She woke to blood on her pillow.
Scrunching her forehead, she squinted at the dull red droplets on her pristine white sheets, blinking twice in attempt to remove the fogginess of sleep from her eyes. She traced the outline of the stain then stood up, heading over to the adjoining bathroom.
Turning on the lights, she stumbled to the mirror, placing her hands on the sink. There was a dried trail of crusty blood from her nose to her upper lip. Splashing some water on her face, she continued with her daily morning routine of a quick shower.
It wasn't the first time that she bled from the nose. In fact, it had been going on for the past week or so now. The 18 year old girl wanted to go to the doctor to have a checkup, but after school activities did not allow her to do so. She was part of the martial arts club in the 3rd year of high school, and took the position of vice captain.
That however, did not mean she was really good at kempo or any of the other styles of fighting, she had gotten the vice-chair position because of her family's social status in the city. Her father had owned major hotel industries and is very influential, not mentioning that he had donated huge amounts towards school funding. Of course, he wasn't about to let his daughter embarrass him with her lack of skill, and prompted the teacher to 'do something about it'. Which he did, by placing her into the committee.
She combed through her blue-black hair roughly, it was easy to manage anyway being a sporty bob cut and all, and threw on her usual baggy pants and a tank, shrugged into a light jacket, and went out of the house hurriedly. She was late for one-on-one training with the president.
"Hinata. You're late." A mellow voice tinged with steel greeted her as she parked her bicycle to the side of the basketball court.
Heart skipping a thousand times faster, she bowed until her body was parallel to the floor and held her pose. "I'm really sorry," she mumbled as her throat went dry. She hated offending anyone.
He waved his hand as if to brush off a fly. "I don't want your apologies. I want your punctuality and dedication. It's bad enough that you're not such a good student of the arts. I wouldn't be here wasting my time if it weren't for Uncle." The last bit came out with a little resentment and Hinata flinched visibly, shrinking further into her shell.
"Yes, Neji-kun." She straightened, and looked her cousin in the eye. Just in the last 2 months, she hadn't dared look anyone in the face, but that was before she had decided that she didn't want to be in her family's or anyone's shadow anymore and moved out quietly, cutting all relations with her immediate family.
It was really a spur of the moment kind of thing. She hadn't planned on it from the start, it was years of constant humiliation and self blame that had broke the camel's back. That morning, she had been practising her kata out in the gardens, executing move after move without pause or rest. Like any other day, her sister Hanabi was out for a walk and stood by the tree, scrutinising every move she made. It was normal, really, for her to then open her mouth to criticise her form.
"You're too clumsy. It's supposed to flow, not performed all choppy like what you're doing." Her 12 year old sister sounded reproachful. Under her breath, she muttered, "you're embarrassing."
"H-hai." Hinata tried again, pretending not to have heard the last bit, to break suddenly in the middle, and cursed herself for the lack of grace and fluidity unlike the rest of her family.
Hanabi made a sound of annoyance then strutted off, deciding that she was sick of watching her elder sister train. Yes, it was just like any other day. Only that guilt within the usually shy 18 year old had turned to mild aggravation, and she gave up practice for the day, heading into the mansion.
"Hinata! There you are. Where have you been all morning?" the strong assertive voice of her father greeted her ears, and she groaned inwardly.
"Father," she acknowledged, bowing in greeting. She watched as servants brought his luggage down the marble steps and raised her eyebrows. "Going away?"
Hiashi made a noise in his throat. "I'd think that'll be quite obvious. I'm going to China today with my associates. In the time that I'm gone, I'd like you to read up on the laws and procedures of business management in China. You're going to be Head of this company very soon, and I don't want to be disappointed. Also, I might be sending you away to Korea just to get the taste of things. You'd like that, won't you?"
Hinata bit her lip, and nodded. "How long will you be gone?"
