AN: This is a revised version of the original Chapter 1, as of January 2016.
Hinata walked into her academy classroom, a newly issued headband tied around her neck. After passing her graduation exam and returning home, she had a difficult time deciding where to wear it. She usually didn't put such deep thought into her appearance, only worrying about practicality and looking socially acceptable for her clan's standards, but her promotion to Genin was a significant event. This was the start of her official career as a kunoichi, so it made sense to try to treat it as something special. She eventually chose current position, where it would be easily visible. Her clan's main branch members would most likely disapprove of her covering her forehead anyway, as it showed that she was unbranded.
Hinata decided on a dark grey, long sleeved training shirt with a thin layer of protective mesh underneath it, and a set of indigo blue pants. After attaching her weapons pouch and knives holster, she had found an old beige jacket in her closet. It had most likely been shoved into a corner years ago, since she had no recollection of ever wearing it before, or even seeing it. She tried it out on a whim, and realized that it actually fit her. It even had the Hyuga Clan's symbol on the sleeves. Maybe it had been given to her as a gift at some point?
Deciding that there was no harm in bringing it along, Hinata tied the jacket around her waist. It was comfortable indoors, but the village itself was too hot at this time of year to wear a jacket constantly.
When her father had seen it that morning before she left for class, his eyes widened just enough for her to tell he'd been surprised before he fixed his expression again. He returned to his paperwork, mentioning that it had once belonged to her mother. Ignoring his quick recovery, it was strange to see him rattled at all. She hadn't witnessed him with his guard down in years, but that moment only reinforced her decision to wear the old sweatshirt.
Now that she knew how it related to her, Hinata did not let her mother's jacket out of her sight for a moment. She knew it was irrational to cling to it, but it made her feel slightly less nervous, as if she were being watched over.
Much to her annoyance, she was stared at when she passed the front row of desks on the way to her seat. Did everyone forget how they had treated her before? After growing so used to being pushed away by them, she had no idea how to react to being the center of attention like this. Unlike when they were training in class, there was nothing to distract her from it.
Hating the warm embarrassment threatening to take over, she kept her face as blank and disinterested as possible, and stared at the ground as she walked. A few long moments later, and they were back to ignoring her as before.
Now more comfortable that she couldn't sense 20 pairs of eyes on her at once, Hinata opted to sit at the higher up desks in the back row instead of her intended spot in the middle. Assigned seats were meaningless now that they were graduates, and everyone seemed to be taking full advantage of this by spreading out all over the room to talk to each other.
Once she sat down and everyone nearby adjusted their seats in accordance, the room's volume slowly rose to its normal level for when the teacher wasn't present: as loud as they wanted. She sighed and folded her arms in front of her, leaning her chin on them as she scanned the rows below for anyone she happened to keep track of during her school years. She had thrown herself into boosting her class rank so much, that her mind tended to block out people unless they happened to cross her path enough times. At least some of the few faces she recognized must have passed…
There was Sasuke, one row below and to the left of her. He looked uninterested in talking with anyone as well, just tapping a finger on the desktop as he waited, eyes unfocused. It would have caused a small political scandal if the last Uchiha didn't become a genin. He'd have been especially motivated if he took his exam after seeing her pass. Sasuke wouldn't take it very well if the only classmate he saw as constant competition got ahead of him. Being beaten by a Hyuga, the heir of the clan that gained even more power since his own clan's demise, would make it twice as hard on his ego.
Hinata thought of him as good rival as well, if a slightly arrogant one. But then again, that same confidence in his own strength made him all the more formidable. Sasuke was never afraid to look her in the eye or challenge her. He forced her to her limits in weekly sparring and matched her written test scores to the number. And there was a sort of unexplainable thrill at being chased by someone who could overtake her if she gave him an inch of leeway.
