It was early in the morning. I sat myself comfortably in one of the desks of the auditorium. As is customary of most ninjas involved in high ranking missions, we had to attend follow up seminars and trainings to keep us up to speed with current events and techniques. Often they were nothing but a bore of useless information that we already knew, however, they were mandatory. I pulled out my loose leaf paper and pencils and set myself up to take notes, or at least try to appear to be taking them.

Fellow ninjas began piling in. It sometimes amazed me to see how many of us there really was, to think we had so many strong fighters in our village, and to know that what was in the auditorium was only about half of us. We still had ninjas in training, ninjas on missions, not to mention retired ninjas ready and able to jump back into action if the village needed them. It was a comforting thought.

I saw Konohamaru come in dragging his feet. Probably with a hangover, his idol, er… friend, had come back from a mission yesterday and no doubt they went out for drinks. He fell into the chair beside me.

"Ugggg"

"Good morning to you too," I responded to his grunt."I hope your ready for a full day lectures, I added smiling innocently; I just couldn't help rubbing it in.

"Uhh.. just wake me when it's over," Konohamaru groaned, letting his head hit the desk with a thud.

I took at look at the time;7:50 am. The lecture would be starting soon. I glanced around the auditorium. I knew Udon was on a mission and Maero was out of town on clan business so I wasn't expecting to see either of them, but still I scanned the crowd. Off to the right was a cluster of shiny black hair and pale eyes. The Hyuuga always stuck together. They seemed like a village of their own, keeping pretty much to themselves and not socialising with others unless they had to.

"Bunch of inbred snobs." Konohamaru's voice broke into my thoughts; he was looking in the same direction as I was.

I didn't respond. There was a time when Maero sat with them. I remember the day he broke free.

"Is this seat free?"

I was shocked when I saw who the voice belonged to. It sounded nothing like the voice in the forest. It was soft, kind, friendly.

"Ah.. ah.. um.. hmm.. That is.. You?" I stuttered.

"Real coherent Moegi." Konohamaru said rolling his eyes then looked at Maero, "And no, it is not free, That's Udon's seat."

"It is?" Udon sniffed from Konohamaru's opposite side where he was already seated and ready for the lecture.

Konohamaru grumbled. "Fine sit, but don't expect us to be friendly."

Maero sat down and turned to me. I wanted to talk to him, ask what the hell he was doing because it was obvious that his choice of seat had become a topic of everyone's interest. The rest of the auditorium was looking at us with raised eyebrows, while the Hyuuga just glared in our direction, though I think the glare was a permanent feature of theirs which couldn't be helped.

"Umm… ah… excuse me… um. I'm Moegi." I mentally smacked myself in the head.

"I know, we met previously in the forest remember? Though I don't recall you be so inarticulate back then, perhaps I met your twin?" Maero joked.

"I, I do, I mean remember, not inarticulate, that is to say… no twin." God I need help.

"Ok, I think I understood that." He smiled at me. Genuinely smiled.

If anything I think he was the other twin, like the good twin or something. And why in gods name was he sitting next to me? Perhaps he was blind. Ya that must have been it, lack of pupils equals blind. Someone should tell him of his faux pas and that he was not in fact sitting amongst the Hyuuga.

"I'm not a Hyuuga." Ok so that someone was not supposed to be me. I mentally smacked my head again.

He leaned over to my ear and whispered, "I know."

I blushed. I was being beyond stupid, and he was tolerating me. That jerk face from the forest was being patient and kind with me, and it was, for lack of a better word exhilarating.

After that day, Maero never failed to sit next to me when he was in town. Slowly people stopped staring, the Hyuuga stop snarling, kind of, and I began to enjoy his presence.

Today I missed him. He wasn't here. I took another look at the Hyuuga, One of the women looked at me and smiled. I smiled back. It was Hanabi's older sister, perhaps the only one with an ounce of humanity in her; with the exception of Maero of course.

The lecture was dull and boring as expected and I suspected that Konohamaru had slept through most of it with his eyes open.

As Konohamaru and I were making our way out of the building, Hanabi's sister came over to us.

"Um, Miss Moegi, may I speak with you." Her voice was soft and calming.