Hiashi contemplated the question while he looked at his reflection in the mirror on one of the walls, adjusting his tie before replying. "I'm really not sure. 6 months, at the very least. I might be there for a whole year." He looked down at his daughter, and patted her on her shoulder. "Work hard." With that, he was out the door and into his limousine, on his way to the airport.
It was now or never. Calmly, as if in a dream or possessed by something, she went up the steps to her room, and took out a duffel bag, methodically going back and forth her closet and her bag, neatly putting all her treasured things into it and went to the front door.
"Going out, Hinata-sama?" a servant called out, and rushed to open the door for her. The servant eyed her bag warily, and Hinata gave her the best glare that she could muster, which was more of a frown then anything else. "Alright then, have a good day." The door opened and she stepped out, feeling a weight being lifted off her shoulder. In a few days, when Hinata wasn't back at home, the servants would probably be assuming that she had finally rebelled against her parents and moved out in a petty huff. Rich kids like her were always thought to be spoilt anyway. Besides, she had no choice but to go back once she had run out of money, right?
Hinata was bent on proving them wrong. She may be quiet and gentle, but she would not stand being oppressed any longer. Being timorous in nature, it had taken her ages to find a place to stay, and during that time, she had roamed about the streets at night, and meeting all sorts of people during the different hours of day had roughened her up slightly, though she don't think that she will ever really lose her soft edge.
"How is Uncle, by the way?" the boy asked, tying his waist length hair into a tight ponytail and striding towards the centre of the court.
"He's fine. In Beijing now, I think, setting up a chain of hotels there." Hinata replied softly, taking off her jacket and stood in front of him, her knees soft and bent, ready for action.
The heads of the club faced each other, sizing one another up, and Neji sprung first, knowing that Hinata will never make the first move, and charged at her with a kick to the face. She dodged it easily, and countered with a punch which was deflected reflexively, and followed through with a leg swinging into his ribs.
They sparred for minutes as Neji accessed Hinata's improvement or the lack thereof, and told her to stop. They bowed to each other out of formality and stepped away from one another, with Hinata going to the nearest water fountain to quench her thirst.
"You aren't doing what I told you to do. Your attacks always come from the right, leaving your left totally open. It's too predictable." Neji commented, and motioned for her to come back to the court. "Let's do it again," he told her, "And this time, faster and stronger."
Hinata nodded, and waited for him to make the first move which he did, swinging a fist at her, she blocked it with both hands but it proved to be a fake as he twisted into the air, swinging his leg and contacted with her shoulder blade, knocking her to the floor. She was on her feet in an instant and came at him with a series of punches, all deflected. As the spar went on, her attacks were all futile, and she bit her lip in disappointment, feeling her body give up as her actions started to lack in enthusiasm, giving half hearted kicks and punches.
A foot to her temple brought the fight to a halt as she lay sprawled on the ground, breathing harshly.
Neji frowned deeply at her. "Why aren't you even trying?"
Hinata looked down at the ground, not knowing what to say. "I'm not cut out for this." She managed. She sniffled as she felt her nose run, and was surprised. Was she crying without herself knowing? She didn't even felt like crying so why was her nose running?
Bringing a hand up to her nose, she wiped at the wetness, and it came away in a smear of red. The bright liquid trailed down her fingers to the insides of her wrist as she stared at it blankly. A towel strewn in her direction broke her revelry and she glanced up at Neji, who was looking at her in disdain.
"Wipe that blood off. I didn't expect you to hurt this easily."
Hinata looked away uncomfortably. She wasn't about to tell him that it wasn't because of his kick to her head. It was something else. Something that she had no idea about. She wiped her face clean with the towel though, and stood up, thanking him. "I've got to go. Thanks for the lesson." Reaching for her jacket, she dug into it and pulled out an envelope. "This is my withdrawal letter from the club. Please accept it." She held it out to him, looking everywhere but at him.
"I cannot take this. I promised your father," Neji finally said after staring at the offending letter for a full minute.
"My father will be gone for six months the least this time round. I think you've hardly any reason not to take this. He wouldn't know. And when he comes back, we'll just pretend you've tried your best." She paused, biting on her lower lip. "Please."
