Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Chapter Four: Chains
Everything felt blurry; Hinata realized that her eyes had gummed up from the tears the night before. Staggering from her chunky bed, the girl stepped hesitantly towards the restroom.
The water felt icy, chilling; it felt like a keen knife, as they flowed against her hands. She gathered a cupful of the streaming water, and splashed them against her face. Rinse and repeat: Hinata started to feel her eyes beginning to clear up a little.
When she felt normal enough, Hinata stared into the mirror before her. Long, messy hair, and blank white eyes rimmed with ruptured veins. A pale face, with a slight, faded scar crossing from her right ear to where it ended right before the eye.
Sighing, Hinata turned away, to prepare for her day ahead.
The sun rose; and in concerto Naruto's mouth opened like a gaping maw also, revealing rows of gleaming white teeth. He never had problems with teeth; the Fox's chakra seemed to help with that, also.
He jumped from the bed, bare feet rattling the floor of the apartment, and raced for the restroom. The blond kicked the door open, and with one hand flipped the light switch on as with the other he-
No need to know, eh? Sufficient to say that he relieved himself.
When he was done, Naruto did not bother washing his hands, and simply strode out of the restroom with a satisfied smile on his face. His brief stint inside the hospital had opened his eyes to the joys of solitary living.
He cast off the pajamas onto the floor, and walked towards the closet, opening their doors with a bang. Nothing hung inside the closet; all the clothes were piled in tangled heaps on the bottom, orange and grey and black and green mingling and mixing like a potpourri of watercolors. Naruto reached in, sorted through a few of the shirts, and picked one out that looked to be quite clean: it was a gray long-sleeved shirt, and although there were some bloodstains on the front and it stank slightly of old moldy sweat, he slipped it on- it wasn't as if anyone would notice the difference.
But where were his pants? Naruto looked for them without success- he had three pairs, one black and others orange, but they were all gone from their usual place on the floor.
Clad only in his boxer shorts, Naruto shrugged, and went to the kitchen. He could find pants later: no missions today, anyways.
The blond-haired boy looked into one of the drawers right below the stove. Nothing. He had bought a box of chicken-flavored ramen a week before, and it should still be here- strange, he thought. Naruto began to sort through all the drawers in the kitchen; maybe he had misplaced it.
Twenty minutes later, the Chuunin, thoroughly pissed, stared straight up to the ceiling and screamed, "What now! What!"
There was a snicker, and Naruto waited, steaming, as the seemingly-whole ceiling started to become webbed with cracks. Then, without any warning, a boy of perhaps ten jumped down. Naruto looked back up at the ceiling, and saw only smooth surface.
"Pretty slick, eh?" Konohamaru said, grinning. "Fooled you too. And you're sixteen!"
Naruto wasn't amused. "I don't mind it when you pretend to be a girl and sneak into the bathes. I don't mind it when you set up booby traps around my house. I don't mind it when you try to summon a giant frog and end up with bleeding fingers that don't stop bleeding because you messed up. But you don't touch my ramen."
"What ramen?" Konohamaru asked, pretending to be puzzled. Naruto had dealt with the kid too many times to mistake that look of fake bewilderment.
"My ramen! Where did you hide it, you little punk!"
"Such words, master!" And with that, as Naruto was about to lash out with his fists, Konohamaru disappeared with a puff of smoke.
He didn't even bother looking for the little pest. Naruto simply swung his arm out backwards in a slow, wide arc- and connected solidly with the back of Konohamaru's head. The little Genin was thrown back by the blow, and fell to the ground.
For a split second, Naruto was alarmed, thinking that he had seriously injured the boy; but then, he remembered one of Konohamaru's favorite tricks- playing dead. So Naruto simply walked up to the limp body, and kicked him hard, between the ribs.
"Ow!" Konohamaru cried, jumping up.
"Where is it?"
"Where what?"
"The ramen, you little ass."
"Oh." Suddenly, Konohamaru frowned; his lips curved rapidly downwards, and his eyes, simultaneously widening, glimmered with unshed tears as he started to blubber out, "Oh, Master Naruto, I sold them to feed my mammy and pappy-"
Groaning, Naruto held out his hand, signaling the Genin to stop. "Not that act again. Please."
