14. Water Under The Bridge
She stands there, suddenly stopped.
He sighs, thankfully. And makes his way towards the bridge. His student is by far one of the strangest kids he's ever had the pleasure to teach. She's delightful: she knows everything she must, is obedient, but she is so distant, and painfully shy. She's locked up in a glass cage where she sees all but none really see her...
Her presence in his class confused him: he'd never understood why she'd been sent to the Academy: most Hyuuga prefer teaching their young separately from the rest of the village.
It was the mark on her forehead (that he should've deducted was there, but he didn't) that made him realize why she was being taught by outsiders of the village. She'd been wearing countless bandanas and bandages around her forehead, hiding the infamous and not to mention inhuman Caged Bird Seal. She'd revealed it to him by accident, and yet he couldn't understood why she'd run. There was no shame in her position: she was born into the Second Branch, as unfair as that was, her fate was no her fault.
The rain doesn't let up, it still falls violently, crashing brutally against the earth and buildings and river, and there is nothing in the air but rain and more rain. And Hinata has closed eyes, standing there, and Iruka hears her faint crying.
Probably, she hadn't shown the seal to anyone yet. The sudden revealing, the sudden knowledge of her status to her class (Iruka knows Naruto will blab about it, and to his knowledge, her forehead had been free of the mark at the beginning of that year) must have brought the situation crashing down on her...
The seal must be pretty recent then, Iruka deducts.
It's a horrid symbol. A horrid branding. It's barbaric, even to the standards of a military village like Konoha.
He wants to explain to her that everything will be alright. He wants to walk forward and reach her on that bridge and tell her she's going to be just fine, but realizes that someone else has reached her first.
To his immense annoyance, he notices that the little pest Naruto had followed her as well.
He wants to yell at the boy, but somehow, Iruka just stands there, to watch his two students...What is he waiting for, for the boy to make the girl cry? Well, the girl's already crying so it wouldn't matter... he notes morosely.
The rain blurs his vision, but he is certain of what he sees next.
Naruto doesn't laugh or yell or gesticulate like he normally does. The boy isn't even talking. He's just standing there, fists in pockets, looking up to watch her face. Hinata is still facing the grey sky. It's subtle, a passer-by wouldn't have noticed, but he reaches out for her shoulder, and the sudden contact makes the girl jump.
Moments pass, and Iruka simply watches, forgetting that he's supposed to be teaching a room full of brats at the moment and forgetting that Naruto is an annoying kid with a loud voice.
He watches in awe as the blonde surprises him again, and watches as Hinata crumples in the blonde's arms, her stoic demeanor and Hyuuga eyes gone to show a young dark-haired girl who is just as lonely as the blond, despite being part of one of the most tight-knit clans in the village.
He wants to creep closer, to intervene, but he decides against it, remembering his class, and decides to leave them. He gives them a day off, he realizes. And hopes that Naruto won't say something ridiculously stupid.
He walks away in the rain, a strange feeling in his chest, and he wishes the world wasn't so cruel.