"I can't. It would mean putting the lives of my family at risk. And I won't do that." The muscle in his jaw bunched and tightened as he pushed the girl's wrist away from him. Just then, 50 metres away, the clock on the school tower struck 8, cueing the chime of the school bell.
Neji eyed her backpack by her bicycle, and glanced back at her. "You did bring your uniform, didn't you?" Hinata nodded. "Let's go for class." They were in the same class of 3-A, where all the brightest students taking the same subjects of business, economics and accountancy were. Classes were held in the same classroom until lunchtime, and then students were to break off into different classes after that, depending on the electives that they've chosen.
From what Hinata gathered(they had talked about nothing else other than training), Neji was taking fine art as an elective, while herself was taking biosciences. She had always been better at studying the human anatomy and cells than finances and economics.
They were walking towards the school grounds when Neji stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "You're bleeding again," he stated, flicking blood away from her upper lip. "I think you'd better go to the infirmary to get your injuries checked."
Hinata stammered, "N-no, it's alright. Nothing to worry about," she smiled with effort, and walked briskly to the girl's changing rooms. "I-I'll see you in class," she murmured before slipping behind the door.
When she got to class, Neji was already surrounded by first year fangirls at his desk, chattering away excitedly about mundane inane things as the boy took out his textbook, flipping nonchalantly, acting like the crowd around him was invisible. That was until someone grabbed him from the back in a headlock, and the offensive movement caused him to be thrown into the blackboard, eliciting a low moan from him.
"Neji!" a blonde spiky haired sat up gingerly, clutching at his head. "Did you have to do that? I'm fragile!" he whined, then grinned as Neji glared at him.
"Piss off, Naruto. You're annoying me." He flicked his long hair behind one shoulder, causing the girls to swoon.
Seeing that he would get no more attention from the stoic boy, he bounded over to Hinata's table, and knelt in front of her desk, placing his chin at the end of it, staring at her with his baby blue eyes. Hinata started and blushed furiously, the tinge of pink running from her cheeks all the way to her arms.
"Ne, Hinata-chan. How're you today?" he grinned, little fangs peeking out from the corners of his lips.
"N-not too bad," the girl stuttered in front of her crush. Naruto had been the only one in school to pay her much attention and treat her like a fellow classmate, not a slave like many of the others did, copying homework from her because she doesn't say anything when they snatched her work from her hands.
A great example would be Kiba, who has said finance homework in his hands, scribbling frantically on his own paper.
"Oi. Why are you copying off Hinata-chan?" the blonde raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms in front of Dog-boy, demanding an explanation.
"What do you care? She didn't say no." Kiba ignored his affronted look and continued with his scribbling.
"Hinata-chan. Say something." Naruto looked expectantly at her, and the girl cringed.
"I-I..."
Kiba stopped writing and put his pen down to look at the girl. Behind him, the class fell silent too, watching Hinata's every move.
"A-ano..." she swallowed, and the fire on her face seemed to be burning its hottest, she didn't think her face could get any more flushed, and whispered, "I don't really mind."
There was a collective sigh of disappointment as the class went back to what they were doing, and Kiba smirked at Naruto, picking up his pen and twirling it smugly on his fingers with a 'I told you so' expression.
"Hinata-chan!" Naruto sounded exasperated, and the girl thought she might break out crying any moment.
Pushing her chair back abruptly, she excused herself in a mumble of words and ran out, stumbling into their teacher as he made his way in.
"Where's Hyuuga-san going?" the man looked bewilderedly at his class.
Kiba rocked his chair backwards and put his arms behind his head, balancing on the two wooden legs. "Out." He paused, then continued, "To cry, as usual." He grinned as the class snickered at his answer.
"Naruto! Where do you think you're going! H-Hey!" but the blonde was out in a flash before anyone could stop him.
