Title.Of life and love
Disclaimer. Naruto and all its characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto. If I owned them I wouldn't be slogging away unhappily at a desk job, and NaruHina would be cannon by now.
Summary. Hinata faces a new chapter in her life - high school. How will this period of friendship, relationships and uncertainty of the future treat her? As she grows to come of age, what will her duties as the daughter of the head of the Hyuuga Corporation, one of the largest companies in Japan, demand of her? Join our heroine as she journeys through life and love in high school and beyond. NaruHina
A.N. I love school fics, and so I thought I'd write one of my own :) In this AU fic, Minato & Kushina are alive, and Hiashi is also a more loving father towards Hinata. The school system I'm using here is based on the Japan junior high school (13-15)/senior high school system (16-18), but I'm calling them middle school and high school for clearer distinction, so Naruto and gang are currently 16 years old in this fic setting. Any questions you may have about the fic may be directed to me through a review which I will try to reply asap, and I hope you enjoy the story!
Credits for the story cover picture go to charu-san at http[semi-colon]/[slash]charu-san[dot]deviantart[dot]com/
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On her first day of high school, Hinata had felt like she was been bathed in the sun's warmth.
That day, after exiting the car and bidding her chauffeur Ko farewell, Hinata had turned to walk towards the school building, taking no more than a few steps through the school gates before her steps had faltered to a stop. He had been standing in the school yard, talking and laughing with his friends. Hinata stood, frozen in tracks as the sun glinted off his spiky blond locks, making them gleam in its rays. The only thing that seemed brighter to her was his wide smile. As he laughed heartily, he ran a hand through his golden hair. His teeth flashed brilliantly, the grin showing genuine mirth and amusement, and his eyes, a brilliant blue, the colour of open skies and wide oceans, sparked with life. Hinata had never seen anyone more handsome in her life. She couldn't explain it, but it went beyond his looks, as if she could something inside him shine through, captivating her. A warmth had bloomed in her chest, and spread to wash over her as she felt her cheeks burn with a rising blush. It was as if the boy in front of her with the sunshine hair, sunshine smile and eyes like her sky had touched her with a ray of sunlight to ignite her with the heat of the sun.
"Hey, Hinata!"
"Eep!" Hinata jumped, startled, as someone called to her from behind, breaking her from her reverie. She spun around, red faced, to see her two best friends from middle school, Kiba and Shino, strolling up to her. The one who had called out to her, Kiba, waved as he walked up, clapping her on the shoulder as he greeted her good morning, while Shino nodded to her in a silent greeting. Hinata was glad that they were here. Being a shy person by nature, Hinata did not make friends easily, and had been very grateful to Kiba and Shino, who had accepted her readily. The three had become close friends quickly, and spent most of their middle school days together. Kiba was the loud one of the trio, easily and effortlessly drawing their little group together. Shino was the quiet and calm one, the one who kept the group stable with his intelligence and voice of reason. Hinata had rounded up the group with her femininity, her girlishness softening the brashness of Kiba, and stoniness of Shino. Her shy and peace-loving nature had helped soothe the two boys many a time, while their solid presence and protectiveness provided her a much needed security. That their presence would be continued in high school had been a huge comfort and relief for Hinata, easing her worries about having to start school alone.
Hinata, being a daughter of the Hyuuga family, had always placed been in elite schools that were attended only by the wealthy and successful. However, being from a prestigious family did not always seem to naturally equate to good manners and etiquette, as displayed by some of the people Hinata had met while growing up. In her younger days, Hinata had often either been avoided, or made use of by others due to her birthright. The Hyuuga Corporation was one of the two biggest companies in Japan, and people had either stayed away for fear of her family's power, or tried to get close to her in order to curry favour. As such, Hinata had always felt alone, and over time withdrawn into herself, ending up being the shy person that she is, which didn't help her social awkwardness any one bit. Only after meeting Kiba and Shino in middle school did her shyness improve a little.
As she had grown, Hinata had blossomed physically. Over the course of middle school, her bluish-purple hair had grown out, and now fell down her back to her small waist in long silky strands. Its dark colour contrasted beautifully with her milky skin and pale lavender eyes. Her bust had filled out and hips had rounded, much to her chagrin, giving her a feminine curvaceous figure that drew more attention to herself than she would have liked. Coupled with her family heritage, this made the boys in her school start paying more attention to her, often trying to stake their claim on her or making disrespectful or lewd comments, only succeeding in making the poor girl even shier around boys and wear baggier clothes to hide her figure, even developing a stutter around them. Kiba and Shino's protectiveness of her had kicked in even stronger then, for which Hinata had been glad. With her two best friends by her side, she had completed middle school happily, and now looked forward to attending high school with them.
"Kiba! Oi, that's Kiba, right?" A bright voiced called out. Hinata, Kiba and Shino turned to look at the source of the voice, and a light blush dusted Hinata's cheeks as she realised that the person who had called out to Kiba was the blonde boy she had noticed earlier.
