This one-shot is dedicated to , my secret santa TheFruitSong.
Hey Fruity- so I hope you aren't too disappointed, I really tried hard with this thing and I hope you at least find some sort of entertainment from it =), It
s a bit rushed and last minute.. And I'm sorry for that-. Merry Christmas though- and I hope you can enjoy it anyway!.
Hinata regretted a lot of things.
She regretted the fact that she was blind, and she would never see again.
She regretted the way her cousin Neji was treated- all because he was born into the wrong family.
She regretted starting up that stupid little habit- the one where she bit the insides of her cheeks until they bled.
She REALLY regretted how shy she was.
But most of all she regretted the way she treated Kiba.
She regretted not seeing past the facade she had put up- until the very end.
Until it was too late.
There are two very important things you should know about Hinata Hyuuga.
One. She's blind.
Two. She's deathly afraid of dogs.
Hinata had been afraid of dogs for as long as she could remember. They were like a black cloak of hatred, looming about the nooks and crannies of her mind strangling the breath from her lungs anytime she saw those big black orbs staring into her own. She hated everything about dogs, the way they drooled, their claws, their barks, but what she hated the most about them were their teeth. Those long, thick, white thorns of hatred- they tear through flesh and... They kill.
It was called Cynophobia- an irrational fear of dogs. That was what Hinata had- but to her, her fear was NOT irrational, it was completely logical. Well, to her it was anyway.
It happened when she was seven years old, when she had been attacked by a crazed dog on her way home from the ninja academy.
Hinata hugged the coat to her stomach, eyes wide with fear as she scampered through the woods. She had promised herself thousands upon thousands of times that she wasn't going to ever set foot in those creepy woods ever. But, there was no way she was going to walk through the streets of Konoha at this hour, not with all the rumors of Orochimaru's return.
She pressed herself through a few tight squeezes, and winced in pain as briars sliced the delicate skin of her ankles, speckling them red like wildfire enveloping snow. If that were possible anyway...
She was so close... Just a few more ducks and turns and she wou-
A low growl split through the open air as Hinata slowly turned on her heel, body taut with fear and goosebumps prickling her frozen skin. She felt as though she were swimming in a big vad of jell-o, movement was restricted and
Her body was locked- frozen in time and no matter how hard she tried she couldn't will her legs to move... There was some sort of monster in the woods along with her.
The growling grew into a thick bark and the creature slammed into her back, causing her to squeak in fear as she hit the ground. Her breath came out in low chokes as tears pricked the corners of her eyes as the beast's claws tore into her back. She could just feel it- the blinding sensation of pain that didn't seem to disspell no matter how hard she prayed.
The monster growled again and jumped off of her back, taking its stand directly in front of her.
"H-help..." She whispered, her words got caught in her throat on the way out.
Instinct took over as she slowly rose her hand up to press against her necklace, it was the only thing had that she could afford to lose, and the only thing that she could through hard enough to possibly frighten the beast away. The necklace was her most favorite thing in the entire world- it dawned two large roses painted red on gold metal, and it was encased in a frame of green painted thorns, it had been her mothers only heirloom given to Hinata specifically, but now it was going to be the thing to save her life.
She reared back and threw the necklace at the doglike creature, watching as the beast that was enveloped in shadows yelped, momentarily freezing in its tracks as it took account on the current situation.
But, the necklace had done nothing more than phase the creature- and harbor the rest of its anger out into full on hysteria. Was this animal rabid? Even though she couldn't see anything, she could hear the crazed sort of grumble fluttering through it's movements.
And then without warning the monster lunged towards her- its teeth sinking into her shoulder and she reared her head back and screamed. "Help!!!!"
Darkness.
After that day, the fear and remorse of the situation caused something to close up in her heart, and she was never able to see again.
She didn't remember much after being tackled to the ground, only that a boy had saved her- after her screams had grown someone had finally come to aid her, through the darkness and the swiftly spreading headache she had seen a boy. A boy who looked about the same age as her- he had spiky hair and she could tell that he wore baggy looking clothes.