Neji sat stonily in his chair, his gaze unwavering as he stared straight ahead, not even bothering to look at Naruto as he rushed out to chase Hinata. Really, that girl was such a hassle.
"Hinata-chan! Wait up!" Naruto yelled as he cranked up his speed in order to catch the girl whose back was quickly disappearing. "Damn, she's fast," he panted and rounded a corner, down the steps and out into the hallway.
He could see her dart round the bend towards the entrance of the school, and gave chase, having a clue to where she might be headed to. That girl had always liked to sit on the roof of the Clubs and Societies building, overlooking the sports field.
Hinata ran till her lungs burned, and then ran harder when she heard Naruto's voice trailing behind her. There was no way she was going to let him see the humiliating streaks of tears on her cheeks.
She entered the sports building, and ran up the flights of steps up to the roof, 6 storeys up. Only when she'd slammed open the door with the weight of her body and when the cool mid morning breeze and sunshine hit her that she stopped and sunk to her knees, too exhausted to even utter a sob.
It had been a good run.
The blonde came tumbling through the door soon afterwards, succeeding in colliding into Hinata's back, sending them rolling a few feet across the concrete. Hinata couldn't help giggling as she sat up, a small smile plastered on her face.
"Hina-chan?" Naruto questioned, looking warily up at her. "You ok?"
Hinata nodded. "Thanks for coming after me, Naruto." She said, surprised that she didn't stutter for once. She thought she must be too tired to even stutter. "I'm feeling alright now."
Naruto grinned. "Eh, glad you're feeling ok. I was worried. I'm sorry."
"Hmm?"
"I didn't mean to embarrass you in front of everyone. I know how you must have felt." He said sheepishly.
Hinata shook her head. "It's not you. It's me. The problem lies with me." She trailed off, and Naruto shifted uncomfortably. "Don't worry about me. I'll be ok in the end." She had to be. Even if it took a thousand more humiliation situations, she will learn to be strong.
"I have no doubt about that, Hinata." She looked up in surprise at the blonde. Naruto waved his arms frantically, cheeks flushed as he caught Hinata's stare. "I-I mean, even the stupidest fish learns how to swim, right?"
"Ano..." it didn't make much sense, but Hinata understood the gist of it. "You're right."
It had been two weeks since she had withdrawn from the martial arts club. Naruto, being the nosy little sweetheart that he is, had been bugging her non stop on why she had quit the team.
"Tryouts for inter-high would be coming up in two weeks time! We wouldn't do without you, Hinata-chan!" he would say, causing the shy teen to flush from the amount of attention she was getting.
However, things had gotten under her skin as she worked late into the night to earn money to pay rent, making her really cranky in the mornings and one time she had even left her usual personality behind to lash out at Kiba who was all over her in search for her homework.
"Ne, Hinata-chan. We'll be having practice this afternoon. You'll be coming, right?" Naruto asked her, the third time in 3 consecutive days and Hinata's patience was really wearing itself out. It didn't help matters any that she didn't get an ounce of sleep the night before, having gotten home at 2 in the morning and facing her assignment until 7 that same morning. This wouldn't even be happening had she listened to her rational side and not left the Hyuuga compound...
"Naruto! Stop bugging me! I said I won't be going to any damn martial arts match ever again, dammit!" she huffed, and threw her assignment at Kiba. "Here's the stupid thing, you dumbass!"
The pieces of paper fluttered down on Kiba's head as he stared at her in astonishment. So did the rest of the class, including Neji, who was boring his eyes into her skull.
Hinata dropped her hands to her sides, clicking her jaw close. Breathing in slowly, her trembling hands came up to her book bag and clasped it, hefting it and bowed deeply to the class. "I'm really sorry for my outburst," she said before going for the door to slam into their teacher once again.
"You really are making this a habit aren't you, Hinata?" their sensei asked, frowning at her. He was taken aback at the irritated look on Hinata's face as she stalked out prissily, and turned to his class for an answer, but was greeted by gaping faces instead. "Oh well. Turn to page 1087 and we'll start the class off with some accounting formulae..."