"Naruto! Heh, so you're in this school too, eh?" Kiba exclaimed happily, as he started strolling over to the small group that the blonde boy was part of. When Shino followed after Kiba, Hinata reddened slightly and hurried after them. She watched silently as Kiba exchanged pleasantries with the boy, the two of them giving each other friendly handshakes and claps on the back.
"Ah," the boy started, "guys, this is my friend, Inuzuka Kiba. I've known him since I was young. We had great times terrorizing the elementary teachers together, didn't we, Kiba?" Naruto chuckled, before the two boys burst out laughing.
"Another Naruto, eh? That sounds like it's going to be troublesome." A boy, who had his black hair pulled back in a spiky ponytail, drawled. Another boy next to him, with long spiky brown hair that hung down his back, merely nodded his agreement as he chomped on chips out of the bag he was holding.
"Hey, hey! What's that supposed to mean, huh, Shikamaru?" Naruto yelled, shaking a fist in his friend's direction. A pretty girl with light blonde hair tied up in a long ponytail and fringe falling over half of her face giggled. Another girl, with pink chin length hair and striking green eyes, smiled and spoke up. "Hello, Kiba, it's nice to meet you and your friends. I'm Haruno Sakura, this is Yamanaka Ino, my best friend, and our friends Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chouji. And for the benefit of your friends, the noisy blonde here is Namikaze Naruto."
Naruto folded his arms behind his head. "These are my friends from middle school! Anyway I'm really happy to meet you here again Kiba! High school's gonna be a lot more fun with you around, that's for sure. Are these your friends?" He asked, grinning as he turned to face Shino and Hinata.
Seeing Naruto look directly at her, Hinata became flustered and started to stammer incoherently, unable to get a word out in her nervousness, and felt her heart sinking when he threw her a skeptical look.
"Hey, you alright? I can't make out what you're trying to say, and your face is turning really red." He asked, arching an eyebrow.
Dismay washed over her and she lowered her head, clutching at the hem of her skirt. She felt helpless, and angry at herself. Why could she never summon up her courage when she needed it the most? All he wanted was an introduction, and she couldn't even form a proper sentence. 'He must think that I'm weird now! Great first impression I'm making...' Hinata thought glumly. Shino, sensing his friend's discomfort, smoothly stepped in to help diffuse the situation.
"Good to meet you, Naruto. I'm Aburame Shino, and this is Hyuuga Hinata. She's just a little shy around people we've just met."
Naruto laughed and rubbed the back of his head. "Well, she doesn't need to feel awkward for long; friends of Kiba are friends of mine too!" He exclaimed, grinning widely at them. Shino simply nodded and stuffed his hands into his pockets. Hinata's heart leaped in her chest at how easily this boy had accepted her as his friend. Even Kiba and Shino hadn't been so friendly to her so quickly before. She blushed harder; her fingers fidgeting as she smiled shyly at the group before her.
"A-ano… nice t-to meet you all…"
"Hyuuga, huh? I always thought that a Hyuuga would be more arrogant and cold, like Neji from the year above us in middle school, not shy and stuttering like this…" Shikamaru commented, giving Hinata a look over. Hinata's face fell, fingers gripping her skirt and school bag tightly as she shrunk back in shame. Kiba frowned and was about to make a retort in Hinata's defense when Ino beat him to it. "Shut up, Shikamaru!" She chided, punching his arm lightly. "Can't you see that the poor girl is already nervous enough? Must you make such careless comments?" "Alright, alright. Tch, women, so troublesome." Shikamaru muttered. "Gomen ne, Hinata-chan, this guy is a little too straight forward for his own good sometimes." Ino smiled kindly at her, making Hinata blush prettily in happiness at Ino's use of honorifics with her name. "Y-you're all being really kind… tha-thank you…" Hinata said softly. "Ah, Hinata-chan, you're too cute!" Ino exclaimed, throwing her arms around the girl. "Although," She said, stepping back to observe Hinata with a frown on her face, "we really need to do something about your dressing. The hime haircut is really pretty and suits you well, but what's with your school uniform! Why is your shirt so baggy, it's hiding that ample chest of yours! And your skirt, it's too long, we need to make it shorter!" Ino fussed over the girl, stretching Hinata's shirt over her chest and hitching her skirt up by a few inches. Hinata flailed her arms in embarrassment, while the others in the group, especially the boys, flushed a deep red. "I-Ino-san! P-please, please stop!" Hinata cried out, covering her face with her hands in mortification. "Er…" Naruto started, scratching his cheek awkwardly, as Sakura yanked Ino away from a flustered Hinata. "Shall we… um, go check the boards to see which classes we're assigned to…?"
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I'm working on Chapter 2 of my other NaruHina fic, "You are the music in me" now, about one third of the way through, and have also started on a couple of paragraphs for chapter 2 of this fic. Hopefully I'll be able to finish and upload them soon! Reviews, watches and favs are great encouragement for writing, so once again, please review if you liked this.
Thanks for reading! :D