风
"I KNEW IT! YOUR CLAN IS TREACHEROUS!" The man gasped through his punctured lung. "You want our Sharingan, that's why you kidnapped our Uchiha. Now you kill us, right before we expose that truth to the public and fight back!"
Then Hinata was him, Hinata stuck in his body, watching someone else of a mirror image of herself chuckle sadistically and slowly reach over her lids and tear our her Byakugan, or was it Sharingan? She couldn't see, she screamed, she cried, she burned.
风
Hinata snapped awake, drenched in sweat, panting hard and almost tearing the blankets under her iron grip. She made no sound, looked no further, and forced herself back to sleep.
Or tried to.
...
Hinata was special, she could easily force herself asleep whenever she wanted, however she wanted, she knew this. Staying up all night in terror would do no good for her eyes and most certainly decrease her critical thinking abilities and vivacity. She needed it all to keep up with Naruto.
But she was still tense, her nervous system won't stop producing adrenaline.
Why?!
The she heard it.
Peck.
Peck.
Peck.
She thrust her covers to the far side of the room and hopped off the bed, approaching the window and pulling it open.
A crow hopped in, and Hinata wasn't surprised, albeit annoyed. Must've been Itachi's messenger. Just when she has a hard time dealing with reminders of that day, he just had to...
Just when she was certain to never see him again...
It was the last straw. Hinata snapped, "WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS BUTTING INTO MY LIFE?! EVEN WHEN YOU'RE NOT THERE, ITACHI!"
Then the crow cocked its head to the side, revealing the eye of Shisui.
Hinata fainted.
..Well, that was one way to get back to sleep.
When dawn broke, Hinata pulled herself from, the floor? Did I manage to fall off?
She felt something tugging at her hair and turned to see the crow perched on her shoulder chewing her locks. Remembering last night, she groaned.
The crow hopped off her shoulder and flew out the window. Resisting the urge to shut it out, Hinata watched as it returned no more than ten seconds later, with two scrolls.
She opened the first scroll.
My friend,
Send me ten eyes, you can't hide anything from me.
Keep Shisui's, but do not remove it from the crow,
Instead, sign this scroll, it is your only way to contact me,
Were something to happen to my brother.
Should you refuse, I'll torture you before killing you.
-Weasel
Hinata stared at the letter, before burning it with a blue flame. She snatched the other scroll out the bird's mouth, reopened the wound on her finger, and scrawled her signature in the century old paper. Then, she tossed it to the floor, and walked out the door, ignoring the indignant expression on the bird.
风
"Naruto, let's walk to school together," Hinata said.
"Hina-chan, what's wrong? You look...sad!"
Hinata blinked. "Really?"
"Yeah! You look ramen-starved! Let's go to Ichiraku's before class!"
风
Hinata picked at the miso ramen with her chopsticks. So this was Naruto's favorite food.
She sniffed it and slurped some into her mouth. Naruto excitedly leaned to her ear, "Well- how is it Hina? Is it good is it good DATTEBAYO!"
"I-I-" Hinata swallowed, her eyes watering. "I-It's good."
风
"Welcome back to class, uh, Hinata-chan," Iruka-sensei greeted hesitatingly, checking off her name in the attendance list beside the constant rows of X's. Beside him, Mizuki-sensei smiled reassuringly, his white hair hiding the intentional glint in his eyes. Every other student stared at her in awe and whispered.
"T-Thanks," Hinata said, peeking at Naruto.
"The seat beside me is empty! Let's sit together Hina-chan!" Then Naruto looked at her with fear of rejection.
Hinata felt her stomach flutter. "Y-Yeah."
She was so used to interacting with adults concerning politics that her mind came up blank and she didn't know how to act around others her age, or to teachers.
风
"Let's all review the clone jutsu," Iruka-sensei decided. "Naruto, why don't you come up first?"
"Hinata-chan, you can take a break," Mizuki-sensei said.
Naruto puffed up his chest. "I GOT THIS!" Inside, he was freaking out. As he made it to the front of the classroom, he formed the hand seal. "Clone Jutsu!" A discombobulated version of himself appeared, and died.
