Disclaimer: Obviously, I don't own Naruto.
Chapter Three:Some Soul-Searching
To say that Hinata fled the hospital weeping would be overdramatic. She actually walked quite demurely and in possesion of herself, and just a glimmer of tears gathered in the corner of her eyes as she clutched and tried to pick up the pieces of her- heart? soul? love? Who knew?
Maybe it was hope. It had been delicous for that short period of time when she thought Naruto returned her feelings. And it was gone now, away drifting in the cold northern wind.
One step forward, one step forward, one step on and on til' she reached the house. Hinata concentrated on each individual step, and clung to the sheer mundane monotonous of it. It would save her. She knew that, from experience. When her father's anger got the best of him, and he would sit trembling from fury and despair over her ineptitude, she counted the grains of the wooden tiles, the motes of dust dancing in the sunlit air, or the-
Someone sang. The sound grew louder and louder. The singing sounded bubbly and drunk.
Hinata again tried to concentrate on her footsteps, but the singing kept drawing her back to the real world, where the streets were now empty and the sun slowly, inevitably, descended. The singing kept growing louder, and the pale-eyed girl thought that the singer, whoever she was, must be near by now. Maybe twenty meters away.
Hinata slowly stepped to the side until her right arm pressed against the wall, and the shadow wrapped all around her. Then, hidden, Hinata waited, watching.
A trio of drunken young ninjas staggered out of the small alley. Hinata could smell the sour scent of sake and the cheaper rice beer reeking from them. Two men held the singer- who had long, blond hair that reached all the way down to her waist- between them, holding her up.
'Chouji,' Hinata thought. 'That's the big one- and the other must be Shikamaru. And the one who's singing must be Yamanaka Ino.' She watched as the three stumbled and tripped out of the alleyway, and started dragging themselves to wherever they had to go.
The one in the middle- Ino- kept on singing, as Hinata watched, unseen, from the shadows.
My
love for you was sweet as a cherry
but
you've gone and smashed it all to pieces
but you've gone and put the fires out altogether
Hinata recognized the song. A 'band' had come through Konoha three months before, and had sang these songs- and they had been awful. But, still, the tune had a mindlessly fun quality to it- numbing, almost. Hinata found herself starting to hum along with Ino's drunken song. And so, humming, she watched the three ninjas walk away in drunken companionship.
As they all walked away, the pale-eyed girl found herself staring at Ino, who pressed closely- very closely- against Shikamaru. And Hinata wondered if she would ever do that with Naruto...
When the sound of Ino's song faded away til' Hinata could only hear slight echoes of it, the purple-haired girl started moving along. She had to get home.
By the time she reached the Hyuuga Manor, the wind had again began to blow, a cold chill that seeped into her bones. Shivering, she leapt over the walls, nearly stumbled on one of the tiles on the way, and landed softly on the stone courtyard.
The guards had seen her, of course, and had identified her as a Hyuuga. Otherwise, several ninjas would have attacked her by then. Hinata shivered once again as the wind grew sharper. Hinata hated coming back to this manor, this giant place of dark corners and keen disappointment- this place was haunted with memories, most of them sad and shameful.
But the pay for teaching at the Academy wasn't enough for her to afford the basic, neccesary things she needed for living, and so she had to come back every month, and take a small bagful of coins. Even after being disowned, Hinata still had her privileges, and thus she had access to the family vaults- and although, with it, she could have lived comfortably, she only chose to take enough money for her to pay the rent for the apartment on. Hinata still had her pride, as little as it may have been.
She tried to straighten her back, to stand straight as the main building, a giant, newly-renovated palace (for there was no other word for it). But she kept on slouching, her back curving, nearly bowing with some invisible weight as she neared the main building. Hinata felt her heart beat faster with each individual step.
Finally, she reached the main building. It smelled of incense, wood, and blood. She walked inside, not bothering to take her sandals off. It paddled against the polished wooden floors.
Servants and the household guards walked and patrolled the hallway of the manor, and all bowed to Hinata as she walked towards her destination. She bowed back to them, equal to equal.
The family vault was simply a solid wooden wall, with sixty-six holes carved into it. Only one of the holes held the key to opening it. The other sixty-five holes held poisoned needles, poised to plunge into the thieving hand. The theory was that only those with the Byakugan would be able to see the real hole on the wall, and even if they had the Byakugan but missed the real one, well, they shouldn't have been born in the first place- the Hyuuga name held no idiots under it's banner.