After spending some time in the hospital she had decided she wanted to personally thank her hero- after all. Not everyone had spiky hair.... Right?
Wrong.
When she was finally well enough to travel back to the academy just in time for graduation day she was assaulted by the difficulties of moving around and not running into people. Some people where blind their entire lives, while HInata had only just become blind.
"S-sasuke!? Why do I have to be paired with him!?" A loud obnoxious voice threaded through the air in the academy as Hinata craned her neck until Naruto's, voice met her ear easier. He sounded extremely disappointed, he was most likely angry about Sasuke in some way, shape, or form.
Naruto, he was the blonde guy with really crazy spiky hair. The one who desperately wanted to be the Hokage, but he flunked all of his courses.
Naruto- he had spiky hair! And the way he carried himself. He just 'had' to be the one!
And then the shyness kicked in- regret number three was it?
Almost as if there were lead weights tied to her ankles she made her way across the room, lips curved into a smile as she prepared the entire speech she had mapped out in her head to thank Naruto for his heroism. He had saved her from the-
From the monster.
"Hinata!" The onyx haired girl turned in a frightened manner to the voice that had bubbled beside her like liquid happiness. She outstretched her hands, almost afraid that the person would get a little too excited with her and do something she didn't know how to defend against.
"It's me, Kiba..." Someone's hands wrapped around her own and slowly brought them up to run along his face. She was very good at seeing with her fingers, she liked to thinks he was better than anyone else. She used her palms to flatten against the smooth face in front of her, smiling as she lowered her hands back to her sides. The determined KIba smiled. "Oh, and Akamarus here too." There was a tiny bark, and to Hinata's horror Kiba had grabbed her hand again, lifting it up towards the dog's face for her to feel.
"G-go away..." The natural stutter in her voice was enforced by the sickly panic that rumbled through each and every fiber of her being, causing her legs to quiver, as she pulled her hand away, suffering as though the dog in front of her were a sick abomination.
"What, why? I just wanted to see how you were feeling after what happen-"
"Go away. P-please." She pushed backwards until her skin pricked with surprise as she realized she had backed into a person- a poor human being subjected to her awkward clumsiness.
"G-gomenesai!" She began, turning in the darkness, her hands searching- feeling around. She pressed her palms against the boy's face only to feel her face explode with red as the person who she had run into revealed himself through her hands to be none other than Naruto Uzumakim her probable savior.
"N-naruto-kun!" She breathed, pressing her closed hands to her chest and taking a brisk step back.
"Hah..?" Naruto muttered softly, lazily turning his head so he was just barely gazing at her, his interest in her suffering a bit. "Oh, hey Hinata-kun." He muttered softly, eyes the spectacle of laziness.
"Naruto-kun, I... Wanted to, thank you f-for...Ano.....Saving me....Ano....Last night...." She whispered blindly, not facing him at all.
Naruto hadn't heard a word she said, in fact he had spent the majority of their conversation sulking to himself, imagining all the horrible things Sasuke would do to him now that they were on a team. He was going to steal Sakura away from him and that was that.
"Alright, team eight will include. Hinata Hyuuga, Shino Aburame, and Kiba Inuzuka.
That was when HInata's heart dropped. She was going to have to be paired with the dog boy.
Her team was strong, but not close.
Shino spent most of his days off in some corner, speaking to nobody- but occasionally himself. Hinata was shy, too shy to almost function, and she absolutely refused to speak with Kiba. He was just too frightening.
Sadly, Kiba wasn't shy, and today of all days he was going to try to get her attention again.
"Hinata..." He spoke softly, watching as he back flexed and she turned away from him, knees already quivering.
"What do you want from me...?" She whispered, fear already radiating from her shaken voice.
