Sometimes, it was better not to use one's gift. Sometimes, it was better to left ghosts unseen. Well, Hinata didn't have any ulterior motives when she broke those rules, but her act of compassion would have consequences beyond her imagination…
AU, SasuHina
Genre: mystery, paranormal, romance
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Chapter I: An ordinary day… almost
How she dreaded school days, especially first day of school.
Her lavender eyes shot open before the alarm clock rang to live yet again. The unnerving device resonated for almost another full minute before she decided to turn it off. From the kitchen, she could hear clatters, which meant her godmother Kurenai was already awake and cleaning.
She is a gentle woman who reached her forties last month. Her heart shaped face is framed by thick curly dark hair which reached her tailbone. Her big red eyes easily reflected her compassion as did her behavior. Hinata didn't know how the woman managed to convince her father to let her live with her but she was thankful.
Upon smelling the sickly-sweet flavor of cinnamon rolls, she finally got up, sleep still heavy in her eye. The dark-haired teen went straight for her wardrobe. After settling for jeans, a long sleeve turtleneck and her favorite winter vest, she went to the bathroom to conclude her routine. It didn't take her long to join Kurenai for breakfast and little chitchat.
"Well, I know this is the first day of school" she spoke slowly with caution "but, I still wish you to have fun" she ended with a teasing smile.
"I hope Kurenai-San, I do hope" Hinata said with a grimace. No need to remind her that until she turned fifteen, she was always on the verge of a panic attack around this time of the year.
Except today being the first day of school, this was her usual morning, nothing out of the ordinary… until she heard someone calling for her. As she went out of the little house through the herbal store run by Kurenai, a familiar voice stopped her on her track.
"Miss! Miss!"
"Oh no, not him" she muttered
"I know that you can see me! Can you help me?" heasked her. The anguish was clear in his voice, barely echoing over the wind.
Hinata tried to ignore him, but it didn't deter him. The man was dead two days ago in a car accident at the exit of the village and since then, he had been following her around. Every day, the ghost waited for her at the exit of the store; every day, he'd ask for the same thing, and every day she'd ignore him. The problem was, he didn't want to understand that she couldn't do anything for him… or yet, she didn't want to help him. She thought that it was egoistic of her to do so, what with guilt eating her out. In fact, she has been fighting herself to ignore him so bad while dying to help him. Her mind hurt from the constant intrusive thoughts. A migraine was on its way at this point.
"I need to find a ring! It's of utmost importance! It's for my daughter, she needs to know that the ring hasn't been stolen." He begged.
It was her undoing. Despite her heartbeats instinctively pulsing stronger, or the cold crawling in her skin, she made up her mind. She fought her way through the urge to vomit: she bent over, mentally counted down as she breathed deeply. When her heartbeat subdued back to normal, she stood up to face the ghost.
She usually avoided the specters and succeeded most of the time, but this one saw through her. Besides being a sharp one, she suspected he'd haunt her forever lest she didn't comply. Hinata wasn't sure to have a choice at that point.
"Where can we find that ring?" she whispered, trying to be as discreet as possible. She was extra careful, barely moving her lips.
"Ah! Finally, you deign to listen to me" he grumbled. Once he realized Hinata wouldn't take his bait, he spoke up again "So, you must go to Konoha exit. Once there, you'll notice a mound not too far from the accident. It must be there… or maybe it's still in the car… or…" He hesitated.
Surprise and pity overtook her at his tone, despite his previous haughty reply. Looking around one last time, Hinata put on her headphones before covering her mouth with both hands to speak.
"Sorry sir… but I can't really… help you if you don't know where the ring is" her soft voice ringed with an apologetic note. "But if you will, I-"
Something hard hit her chest full force almost throwing her out of balance. As she opened her eyes, she saw a car driving past her at break neck speed. Looking up, her eyes connected with those of the man who saved her life. Her pale pearls clashed with furious brown ones.
"Are you stupid? Crossing the road with headphones on? Why are kids so irresponsible nowadays?!"
"Ex-excuse me sir"
The scolding went on and on, as did the red in her cheeks. Shame couldn't be enough to describe how she felt. With her belly still churning after the near-death experience and the scolding afterward, she crossed her arms around her shoulders as she kept walking.
She almost forgot about her undesirable company until he made himself known yet again.
"Ah! I remember! It felt in the gutter!" he exclaimed, joy coloring his voice. Noticing her gloomy face, he continued with an uncertain tone "so… will you still go?"
Getting her schedule hijacked by a ghost was one of the most inoffensive reasons she hated her gift… unfortunately for her, if it wasn't for the man torturing her with his quest, her heart would. She could only give in.
Next time she'd make sure to go unnoticed by those Spirits!
"I'll go tonight after school" she promised as she put a strand of her dark hair behind her ear.
Without realizing it, her feet brought her to her high school. As she crossed the entrance, someone jumped at her neck from behind.
The dark-haired teen screamed at the top of her lungs, attracting a lot of stares in a large perimeter. She did her best to avoid the mocking eyes, but especially the angry ones. This didn't seem to faze her red-haired companion who just laughed.
"Damn gurl! What's up!"
