Notes: Takes place just after Chuunin exam.
Between the Nowhere
She can hear her heart beating in her ears.
It's loud, and the longer she listens to it, the more she wonders how something so insistent, so strong, could have lain within her like this.
"He beat you in 43 seconds," he father says to the place just beyond her.
Hinata stares out the window, racing the raindrops.
"43 seconds," he repeats, and she is vaguely embarrassed for the young nurse, so obviously unabsorbed in the clipboard she's hidden behind. Peeking through her long brown hair, her ears burn red.
"You might," her father says into the silence, "Want to reconsider your future."
She closes her eyes even as the nurse gasps, angry, and not daring to voice it. Her father is not an unkind man, Hinata reflects. He has only ever told her the truth.
When he leaves, the echo of his footsteps press up against the walls. The nurse darts stares towards her, obviously unsure and wanting to do something—anything.
She pours Hinata a glass of water and watches her drink. And when she is finally left to the clean, white walls, Hinata tries to remember the keys to defiance.
She looks at her glass, and promises herself that it is half full.