Chapter 1
Today is my birthday.
I'm eighteen today.
And... I awoke to a rainy sky.
How depressing. I sighed and got ready to start the day. I barely had anytime to put on my shirt when my sister came and greeted me.
"Happy birthday Hinata!" Running with her arms open wide, she hugged me tightly. I chuckled at her antics, taking one of my hands and tousling her hair with it. It may have been raining, but she just brightened my day.
"Thank you very much. Waking up and hearing you tell me this will be the highlight of my day," I dipped my head lower and kissed her on her hair. What a sweet child she was. "Where's Father? Is he up yet?"
She shook her head saying, "He's still asleep in his study. I peeked in on him this morning." She released her hold on me and sat on my bed. Legs swinging vigorously over the edge, I noticed that she wasn't dressed for school yet. Frowning, I gave her a stern look and pointed towards the door. She hopped off my bed, giggling and saying she'd get dressed as fast as she could.
Smiling, I shook my head and closed the door behind her.
Exhausted, I fell back on my bed and laughed out loudly.
This day was getting better and better.
Filled with new vigor and excitement about what the day had in store for me, I jumped off my bed and quickly got dressed. I only had a couple of weeks left to finish high school. Then graduation day would finally be upon us! I was so excited. I had kept a 4.0 grade point average ever since I was young, and I planned on keeping it through my college years as well.
I looked in the mirror and did a little twirl.
I felt like a million dollars, possibly more.
I went downstairs and was greeted by my father, my uncle, and my cousin.
"There's my little princess! Come and give Uncle Hizashi a hug. Your day can't start without one of these. I give legendary hugs you know," I smiled at his comment, bum rushing him straight into a hug. "Whoa now, I'm not as young as I look. Take it easy on this old handsome man." I just hugged him tighter in response. I loved my uncle very much. He was kind, gentle, and caring. He had all of the qualities my father was lacking, but no matter what my father didn't have in his personality, I still loved him.
I released my uncle and looked at my cousin, Neji.
Quiet as usual. But, a smile had adorned his face. Not better than his usual smirk though. He had nodded in my direction and sat at the dining room table.
Last, but certainly not least, was father, who had smiled more so than usual today.
"Hello daughter. How are you?" He asked me.
"I'm great daddy. Today will be wonderful. Is that breakfast you're cooking?"
"Maybe."
"It is! Haha. Smells edible." Uncle Hizashi let out a loud bellow at that.
"What humor my niece has. Brother, she got you good." He slapped my father on his back and laughed some more. My father's face had become red with embarrassment. Sighing loudly, he moved away from the kitchen, dragging his feet a little, sitting right next to my cousin at the dining room table.
I shook my head and grinned a little. Cooking was out of the ordinary for him, I was always cooking for everyone, but for him to do something like this? Well... I just had to tease him. With his head in his hand, father closed his eyes and shook his head.
"Oh daddy," Walking away from Uncle Hizashi's side, I stepped over towards my father, leaning down to kiss him on his temple. "Thanks a lot!"
His eyes flickered open, looking at me through his peripheral vision. My father and I- our relationship was not always this good. After mother had died, he wouldn't look at me at all.
I remember him saying I looked like mother a lot, so he had a hard time stomaching a conversation with me. So because of that, he had spent more time with Hanabi, ignoring me. I used to be so jealous. I used to get so angry at myself for being that way. But then I thought it must have been hard for my father, having to see your dead wife every time you looked at your eldest daughter's face. But we simply only got better with time.
Speaking of which- "I thought you were asleep father." Not a question, but simply an observation.
"I told Hanabi to tell you that while I finished cooking. I wanted to surprise with breakfast. But instead of going into my study to wake me up, like I thought you would, you came down here instead."
"Well, I figured nothing could help make a person wake up more than coffee. So, I came down here to fix you some actually." I said as a matter of fact. Hiashi sighed contently, getting up to finish the breakfast he was making for her. "Hanabi! Get down here or you won't eat!" Father tried once more. "Hanabi?" He gestured to Neji, who immediately understood, going up the stairs to seek out his little cousin.
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"This just in, tragedy has struck the peaceful town known as Konoha. We have our on-scene reporter live at the crime scene."
"I'm standing at the front gate of the Hyuugas domain, where I am told that the whole family may have been murdered. Now they haven't locate any survivors yet and- ah! There seems to be four people coming out of the house with some of the investigators. As far as I can tell, the family has only sustained minor injuries, none of them seems to be too badly hurt."
Murdered?
Me?
"Sir a word! What's your name son?"
"Chusen."
Chusen? Who is that?
"Is your family alright?"
"...Hinata. Dead. Gone. She go bye-bye."
"HINATA! MY DAUGHTER!"
"SISTER! MY SISTER! HINATAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"Why her?"
"Dead."
"Gone."
"Poor child."
"Her birthday was today."
"She was eighteen today."
"She'll never celebrate her birthday again."
"A tragedy."
"A bright young future, now gone."