"Hey Karin-chan… nice to see you too"
Karin was a red-haired girl, with eyes a deep burgundy color. She had a bit of a temper, was loud-mouthed, and quite eccentric. The girl was rather nice when she really chose to be, and could be viewed as pretty, but her looks were offbeat. Aside from her red hair which seemed to have been randomly cut and stretched out in different layers till her bottom, her clothes usually could rival and even surpass a traffic sign: multiple colors, sometimes with a random pick of fluorescent ones, most of the times never matching. Today she had a bubblegum pink t-shirt where it was written "Too Busy Fucking" in green, flashy blue shorts over which she had added zebra suspenders with one on her shoulder and the other hanging down, and of course her fav ever neon green sneakers covered in smileys.
She never cared about the stares she'd receive. Secretly, Hinata suspected her to actually enjoy the shock she induced in others. How she ended up hanging out with one of the biggest attention-grabbing people in the entire school despite her desire to blend in was a miracle to her, but it was a miracle she didn't spit on… on the contrary.
"… You little bitch! Kurenai and Asuma go out together, but you didn't say anything!" Karin said with a wicked smile as she pinched Hinata's arm.
"Ouch! I didn't … Know. I- you just told me"
"Either you're the most oblivious girl in the world or you go out of your way to never know what's going on around you" The red head said with a pout.
"S-sorry Karin-chan" Hinata shrugged
"Anyway, I can't stand just how much this fucking bitch of Ino has kept kissing Asuma's ass-"
"Ka-Karin-chan… he's her godfather-"
"Aw come on? So what? Is that why she has to fucking trail after him? Like what, she wanna show us she's close to a teacher? Fucking bimbo always has to show off! Thanks heavens Sasuke turned her down, her and that bitch of a friend she has. Kami knows we'd have never heard the end of this" Karin rolled her eyes, then her eyes shined with renewed passion "speaking of Sasuke, he's in our class! The most smexy guy in this whole damn hole is in our class! I still can't believe it! They fucking put THE basketball captain over which every damn girl in this high school crushes over in our class, like-"
Hinata had to giggle at this. Karin usually cussed, cursed and insulted almost anything that had the audacity to move past her eyes, but Sasuke never failed to be one of the few topics she could never diss. Without wanting to add fuel to the fire, Hinata conceded mentally that Sasuke was someone who could never leave anyone indifferent.
Karin went on and on about Sasuke before veering back to every last news roaming the corridors of Konoha high: who was in their class, which hot teachers have been hired… everything she liked to dig her nails into, and everything Hinata didn't really care about. Still, Hinata humored her friend as per usual, well, when she wasn't brooding herself. After all, it was one of her friend favorite pastimes.
Usually, Hinata'd grasp snippets of Karin incessant barrage of words and sometimes certain information proved to be useful. At that moment, two things caught her mind: Sasuke and Kin were in the same class as them. That Sasuke was in the same class as them wouldn't bring much to her life as their world didn't touch, but Hinata couldn't deny her reaction to his name. Kin Tsuchi on the other hand was a problem. Her presence occurred as a bad omen to Hinata. The infamous Kin was a superficial cheerleader who happened to be a real witch on her free time. The glossy black-haired girl, whose solely quality was her appearance, took a sadistic pleasure in belittling others. She almost always made sure to pounce upon any person who dared to stood out in any sort of way without belonging to the cheerleading squad, the popular clique or the jocks. The worse was when she had someone in her crosshairs -they'd forever be labelled per the nickname she'd grace them with; with some chance, they'd end up being bullied by her goons.
Of course, Karin liked confrontation.
Of course, Hinata had to get splashed by the waves.
Thus, one was generously called "freaky" and the other "creepy".
At least she wasn't alone in this fight.
"… speaking of flowers, I bought some"
Hinata regarded her friend with the blankest gaze she could muster. She didn't remember the redhead to like flower so much as to buy them out of nowhere, especially not as a gift. Karin rolled her eyes dramatically.
"We were supposed to do the flower pressing thing today. You said you'd show me"
Karin had told Hinata she wanted to learn it since the latter liked to do it so much. Last December she had offered her dark-haired friend a flower press as birthday gift. The joy and tears that shook her left Karin baffled. Despite teasing Hinata until her face turned red, Karin had been quite pleased. Ever since, the redhead had talked about learning flower pressing with her friend but it was over the weekend they had official scheduled it. So, it was a long-awaited program… that she couldn't honor.
"Why do you look like our plans got cancelled?"
"W-well sorry but… I got commissioned… again"
"Uh?! By wh-… oh! Damn those bastard" Karin shook her head "it's a new one?"
"No, it's the same one from two days ago" Hinata sighed "he caught me outside of the shop as usual" she added, knowing her friend always demanded for details.
"Why would you make this face for?"
"N-not to complain but I … I almost got run over and got scolded hard for that" Hinata sighed yet again.
"Look at your face though" Karin refrain from laughing, her face lost between pity and hilarity. "So?"
"I'll go right after school looking for his daughter's ring" Hinata whispered
Karin was the only person who knew and thought her gift to be real. The redhead, at first skeptic, ended up believing in Hinata when she revealed her secret (albeit not voluntarily). That she believed herself in paranormal activities had made the process so much easier. However, the real click happened when she once accompanied the pale eyed teen in her quest.
It was somewhat a relief for the darkhaired girl not to be taken for a lunatic girl, but again, this was Karin and Hinata was far from fond of her gift. The day her friend caught her; she swore inwardly to never let another living being caught her again.
The bell rang and Hinata got carried away by Karin through the labyrinth of corridors and stairs to join their class which, unfortunately, was on the third floor.
"Room 305" Karin informed her friend.
They walked into the room and sat one behind the other near the window while chatting about what to expect of their last year of high school.