They say we can see everything.
The Byakugan- kekkei genkai, a skill that lies in our blood itself. It is highly coveted, not just by enemies of Konoha, but even by those in the village we live in. There are those that stare, every time one of our family is outside- one doesn't require the Byakugan to see that.
Sometimes, when I train, children gather at the edges of the training grounds and watch. Sometimes they whisper among themselves, sometimes all they do is stare. No one bothers to tell them off- in the future, some of those children may be ninjas themselves. One does not have to be a genius to know that appearances aren't everything. Even Uchiha Sasuke was a child once, as was Uchiha Itachi.
Hinata, too, is still a child. She tries to assume the role that has been put upon her, but at times she struggles. It's not hard to see that this isn't what she wants, that all she would really rather do is confess to Uzumaki Naruto that she has a crush on him (eyes aren't even necessary to see that- most of the Chunins have bets riding on whether she'll actually get around to doing something about it). But she is stronger than she looks, that much I will admit.
One doesn't have to be a genius to know that appearances aren't everything, in any case. Take, for example, Nara Shikamaru.
When I first met him, I thought of him as something of an idiot. Admittedly I still do, on occasion- it is possibly one of my failings that I do not easily change the way I perceive people. He does not help, preferring to spend his time on his own, doing nothing but staring at clouds.
I asked him why he was wasting his time, once.
He replied that I should try it. At that time I scoffed, later, when I had a day to myself and when I noticed that he was absent from the fields, I made my way out and sat down in the same spot I had seen him. At first it seemed merely tiresome to stay in one spot for hours on end. When Hinata was sent to find me and tell me to get back, though, it was already nightfall.
I did not ask him 'why' again, after that.
Another time- after the first Chunin Exams- he was the only one who was promoted from Genin status. It did not seem to be fair, but watching him fight, watching the way he planned and seemed to see everything, every move his opponent would make-
There was no way that I could do something like that, Byakugan or not. I have never fought Nara Shikamaru, and I do not intend to. At most, I limit myself to conversations with him, the occasional touch, but nothing more.
Perhaps it is because of what I am. A branch house member, only support, nothing more, and perhaps it is because I am afraid that I would lose. What I would stand to lose, I don't know- I don't think I want to know.
They say we can see everything, but I think we are blind.