Recently, their taijutsu battles were anyone's fight. Even with her unorthodox blend of styles, he could still outmaneuver her a slight majority of the time, and he had been working on widening the gap he had made between them. Over the last few weeks of class, she either tied with him or lost, with an occasional win on a good day. It was both infuriating and exciting at the same time, a reaction that no one else could constantly evoke from her. Sasuke was a respectable opponent...when he wasn't surrounded by a crowd of infatuated girls, or being challenged by jealous boys.
As if on cue, Sakura and Ino stampeded in from the door closest to the back, arguing about who 'won' their race. Hinata suppressed a groan. Sure, Sakura was book smart and had strong chakra control, but her actual chakra reserves were tiny and her physical prowess was near nonexistent. She knew how to throw a textbook perfect punch, but there wasn't enough speed or consistent power behind it to be very threatening. In summary, Sakura was extremely average. Ino was a bit better all around, but her clan's secret technique that she knew was slow and risky without a way to keep the target from escaping, and the Byakugan's chakra sensing vision made it even more ineffective when used against her.
Every other female in class ranked somewhere below Sakura's level in skill, so there wasn't much competition for Rookie of the Year in that area. Hinata didn't have anything against them on a personal level, and she didn't remember them ever bothering her, but it still rubbed her the wrong way seeing people not putting as much effort into their training in favor of trying to capture the attention of a boy. Hinata could never quite empathize with people who pursued crushes. The entire concept seemed more emotionally tiring than it was worth.
After weathering their yelling for a few more minutes, she finally had enough. Her chair pushed away from her desk, grabbing their attention with the unpleasant sound of it scraping across the floor. Hinata stood up and walked over to them. They watched her in confused silence until she stopped in front of them.
"Uh..." Ino recovered first, putting on a smile. "Hinata! How nice of you to join us! What brings you over here?" Hinata narrowed her eyes at the forced cheerfulness in her voice. Hyuga were trained to read facial cues and body language as part of their fighting style, but it just made it easier for her to see how uncomfortable she made people at times. She didn't actively try to scare her fellow classmates, but it always somehow happened anyway.
"Would you mind if I asked you to quiet down?" Hinata did her best to sound as relaxed as possible without sounding weak, but good intentions only went so far. Ino still looked like she'd just been held up at knifepoint. Were they still thinking about last week's taijutsu bouts? She didn't think she was too harsh during the spars, but her standards for harsh were a little skewed. Iruka-sensei ended up telling her to ease up a little during his critiques multiple times. Sure, Sakura was pretty bruised after taking an open palm to the torso, but other than that…
"E-er, of course! We had no idea we were being too loud!" Ino rubbed the back of her head and started to drag a quiet Sakura off to a seat. "We can finish this later, Forehead." Sakura fired back up again.
"Who are you calling a forehead, Pig?"
"Oh, shut up!" They were bickering again, but they were at least whispering insults this time. Hinata watched them sit at separate desks before going back to her own place. The room was fairly peaceful again. Right up until Naruto started bothering Sasuke, anyway.
Hinata was genuinely surprised that the class clown was still in the room. Didn't he fail his test? He hadn't mastered all three of the basic technique they were required to know, at least last time she had seen him in action. It took him two long years to get the transformation technique down, and during their most recent practice, Naruto had failed to produce a single useable clone.
It was sad to watch, considering he used enough chakra to create a whole platoon of illusions if he actually knew what he was doing. It was strange, really. For someone who played jokes and goofed off all day, he had far larger chakra reserves than the rest of the class. Naruto was the only student who could constantly expel enough chakra for her to see without the Byakugan.
Other than that, he was a hyperactive slacker that everyone usually paid no attention to, with grades that were only better than Shikamaru's. And since Shikamaru purposely slept through all his tests, beating him meant nothing much. Hinata only really knew about Naruto because of his constant troublemaking in class. Iruka-sensei chose that moment to enter, reading the notes on his clipboard.
"Naruto! Get off that desk and sit down!" He bellowed, looking up. Naruto groaned and hopped down to take the spot beside Sasuke. The rest of the class settled down after another yell for order. Iruka cleared his throat.