Hinata watched with her Byakugan turned on. She could see the excess leakage coming from Naruto's belly, and the explosive failure of the jutsu. He has too much chakra and not enough control.
When class ended, Hinata was waiting for Naruto at the exit.
风
"Hinata, where are we going?" They were walking through the forest, Hinata pulling Naruto's hand along."
"I wanna teach you an important technique, Naruto-kun." Water-walking. She hadn't considered Tree-Walking as the first step of the exercise. Hyuuga had a natural affinity for chakra control, and she forgot Naruto would have a harder time without the Byakugan.
"YATTA!"
They stopped upon the hill over the docks, a giant lake below them in the middle of a forest. Hinata froze, her hand squeezing onto Naruto's.
Sasuke was sitting at the end of the dock, his feet dangling over the still lake as he gazed longingly at his reflection.
A bolt of shame jabbed Hinata's chest.
Flashback
"Stop, don't kill her!" He choked out on the verge of death, "Take my life instead! I'll give you both of my eyes!"
She thrust the tanto into his brain..."Shut up."
"Naruto, let's go."
"W-What? But-"
"We can do this next time."
"Oi, isn't Sasuke-teme there?" If Naruto were alone, he would've walked right past Sasuke, outwardly ignoring him while inwardly sharing a bond with him. But with Hinata so determinedly avoiding Sasuke, Naruto's buried feelings surfaced. "I don't wanna! I wanna face Sasuke!" Naruto fistpumped. "Ya know, Sasuke-teme doesn't own the lake! What, are ya gonna teach me a super cool water jutsu?!" Naruto hopped excitedly. "Don't let Sasuke stop ya!"
Hinata froze. "I...You're right, let's g-" Hinata heard a splash, and looked to see that Sasuke had jumped into the lake. If he's thinking about Itachi, I have to avoid him. She forgot about the risk of Sasuke drowning, instead changing her mind. "No, wait, I have a better technique to teach you. Let's go to your place."
"YATTA! Hina-chan coming to my house! Dattebayo! Let's go!" Naruto grabbed her hand and ran home so fast, that Hinata had to move chakra to her feet to keep up.
风
Naruto sat, focused, reading the same scroll for the B-Rank Shadow Clone technique.
He kept asking Hinata questions and translations and about parts he didn't understand. Hinata gladly obliged.
Then, Naruto made a cross hand seal. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
The whole room became stuffed with solid clones, which made Naruto's apartment even more of a mess.
When they dispelled, Hinata sweatdropped. He mastered the technique faster than I did. A smile broke across her face, and she reached over, pulling Naruto into a bone-crushing hug. Again.
When Hinata returned home, her eyes were less forlorn.
风
Somewhere, hidden someplace...
Shisui Uchiha struggled in his bindings. Dammit, the chakra suppressors just keep getting stronger. I can't see. He opened his coarse mouth. "Let me go!"
"S-Sorry, I can't let you die, just yet."
"H-Hinata?" He couldn't see.
"You can't revive a person who isn't dead."
"What?"
"Tch. Have you heard of Orochimaru?"
"WHAT?! You're keeping me alive and locked up under the excuse of keeping my 'soul' off someone else's hands?! You're sick! Insane! Atrocious!" Shisui wiggled, trying to break free out of whatever he was bondaged in. It felt like handcuffs, he couldn't reach an itch. Then, he felt a stinging slap against his cheek.
"Don't be selfish! We all want to suicide! But you have no need to die! What if, the future needs you?" She turned her back to him. "Someday, you'll return. But as far as the world is concerned, you no longer exist." She smirked. "See you in a few years."
Shisui heard her footsteps leave. What are you expecting of me? Without my eyes, I'm as useless as the next civilian.
He didn't know she had jars of them shoved in the kitchen cabinets of her cat summonverse.
Then again, at the time he also didn't know Uchiha cats could swim, and was proven wrong.
He frowned. In a few hours, he was going to be fed mice. This was much worse than dying. Shisui made an experimental bite on his tongue but some seal inscribed in his cheeks prevented that motion. He instead sighed.
风