The hole with the key was the one three holes up and five holes to the right of the bottom left hole. Hinata reached in, grasped for the small steel cube- a small corner of her mind expected a tiny, deadly jab- and found it. She drew it out; the key, black and cold, gleamed under lamplight.
Applying a small bit of chakra to it, she watched it flare, then dropped it gently to the floor. The steel cube clanked on the wooden surface- then, on the floor, it began to melt away, slowly oozing chrome lava over the polished wood.
After about fifteen seconds, the cube had completely melted away. The silvery-chrome-lava seeped into the woods, also, and now, as the substance disappeared, a small, steel lid appeared. It had a small knob.
Hinata knelt down onto the floor, grasped the knob, and twisted.
The wall of the sixty-six holes simply swung backwards, and revealed the vault to Hinata, all it's wealth shining and gleaming. She paid the gold and the jewels no mind; instead, she walked over the shelves lining the vault, opened one, and took some bills out instead.
When Hinata left the vault, the wall slowly, smoothly swung shut once again. The steel lid on the floor was gone. Heart strangely feeling guilty, as if she had been robbing the vault, rather than taking just what she needed from what was rightfull her's, Hinata started walking away, her sandaled feet slapping against the smooth wooden floor.
"You've grown shameless, you know that?"
Hinata recognized the voice. Turning, she bowed low, eyes fixed onto the floor. "Hello, B-brother Neji."
"And still stuttering." Neji sounded imperious.
Hinata knew better. She, perhaps out of all the people in Konoha, was the only one who understood him, and perhaps, maybe, loved him like a brother, and feared him, also. Not even him teammates- Tenten, Lee- knew him better.
Neji was never imperious. Never. Only bitter. And the two were different things, the first borne from the pride, the second born from experience...
"I-I'll b-be going now," Hinata said, and bowed again. She turned, and began to walk away, and she almost expected Neji to say something to her, something hurtful or something so meaningful, like the time they had been trapped in-
"Goodbye," Neji said to her. Hinata turned, startled; but he was gone.
"So I'm outta here, right?" The blond-haired boy asked, as he huriedly dressed. First went the tattered orange pants, then a gray long-sleeved shirt; over that went the chuunin vest, and finally, the forehead protector that he tied around his neck.
"Guess so, kid." The medic-nin, a woman with a scarred face and a missing nose, said. "You seem alright, although I don't know how the hell you managed to heal in that short period of time..." Then she grimaced. "Oh, damn it. You're that Naruto."
"Oh, yeah. That's me." Naruto smiled. "So what happened to your nose?"
"Hey, I really didn't mean much by... whatever the hell I said earlier." The medic-nin patted him on the shoulder gently. "Sorry, kid. Didn't mean it. Seriously."
"I don't mind." Naruto said. "But what the hell happened to your nose, anyways?"
"You know, to some people that'd be offensive."
"Oh, shit. Sorry-"
The medic-nin held up her hand. "Hey, I didn't say I was one of those people, kid. I'm proud of my scars. Shows that I went down fighting for the village. Honor-badge, almost. Got it cut off when I got captured by the Sand."
"Awesome." Naruto said. "Uzumaki Naruto, chuunin and the sixth Hokage of Konoha."
The medic-nin laughed, and her scars- criss-crossing across her cheekbones- twisted and rippled. The missing nose gave her a reptilian look, like a snake, almost; but Naruto didn't feel any animosity from her.
"Name's Akari, kid. Glad to meet you."
It was deep night, when Hinata reached her shabby apartment. It had been all she could afford, at a normal teacher's pay; and now, with deep budget cuts that the Hokage had made, the teacher's pay in her case as an teacher's assistant had been cut in half. Which had been why she crept back to the Hyuuga Manor every month in the first place- it was something she would rather not do, but seeing as how the only other alternatives were to start taking up missions again, or go live in the streets, or -and gods forbid- to go back to the Hyuuga Manor...
The door, chipped and trashily painted over, swung open with a bang that rattled the walls. Inside, the smell of rotting wood and mothballs filled the air. Some sparse, cheap furniture were scattered around the room, and as Hinata closed the door and sank onto her creaky bed, the tears began to come out...
She didn't want to cry. But they came out anyways. Maybe it was because of the fact that her dream for the last few years had finally culminated in a bloody wreck today- Naruto, Naruto, Naruto.
Author's Note:I have been gone for a long time... but I decided to finish what I started. Thanks for reading!