I looked up at Konohamaru, both of us in a bit of shock. The Hyuuga heir wanted to talk to me. Konohamaru didn't look happy about it, and although common sense would tell me that if someone of the Hyuuga wanted to talk to me and it wasn't Maero or Hanabi, it couldn't be good. But somehow I felt that this woman was not here to give me bad news.

"Of course," I smiled at her. She gave a tentative smile to Konohamaru, which I took as a hint that she wanted to talk to me in private. I knew my friend was too thick to understand the situation so I made it easier on everyone. "Konohamaru, catch you at the training grounds later, k?"

"Ya whatever," he said casually, though I knew he was a little hurt at the brush off.

Hanabi's sister and I walked towards the park while Konohamaru went off the opposite way.

"Miss Moegi, I'm sorry for approaching you suddenly without introduction. My name is Hinata. My sister Hanabi I believe was your classmate," she said after we found ourselves a secluded bench and sat down.

"Yes she was, we sometimes trained together. She is very talented." I told her with a smile.

"Thank you. I know she has learned a great many things from her classmates." Hinata gave a small bow of gratitude. She was silent for a bit before continuing. "If I may be so bold to ask, what is your relationship with my cousin Maero?"

I didn't know how to answer, what had Maero told his family? Why would they seek clarification, what would he want me to say to them? I didn't want to get him into trouble. Why the hell didn't he warn me about this?

"Is our friendship causing his troubles at home?" I asked cautiously.

"Not as of yet, but it may, depending on the course your relationship takes."

"I see." I looked down at my hands finding them suddenly interesting.

"Whatever your relationship is, it won't upset me; I just want to prepare for what may come."

What may come? She made it sound like an impending war. "Miss Hinata," I paused, not sure how to phrase what I wanted to say. "Maero is very special to me and I would never intentionally do anything to cause him or his family harm."

"I believe you, and that is why I wanted to talk to you. I am not worried about what harm you will cause us." She paused again, "Loving a Hyuuga is not easy, especially for an outsider. I can see that you are a wonderful person just by observing the changes in my younger cousin. I am only one person and I cannot change the Hyuuga alone, but I hope that with the help of people like you it can be done. I don't want anyone else to have to suffer what I have suffered, what my sister will suffer and what countless other Hyuuga and outsiders who become associated with us inevitably also suffer."

"I'm not following you," and it wasn't a lie, I didn't quite know what she was getting at. I mean many things were going through my head, but nothing that would clearly explain what she was saying.

"I, I don't expect you to." She sighed. "It is not my place to tell you, it is up to Maero. Thank you for your time Miss Moegi."

Hinata got up and turned to leave; I stood up but didn't follow. What the hell was that about? What was she trying to say? Why would she start to tell me something as heavy as that and just leave me with questions I didn't know I had? Was I going to die? Cause damn, she sounded pretty serious. Perhaps the Hyuuga had a ditch where they kept the bodies of normal eyed exes. Come to think of it, Hanabi dated Konohamaru and he is still alive, so scratch that idea. Well whatever it was I was sure I would figure it out sooner or later.

I lay in my bed staring at the ceiling. I would be lying if I said that I didn't have the hottest boyfriend in the village; well at least I think I do. But there is that little bit of reasoning in me that keeps telling me it's all a lie, a farce. There is something amiss and if I don't catch it soon I will end up getting hurt big time. The trouble is though, even after that little chat with Hinata, I still don't know what it is.

You know that dream like state, where everything around you is just a dream, that eventually you wake up and everything around you will disappear. When it comes to Maero, that's how I feel. He is only a dream. My dream. That arrogant Hyuuga in the forest was nothing more than a figment of my imagination which I expanded on and made into my boyfriend. My perfect boyfriend. This is like a soap opera, now I have his family warning me about the ominous future ahead. Yup, a soap opera, all I needed now was for Konohamaru to sleep with Udon and then confess his love to me! Ew. That's vile, they are like my brothers. I really need to keep a grip on my thoughts.

I got up; it was almost time to meet up with Konohamaru for our evening training and I knew he would be in a mood if I didn't show up on time again.