in a single instance, although she had done a terrible job. "You made quite the mess of it. Here, I'll clean it up." He held out his hand and she set the scissors into it and closed her eyes, signaling to him she trusted him to decide what to do with it. He set to work framing her face so that she still looked like a lady; she was a Hyuuga after all. He decided on a slightly longer version of what she had in her younger years. When he was satisfied, he set the scissors down and placed his hands on her shoulders. She opened her eyes and smiled.

"P-perfect, thank you."

***TheUnstableLiz***

PLEASE READ UPDATE BEFORE REVIEWING ABOUT NARUTO BASHING

***UPDATED NOTE***

I don't like that I have to address this but it got a little out of hand.

***************THIS IS NOT A BASH AT NARUTO OR SAKURA!***************

I know a lot of stories do that. HINATA is supposed to be the one in the wrong here. The reason it is not explicitly said is because it is from her point of view. She is obviously overreacting and it will build her as a character, but it will also not be heavily focused on. This first chapter is only to cut ties with her crush and show her tendency to be irrational with her emotions. Naruto didn't want to hurt her, it makes sense. Sakura felt bad, she hadn't thought about how it would make her feel. That makes neither of them bad people.

The next chapter lightly touched upon Neji also being cross about it, but that would be because he is protective.

I DO NOT HATE THEM and they will be shown in a better light when they are brought back into the story (which will honestly be a while).

NO, this is not meant to be a NaruHina story.

Naruto is tagged because he is supposed to become more important much later, as will Sasuke and Sakura if all goes well.

Please stop messaging me about it I love constructive reviews and will answer PMs, but the hate mail I'm getting because Hinata clearly overreacted is getting ridiculous. I thought it was clear she was overreacting because she was hurt, but I guess I didn't get that across, but I won't be changing it now.

I appreciate CONSTRUCTIVE comments and reviews.

I can not answer questions of guests. If you have a specific question please log in and PM me or use my Tumblr. I will answer any and all questions I can!

I am not sure of and will not be following the timeline of the show anything that seems out of place is a result of that.

Anyone who is out of character by a lot is the fault of me not knowing the character well enough and I apologize for that.

I apologize for spelling and grammar, I am a computer scientist, not a writer.

My Tumblr to speak to me directly and where I put thoughts and sometimes updates and sneak peaks: /theunstableliz.