"I wanted to give you something..." He slowly reached out with his right hand and picked up her hand, spreading her quivering fingers out and resting a tiny box on top of her opened limb. Hinata said nothing as her hand clenched around the object, ears already perked for Akamaru's demonic bark. She slowly lifted her fingers to the top of the box, slowly beginning to open it she snaked her fingers inside and they met something cool.
She ran the object through her fingers, marveling in how familiar it felt...
And then she knew what it was, it was her necklace.
"I wanted to uhm, give it to you... Sort of as my condolences, after seeing you so afraid that night I knew you would enjoy it."
"You monster..." Hinata hissed under her breath Slowly tightening her hold over the necklace. "You were the one! YOU were the one who made me like this!" She pointed to her eyes. "You know the doctors say that I can't see because of something wrong with my brain? Something fear brought on? Technically I should be able to see you, my eyes work perfectly fine! It's because of you that I can't see." Her voice was strong for once in her life, and stutterless as she turned around and ran. She didn't care that she could run into a tree, or trip and fall and hurt herself.
She just needed to get away.
She ran and ran and ran, for hours it seemed, but time didn't seem to work around in her head... TIme seemed too slow, and too fast at the same time.
WHAM.
She slammed into someone, and they both went toppling over, Hinata into a half- summersault, and the person was pinned underneath her as she came to a stop.
"G-gomen..." She bowed her head, reaching up to see who she had run in to.
"Ow, Hinata. don't you think you should uhm... NOT run around like that?" Naruto.
"N-Naruto-kun!" She bowed her head and clenched her teeth together, preparing what she had to say next. "Thank you for saving me that night, from the dog. I would have died, and you saved me! Arigato..." She added on softly, only to feel his face scrunch up in confusion beneath her fingertips.
"I wasn't the one who saved you Hinata, it was that Kiba guy who brought you back to the hospital."
And then, Hinata's eyes widened as she slowly lifted herself off of Naruto and brought her hand up to meet her mouth. Kiba, he had been the one that saved her, he was the one with baggy clothes and spiky hair. HE was HER savior! And Hinata had treated him like absolute shit the entire time. She groaned as she lifted her hand up to cover her mouth.
"I have to find him..." She whispered, only to be met by nothing. Naruto had left her here all alone, unable to find Kiba on her own.
Thunder rolled about in the sky above her as she broke out into another run, this time in hopes of finding Kiba.
"Come on..." She whispered, outstretching her hands in case she ran in to something. "Come on I can't do this without... Without my eyes..." She pressed her eyelids shut and tightened her fingers. "Come on Hinata... Open your eyes and see."
She opened her eyes and was met by darkness.
"Come on Hinata... Open your eyes and see!" She opened them and still couldn't see.
Hinata slowly wrapped her fingers around the necklace she was holding as her legs moved faster. She brought the necklace up to her lips and kissed it, slowly sucking in a big gulp of air as she prepared herself to scream.
"COME ON HINATA, OPEN YOUR EYES AND-"
And then she ran in to someone else, the two of them went sailing a good few feet into the air before the person she ran in to came crashing to the ground and she landed on top of him, exactly how she had landed on Naruto only moments ago.
"See..." She whispered as her eyelids slowly fluttered open.
The world around her was blurry, it was like a frothy birrage of colors and objects, all trying to piece themselves together as tears flooded from her eyelids. She could feel her heart thudding in her chest against the person she was on top of slowly bringing herself to stare at the boy beneath her. Despite being able to see his face, she couldn't truly see him until her fingers met his face.
"Kiba-" She whispered, her breath hitched in her throat as she blinked again and the world was suddenly clear again.
"Hinata, I'm sorry, I'll leave you alone." Raindrops scattered down from the heavens as her heart broke at the sight in front of her. She had hurt him so bad after he had saved her so helplessly.
"Thank-you..." She whispered, watching as his face twisted into confusion, the rain was making the two of them soaking wet and Hinata was still resting on top of him.
"Thank-you for saving me."
And then she lowered herself, pressing her lips against his lips.
And for once, she knew everything was going to be okay.