"Sure." With that, Konohamaru's lips snapped back up and stretched back into their usual position, which was from one ear to another, showing brillantly white teeth.
"Now: where's my noodles?" Naruto asked. "If you don't tell me, I'll kick your ass."
"Will you beat me up with that cool wind-thingy?" Konohamaru asked, eyes wide again. "Awesome! Shoot me in the chest with it!"
"No!"
A little of the miso paste was still left in the black pot, but there wasn't enough to cook anything with it- so Hinata simply ate the miso with the rice, dabbing a little of the paste with each swallow to give some flavor to the otherwise flavorless breakfast. Each bite tasted like sticky sand.
When done, she put away the pot- there still remainedsome of it left- and stacked the empty bowl in the sink, along with the dishes piled up from the day before yesterday. Normally, she kept her shabby apartment impeccably clean; but right now she didn't feel like doing much.
Sighing, Hinata walked to the closet, and picked out the clothes for work. Her body still creaked. It was the product of falling asleep in her clothes, but still, why couldn't they invent clothing that felt comfortable even after you slept in it? She catalogued that thought into a little file in her memory that she called "Things To Do."
A white shirt, emblazoned with the symbol of the Leaf on the back; a pair of black pants, and a gray jacket over it; she didn't keep a truly fashionable wardrobe. But eveything hung neatly and in order according to their color and size, and all the clothes smelled slightly of lilies- nothing strong or overwhelming, just enough to be pleasant.
"Pitiful."
Startled, Hinata turned, and saw Neji. She wasn't relieved.
"Don't you have any shame?" Neji continued, without waiting for her reply. "You're a Hyuuga, for gods' sakes."
"Brother Neji," Hinata said, bowing.
"Get up," Neji said, irritated.
Hinata complied. She wondered what he was doing here- what was his purpose? He hated her. Not as much as he used to, but hate was hate, no matter how you changed. Neji was a different boy from the days back- but, seventeen or not, hate remained.
And how did he sneak in like that?
"You shame us all," Neji began.
"I- I've heard this be... before."
"I'm not talking about your profession, or your lack of any special talents. I'm talking about this." His eyes took in their surroundings derisively. "You're a Hyuuga, for gods' sakes. It does not reflect well on our clan if you live in this... hovel."
"I, I c-can't af, affored anything else..."
"Stop stuttering," Neji said absentmindedly. "And what do you mean, you can't afford anything else?"
"The pay for teachers... and their assistants... was c-cut by half."
Neji raised an eyebrow. "You know how to access the vault. Much of it is by yours, too, by law both Clan and Village."
Hinata could not reply.
"Is it for pride?" Neji smirked. "You only take little? Let me tell you this: so long as you depend on the Clan's money, no matter how little you take, you are still debting yourself to the Clan. It isn't the amount that matters. Only the act. If you truly wanted to break away, learn how to live, by yourself."
How could she tell him? How?
"No answer. Just silence. The refuge of the weak-minded." He sighed, and turned to leave. Hinata was curiously saddened by that- he hated her, yet she did not, and family, no matter how estranged and bitter, was always company.
"Take this." With that, Neji tossed over his shoulders- without turning- a small, brown sack. Hinata caught it; the sack felt heavy, hard, filled with things that clinked together inside.
"Open it." He had opened the door, and was in the process of walking through the doorway. Then he said, outside in the hallway, "if you truly want to leave..."
The door swung shut.
Hinata untied the strings that bound the bag, and looked inside. Gold. Pure-minted gold, with jewels mixed in between. Inside this little bag would be enough money to last her years- in fact, she might even be able to...
Leave? Could she? And she thought, yes. I could leave. Nothing truly bound her here.
But then, she caught a sight of herself in the bathroom mirror, standing with the bag of gold spread open in her hands. And she laughed; she couldn't leave. Never. No matter what. What names or disguises, after all, could hide her eyes? Those eyes that marked her, for good or ill, as Hyuuga.
She tied the sack of gold once again, and slid it under her bed. She might need it later.
A/N:Thanks for all who read and reviewed! And as a note, things will go... faster, later on. Specifically, next chapter.
