Muted Dragon
Hinata's silence had always spoken volumes.
As an infant, her eyes followed things that glimmered in the light, like the spoon that was used to feed her each morning. As an infant, no amount of food could appease her hunger, and there was not a toy that could make her smile.
Hinata was hard to please, and watched obscure things and eccentric people with a strange, secretive amusement.
Tending to her needs was near impossible, but great things were expected from her and the elders were sure she would manage.
They stood a far distance from her as she slipped into adolescence.
-
She grew into the same person she had been before. Still, her clear eyes watched things that interested her, things that were not important to anyone else. Still, she shook her head at things offered, even when she wanted them more than she wanted to be strong.
Hinata had wanted to be strong for as long as she could remember.
Kunai were much more interesting than spoons or forks or knives, especially when thrown by Neji or Naruto, her inspirations. Shuriken were even better, reminding her of a bird's wings spread open in the way one's edges spun.
A lot of people thought Hinata watched Naruto. (And she did.) But he was not the first to give her hope.
-
When she was eleven years old and had fallen out of the cradle everyone kept her in, Hinata watched Sasuke.
He smirked and scoffed and shook his head, and sighed. Sasuke sighed a lot.
For a while, she wonders whether or not he is sighing because he is dreaming (of the sunny patches of light on the ground outside where they eat lunch) or whether he is dissatisfied with something.
Naruto cheers a "Believe it!" and Sasuke sighs again.
Iruka yells and Shikamaru stirs in his nap.
Hinata's first smile was when she was eleven.
-
When the Chuunin exams roll around and Hanabi watches quietly, Hinata grows jealous. Jealous because the shadow cast by her younger sister is small, and because the elders expect things from the girl anyway, things that Hinata herself had never been able to deliver.
Hinata listens to Neji berate Naruto about "struggling against his bonds" and "trying to break free of his cage", and Hinata smiles again but says nothing to her father, who glances at both his daughters.
Hinata turns around in her seat when Hiashi isn't looking, and she stares down at her shadow. Hanabi is above such things and continues watching Neji's match with great hostility as her elder sister sizes her up.
Hanabi's shadow is smaller, and, not for the first time, Hinata wishes that she and her sister could trade roles.
Someday, Hinata thinks, she might like to grow into her own shadow.
But not today.
The silver-eyed dragon on the bench next to her turns and glares her fiercest, but Hinata only smiles. She is silent.
(They both are.)
Fin.