Dead.
Dead.
Dead.
Dead.
Dead.
Dead.
"Let's keep this family in our prayers."
I'm dead?
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"Hinata. Hinata, wake up." Someone was touching my cheek. My eyes fluttered open to see Neji looking at me.
"Neji? You're dead too?"
"You heard the radio broadcast? Well, I guess there's no nice way of putting it. You kicked the bucket."
"Why are you so calm about this? We're dead! Dead! DEAD! DEAD! How can you sit here and act like it's nothing?"
"I've been dead for a while." The tears that were about to come out my eyes never came.
"What? What do you mean you've been dead for awhile?"
"Ever noticed how the people in our family never once said my name? No one called me Neji. People had always called me-"
"Chusen..."
Neji nodded and continued. "The person you knew while you were growing up was me, however, it wasn't me. You see, three years after I had died my mother gave birth to another son. Chusen. I took hold of his body at the tender age of seven, Hanabi was six, and you were twelve, and I had been residing in there ever since. When people saw me they saw Chusen. When you saw me, you saw me and no one else."
"Why was I-"
"The only one to see me? Good question. You have always been spiritually adept."
"When did you die? How?"
"Let's see ugh, your father and Hizashi, my father, let's just say the whole Hyuuga family were more on the illegal side of life, but when I was born, they were trying to get their lives in order. Someone wanted Hiashi dead, Hizashi offered to take his place. I went instead. And quite obviously I died. I was eighteen, you were two." He talked about his death so casually. "I've been dead for thirteen years." I whimpered quietly. He reached for me and I slapped his hand away.
"Don't! Don't you dare touch me." I wanted so badly to cry, but I couldn't. I couldn't even force any tears out. Why won't these tears of mine come out? I felt him reach for me again. He sat near me and pulled me into his chest. I didn't want to look at him so I buried my face in his arm.
"I remember when I was still alive you would cry so much. You were the biggest cry baby ever. When you were just a baby, and your mother couldn't handle you, I would pull you out of your crib and tell you to quit your whining. And you did. But then after that, you started giving people mean looks. It was, quite honestly, the cutest thing ever." I grabbed his arm tightly.
"You look like you want to cry right now, but you can't. You're dead. Your tear glands are no longer operational. I know it's hard Hinata, but I'm here. Trust me, you'll get through this. You'll be ok. So... quit your whining." I nodded into his arm. What he was asking of me was so hard, how could I ever cope? But then again, he's by my side.
Maybe I can get through this.
Things just had to get better. They had too.
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"There's one thing you haven't explained to me. Why were you inside your little brother?"
"I cannot tell you."
"What? You can tell me everything else but not that? That's a little strange."
"Drop it Hinata." His voice was stern, and it shut me up immediately.
"O-ok" I chuckled inwardly about my stutter. I started stuttering when I was-
"Twelve..."
"Hmm?" Neji looked at me curiously. I payed him no mind, concentrating on things I was trying to remember.
"Neji, do you remember when I started stuttering?"
"Yeah, it was right after you had that dream." Dream? I don't remember any dream...?
"Dream?"
A quiet laugh was heard in the distance.
"He's here." I shuddered. The laugh was getting closer and closer.
"I'm here to retrieve my package." Smoke gathered in front of us to form a figure. Dressed with the traditional clothes of a monk, with a hood covering its head, and those eyes. Those red eyes. Suddenly I remembered everything.
The dreams.
Those eyes.
"Neji you-"
"It's not what you think Hinata."
"On my eighteenth birthday, I was supposed to die. Neji... you murdered me!"
"Hinata I-"
"Murderer! You killed me you son of a bitch. I hate you!"
The thing that had smoke bellowing from everywhere just looked at us. Staring. The thing sighed and pulled its hood off. I gasped loudly at what I saw.
The thing looked human.
But those eyes remained that of a monster's.
It frowned at us, running its skeletal hand through its spiky blonde hair.
"I have a job to do. No time for your bullshit."
The thing moved closer to me, but I moved two steps back.
"RUN HINATA!" Neji screamed at me.
Run he says? Run? Should I trust him? How could I, when he could quite possibly my murderer? But then again, running did sound pretty nice. I dashed to the left. I didn't take in my surroundings, I just ran.
"You cannot escape. You are inside me." What? Inside? I didn't think about what he said until I started noticing my surroundings. Smoke was covering everything. It was all pitch black, he had covered the whole area and we were never the wiser. He had fooled me into thinking I had a chance. He let me run away, so he could show me my folly. I lost the strength in my legs. I fell to my knees. No longer able to do anything anymore.
The creature sighed and opened his cloak.
I looked at it and frowned, "What are you?"
"I am the reaper of souls."
And with that he wrapped me in his cloak, greeting me with darkness.
みなさん、こんにちは。Just a quick hello ^.^ I'm glad people are taking time out of their busy schedule to read this, it brings me such joy. どうもありがとうございます。Please read and review! よろしくおねがいします。