Hinata leaned against the wall of concrete holding up the water tank, looking down at students running around in the field playing a game of softball. She sighed heavily, and thought that the sudden change in her wasn't doing her any good at all. If anything, it was gaining her weirder looks from her classmates, and she hated attention. Absolutely loathed it. As she basked in the sun's rays, she felt her eyes droop close but was aware of the faint footsteps that echoed behind her.
"Naruto-kun. Please go away. I don't feel like talking right now." She said, stretching out her legs in front of her.
"Your mom called yesterday. She said that you've been missing for a few days now."
The girl whipped her head around to see Neji standing there, looking down at her disapprovingly. "Where have you been?"
Guilt struck Hinata like a machete. "I've been here all along, Neji." She mumbled.
The long haired boy creased his eyebrow at her. "Don't play games with me, Hinata. Why haven't you gone home?"
"I've had enough." She replied quietly and stood up, facing Neji. Her lower lip quivered, but she forced herself to look into his eyes, which were like cold slabs of concrete.
"Who are you staying with?" his face betrayed no trace of emotion as he stared back steadily at her.
"Me." She shuffled a bit before making a move. "I've got to go. Excuse me," she muttered, stepping to his side expecting him to block her way and demand an explanation, but he didn't.
She had spent the rest of the school day dozing under a shady tree and woke up just as the school bell rang. It was time to go to work again. Hinata decided that she wouldn't pay heed to her 'mother'. Afterall, she was just a stepmom, and she was certain that she had read in a book somewhere that it was normal for stepdaughters never to listen to their stepmoms.
Coming to a stop and getting off her bike, Hinata jogged into the shopping complex, heading down to the basement into one of the major supermarkets in the city. In the locker rooms, she was greeted by fellow part timers, ducking her head and smiling briefly as she went on to change.
Her job at the supermarket was easy. As all positions at the checkout counters were taken, she was made to take stock of the things in all the aisles, and to stock up when an item was running low. Also, she was in charge of getting rid of expired goods, fresh foods and the likes. It was fun and relaxing, and she liked grocery shopping. So this was sort of an ideal part time job for her.
It had definitely beaten her other job every other day, where she works at night at a bar as a barmaid. It was the only job she could find that wasn't related to her family in any way. She had understood Neji's pain, in a way, as his parents were working under her family. It was true that both of their fathers were brothers, but because Neji's father had married someone of a lower social class, Hinata's grandfather had disowned him out of sheer rage and indignation. And now with companies retrenching workers everywhere, Neji's parents had to keep themselves in her father's good graces in order to feed their family.
It was despicable how an older brother would take advantage of his younger sibling like that, and that was one of the reasons that Neji abhorred Hinata and her family. Even more so now, Hinata mused, with her moving out and jeopardising his family's chances of survival.
"Hinata! Fancy meeting you here," Naruto waved, holding a shopping basket, his attire sloppy as his school shirt hung out from his low slung pants.
"Ramen again?" Hinata shook her head. "You shouldn't be eating instant ramen all the time, Naruto," she chided.
"Heh. I can't help it, it's my favourite." Hinata had heard that Naruto was also living on his own, having just managed to get out of the orphanage after turning 18 a month ago.
"Ano..." she paused, not knowing how to put this. "If... if you'd like a home cooked meal, you might want to drop by my place sometime? I've just moved to this address." She scrawled on a random piece of paper that she has been holding on to. "Here. Come by on either Tuesday or Thursday after 5. I'll be around."
Naruto took the paper from her, looking surprised. "You moved out?"
Hinata nodded. "It's quite lonely living by yourself at times, ne?"
The blonde scratched his head, a glint of emotion fleeting across his eyes. "well, you get used to it after a while," he shrugged. "I promise to visit you sometime soon. I know! We could do our homework together! Then I wouldn't have to bug you so much in school."
"Ok." She felt the corners of her lips tug up into a hopeful smile. "Ja ne."