"Alright, now that all the grades are finalized, I can announce this class's Rookie of the Year!" He flipped through the papers he had. "And by a margin of a few points, it's Sasuke Uchiha! Congratulations." There was a short round of applause along with a few complaints as Sasuke nodded in acknowledgement. Naruto pouted and sat lower in his chair. "The rest of your scores, in order of highest to lowest, are posted on the back bulletin board. And now for team assignments..."
There was some speculative chatter as Iruka searched for his list. Some people didn't even realize that teams would be assigned until just then. Hinata did know beforehand, but she had completely forgotten about how genin were divided into squads of three, having been so focused on becoming one first. This meant that she would be stuck with two people in this room until one of them promoted.
"Squad One is..." Iruka started calling out names. Hinata chose to let the subject of teammates go, realizing that worrying about it was pointless. They wouldn't saddle her with an incompetent person anyway, right? Then the entire team's efficiency would drop and they would no longer be balanced as Iruka had said they were grouped up to be. Hinata forced herself to calm down, checking to make sure her expression hadn't changed. A Hyuga never showed their inner thoughts unless they did so on purpose. Soon, her face was once again a perfect mask of indifference.
"Squad Seven is...Naruto Uzumaki, Hinata Hyuga..." What? All thoughts of composure went out the nearest window as she processed what that meant, sitting up a little more. As soon as it sank in, she looked down at her desktop again, glaring holes at it under her bangs.
Why? Why would they do that to her? What was the point of pairing her up with the boy who couldn't make a single clone right? Why not Shino, or Kiba, or...or... Iruka cleared his throat, quieting everyone again. "And Sasuke Uchiha."
Or Sasuke? She looked up just in time to see Sasuke do a complete 180 from apathy to pure shock before he groaned. Well this was an interesting arrangement. "Squad Eight is Sakura Haruno, Kiba Inuzuka, and Shino Aburame." Sakura looked disappointed, while Kiba didn't seem too bothered. Shino was as difficult to read as always. Most of his face was covered, so Hinata had nothing but his voice to judge from, and he wasn't much of a talker. "Squad Ten is Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Choji Akimichi. Those are all of the teams. Any questions?"
"Sensei, why does an awesome ninja like me have to be paired with a guy like him? Can he switch or something?" Naruto asked, pointing a finger at Sasuke.
"On the contrary, Sasuke had the highest scores in the class, and you had the worst. To make your group even in overall skill level, you had to be paired together."
"Hm...Just don't get in my way, loser." Sasuke said, once again looking straight ahead. Naruto growled.
"What did you just say?"
"That's enough! You'll be working together, and there won't be any changes." Iruka said. "After break period, you will meet your Jounin sensei. Class dismissed." People started to file out, Naruto and Sasuke included, but Hinata stayed put as she tried to figure out the logic behind for her chosen team.
Balance? How was this balanced at all? If their squad was forced to slow down for Naruto, how would they all progress? How would she continue to get stronger? If she wasn't training as hard as possible, then she was getting weaker, and that wasn't an option. Having weakness meant failure, and Hinata was not a failure anymore...right?
Doubt started to creep up on her, rarer in frequency than it was in the past. She had learned how to shake it off and lock it away, but it was never really gone. If she let it take over, she'd lose all the progress she had made over the years.
Of course she was still competent. Sasuke may have gotten the upper hand, but she could always make up for it with more effort. Adding another hour of practice to her schedule should help. The fresh cuts and bruises on her palms from yesterday's training still stung even beneath the wraps she always wore and the salve she had applied to them, but she could push herself a little further. Her hands clenched before she released them, letting out a slow breath. Hinata got up and walked over to door, intent on sitting at her regular spot for lunch, and then running through a set of Gentle Fist exercises if she had time left over. Any thoughts about her new squad were pushed aside in favor of her comfortable routine routine. All she needed to focus on was improvement. Everything else would figure itself out like it always did.
AN: I'll try to answer any questions you may have about this AU and any characters that may show up later, but please review to tell me how I'm doing with this so far.
