Koishii (Beloved)
By: Rylolynn
This is the sequel to Shadow of Hinata continuing after Shino and Hinata's first kiss. Hinata and Shino share an empathic bond that is tied to their feelings for each other. (If the premise sounds familiar it is loosely based on Imzadi.) Warning: lovey dovey fluff, prolly a little angsty too.
A/n: Imzadi belongs to Peter David, Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.
Koishii (Beloved/yearned for)
Otoosan (father)
Gomen, prostrates self hope this chapter isn't too uncharacteristic of the rest of my story. But the idea got into my head and wouldn't leave.
"Otoosan, I have been training hard. M-my t-teammates…" Hinata willed her voice to be calm, "…have n-noticed my i-improvements." Why am I doing this?
Because I want to be more then what they expect of me…or what they don't expect of me. I am not a failure.
Hinata drew in a long and deep breath and slowly continued. "The Chunin exams are coming up…" The quiet kunoichi's eyes lowered, her now longer silky black hair fell forward past her shoulders hiding her face. "I-I thought…"
SLAP!
Hinata's long raven hair whipped around as she was slapped in the face. She felt repeated blows to her body. Feeling completely exhausted her legs gave out from under her and she crumpled to the ground.
"How much time has passed? Seconds? Hours?" When Hinata finally regained some of her strength she noticed that she was alone. It was just like all those years ago. When she heard her father and her sensei had a talk about her future as a kunoichi.
She felt so worthless.
This feeling reminded her so much of what had occurred between her father and herself just moments ago.
He attacked me…and I didn't even see it coming. Some worthless Hyuuga heir I am. I can't even see a direct attack. A slap to the face…
Before even speaking with her father Hinata momentarily closed off her connection to Shino. She loved him but this was something she had to do on her own. She needed to ask her father's permission with her own will.
So she hid her emotions from Shino. She did not want to hurt him.
She had hidden the old memory from Shino too. And in this time she found herself doing the exact same thing she did as a little girl all those years ago. She ran.
Worthless… It was the singular thought that ran through her head. Her chest tightened from the feeling of insignificance. Useless…
Hinata fled the Hyuuga dojo, running as fast as she could trying to escape her feeling of emptiness.
"It wouldn't matter if I existed or not…" Hinata's tears cooled on her cheeks as she raced across a field of tall grass. The gentle sound of Kurenai speaking to her father repeated in Hinata's thoughts. Her voice held a slight trace of pleading in it.
"She is the heir of the Hyuuga Clan, a life of a shinobi can be dangerous…" Kurenai was cut off by Hiashi.
"Take her…"
The pounding in her heart caught in Hinata's throat and the sound pounded in her ears. The young Hyuuga heiress pulled a sleeve across her eyes as she tried to regain her composure.
"He knew I was sitting there, by the door, listening to every word he and Kurenai had said. He hadn't even had tried to hide the fact he could care less about what happened to me."
Hinata had cursed her "white eyes," from the moment she felt her father's white eyes look at her with disappointment.
"No, that's not right. That would mean he actually looked at me. No, from the moment he looked through me, like some transparent obstacle between him and a perfect heir."
Hinata had long wished that she was a girl that a father could be proud of. Wished that she did not have the weight of the Byukagan on her; that the eyes that reflected in the mirror were not ugly and alien to her.
Even though her vision was blurred by the tears in her eyes and her face was in her hands she saw him coming towards her.
A boy about her age in a gray fur lined coat approached her from her opposite side. He had red painted cheeks and a grin on his face.
Hinata wiped the last traces of tears away and drew in a shaky breath as the young boy approached.
He had squatted in front of her and Hinata brought her gaze up to his.
"Hn." The boy nearly whistled. "You have weird eyes."
Something in the shy, quiet Hyuuga heiress had snapped. She no longer felt sad, or worthless, she felt furious.
Before she new what she was doing her clenched fist hit the grinning boy in the chin. Her eyes widened in pure shock of her own actions. Her anger was suddenly replaced by guilt as she saw the boy's head whip back with the force of the blow.
Large brown eyes stared back at her.
"I'm s-sorry...I-I didn't m-mean to." Hinata stammered out.
Her apology was replied with a loud barking laugh.
"If you're really sorry, then you could go out with me."
Hinata inhaled sharply. Had she heard correctly? Was this day really happening?
"…Uhh…umm…" was her only reply.
"My name is Inzuka Kiba, powerful member of the fierce Inzuka Clan. I would make a good boyfriend." Kiba eyes took in Hinata's profile. "And you're cute." He rubbed his chin. "And pretty strong…"
"Oh.." Hinata exhaled.
"What, you already have a boyfriend..." Kiba's expression furrowed into a look of concentration. "or you like someone else?" Then the Inzuka boy's expression relaxed. "Hn. Then how about just a kiss?"
Hinata milky eyes shot open into wide disbelief.
"You know, where you hit me, because it hurts." His voice was soft and he took a step closer to the raven haired girl.
Hinata made no movements of objections and for some reason found herself leaning forward. She could almost giggle as she saw Kiba's movements. He was going to tilt his chin down so that their lips would meet.
Then it happened. At 7 years old Hyuuga Hinata had received her first kiss.
Kiba flashed a toothy grin at Hinata. "Whoever that boy is…he sure is lucky…" In the same sudden quickness that Kiba had appeared, the grinnig boy with the red painted cheeks disappeared.
Hinata had not told Shino that the kiss they shared was not her first kiss. She had not told him she was planning on asking her father to take the Chunin exams. She had not told him that she was even considering taking the exams. She felt like she was going to be sick.
Shino stopped abruptly. He doubled over and felt like he was going to be sick. The nausea soon subsided when he realized that Hinata was not in immediate danger. It was a memory?
Neji had noticed the chakra in Shino change again; it was no longer mixed with the familiar signature of his cousin. And they were no longer heading in the direct path towards the Hyuuga estate. He had known instantly that Hinata was in a field near by.
The Hyuuga genius had reached the Hyuuga heir before the Aburame bug user.
"Neji, please leave. I have some matters I need to discuss with Shino." Hinata spoke in a calm and monotone voice.
Neji bowed his head slightly and was gone.
Shino had arrived at her side a moment later. He gathered her in his arms and breathed in her soft lavender scent.
"You know the first time I met Kiba I punched him too." Shino spoke softly in Hinata's ear.
"…though I did not kiss him afterwards." Hinata grimaced at her koishii.
"I-I…"
"Remember when I said you could speak your mind." Shino's deep voice resonated in Hinata's chest as she remembered the day they were assigned to look for exploding tags hidden in the village.
She had lost her resolve to speak then too. But he was there to encourage her, and in him found a strength she did not know she had.
Hinata nodded slightly.
"So koishii, what have you decided?" Shino's baritone voice and cool scent calmed Hinata as she relaxed into his embrace.
"I would like to take the Chunin exams."
Shino nodded slightly in response.
The three member cell that made up team 8 prepared to take the Chunin exams.
A/n: Okay, well I got the idea in my head and couldn't shake it. Did it seem too OOC? did I loose you? I hope not. Love ya! Thanks for reading my story.
