Changed Fates
By Jennifer Darknight
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Anou...Souji shitteru?
It was hard for Hinata to get out of bed at all the next morning. She had gone back home from Momoko-sempai's house (Naruto-kun demanded that he walk her home, since it was wrong for a girl to go home by herself at that time of night) at about five in the morning, and she set her alarm for seven, so that would give her two hours of sleep before she had to get up and train with Team Seven.
But as much as she liked to try to convince herself that she could live on one to two hours' sleep, the fact that she was ready to fall over destroyed that possibility. But she pushed that in the little box that Hinata liked to keep in the back of her mind, with all the other things she could not do. The box was almost full, too. She'd have to make another one to fill in the rest of the cracks.
It was impossible to think of anything now. She was just so tired...She barely felt herself roll out of bed and hit the floor with a hard thump. She was so groggy that she couldn't feel anything really. The alarm was blaring in an unknown field somewhere in her consciousness which couldn't be touched by her own inferior ears, and her body was a lead weight that had been thrown under water. Momoko-sempai's t-shirt and shorts were still clinging to her lithe form (she was so tired she just fell over the second she got to her bed), and she couldn't even stand, she was so tired after last night's activities.
It would have been too easy to just lay down and just sleep the rest of the day away. She was in the mindset for it, and the mere thought of Naruto-kun walking her home made her drowsy with dreamy shoujo goodness. Neji-niisan could burst into the room, throw her out the window, and beat the living stuffing out of her and she probably wouldn't notice. Father could have joined in too, and it would have been equally futile.
But still...didn't she have missions today?
Missions...not like the 'mission' that Momoko-sempai had assigned her the day before. Actual, true, honest-to-God missions. And she'd be working side-by-side with Naruto-kun...
Well, that got her up reasonably fast. Well, not up enough to where she could think straight, but up enough to where she wouldn't be a total zombie when she came in that morning at the usual meeting spot.
But she actually had to pull together the effort to get dressed.
Oh boy, that would be a toughie.
But she thought that she could wing it.
After all...she was a Hyuga, wasn't she?
Sasuke-san and Naruto-kun were already by the bridge when she arrived. Well, that wasn't surprising. She actually had to pull together the effort to get out of bed after only two hours of sleep, she then had to eat breakfast with her father (he was not about to let her leave without doing that, failure or no), and then she had to make a bentou large enough to feed Sasuke-san, Naruto-kun, AND herself. That took her until about nine, and it took about fifteen minutes to walk (not run—the bentou would get messed up if she ran) to the place where her teammates were going to meet.
Life goes on in Hyuga Hinata's life.
Just as it does in the city.
Naruto-kun was the first to notice her. He jumped down from the high branch of the tree he was balancing on, waving to her as he hopped off.
"Oi, Hinata-cha..."
WHAM.
And he landed face first into the ground. Hinata gasped and ran towards him, kneeling by his side in an instant, looking him up and down.
"N-Naruto-kun! Da-dai...joubu desu ka?!"
Naruto-kun scratched his head and grinned. Just the look on his face made the Hyuga heir want to melt into a puddle of happy, warm, pink-colored goo. But instead of doing that, she just blushed, looking down towards her lap and nodding a little bit. She cursed her own lack of courage to talk to him, but that was just how it was. It was so hard! She could barely look at his face for a few seconds without blushing profusely. She managed to look up again to give him one last look-over before blushing even redder, twiddling her fingers in her embarrassment.
"Ehehehe...Daijoubu dattebayo!" said Naruto, that foxy grin still stuck on his face. He looked so cute!
"Ha-hai...yo-yokatta..." Hinata said softly, letting out a sigh of relief. She really didn't have to worry about Naruto-kun. He could take care of himself just fine. But she was just that kind of person.
But you really need to stop that, Hinata...
Sasuke-san looked up towards her from his spot next to the tree and nodded, acknowledging her presence, and then turning to Naruto-kun, who was still sitting down by Hinata. He walked forward a few steps, and then stopped, looking at both of them.
"He's late..." was all he said.
Hinata nodded. She knew who he was referring to.
"Yeah! Why the hell is that stupid pervert sensei so damned late!? I know! He's out there seducing innocent girls to pose for all those nude pictures that he keeps in his room!"
...And apparently, Naruto-kun knew as well.
"Naruto."
Naruto-kun turned to Sasuke, whose expression was...well, annoyed, to say the least.
"Whaddya want?!"
"...How do you know that Kakashi-sensei has nude pictures in his room?"
Oh, dear. Here they go again...
Well, about three hours, thirty-five minutes, and twenty-two seconds later, the familiar form of Kakashi-sensei was seen trudging up the road, whistling a little bit as he read Icha Icha Paradise, like he always seemed to do when he was around them. The sensei stopped in front of them, put down his book, and crinkled his eyes as if he was smiling. Sasuke-san looked up at him for a moment and scoffed. Hinata blushed and didn't say anything in fear that she'd be rude.
But Naruto-kun...
"OI! KAKASHI-SENSEI! YOU'RE LATE!!!!!!!!"
Kakashi-sensei waved him off, shrugging a little bit. He looked down towards his book again, and then towards the three students that were standing in front of him. Naruto-kun crossed his arms, and gave Kakashi-sensei a look that could kill. Hinata bowed, just to be polite.
"Oi, oi, sorry about that, guys. My next-door neighbor was having a baby, and like the gentleman I am I couldn't just leave her alone..."
"YOU LIAR!!!!!!!"
Naruto-kun...you shouldn't just assume...
Another smile crossed Kakashi-sensei's features, and he pulled out a scroll from his pouch, opening it so he could read it to them.
But he didn't read it out loud. Not at all. He just went over it for a few minutes, and then looked back up at the three genin, who just looked at him expectantly. Hinata could swear that he was grinning under that mask of his.
"Well guys, it seems that your first mission is planned for this afternoon." He said, looking over the scroll again. He didn't even glance towards Naruto-kun, who was just about ready to jump for joy at the mention of the word 'mission'. Hinata herself could feel her stomach churn with anxiety, but at the same time she felt happy butterflies in her chest.
"This afternoon?!" Naruto-kun jumped up and down where he stood, ready to jump at the Jounin-sensei and take the green scroll right out of his hands. "What're we gonna do, huh?! Fight some bandits?! Rescue a princess?! Beat the hell out of a bunch of enemy shinobi?!"
"We're mere genin, Naruto." Sasuke-kun said, rolling his eyes.
Naruto-kun whirled around towards Sasuke-kun, and Hinata knew that this was going to be the start of another one of their numerous fights. They had gotten into it three times that morning: Once about Naruto's 'knowledge' of Kakashi-sensei's activities, another time about Sakura-chan's affections, and the last time was about the size of their 'most important' pieces of anatomy (just the thought of that conversation made Hinata blush).
Hinata hoped that they wouldn't fight again. They were teammates—they were supposed to get along. Not fight all the time.
"What did you just say?!" Naruto-kun cried.
Hinata looked towards Kakashi-sensei and spoke, in an attempt to keep the conversation running in the right direction:
"A-anou...wh-what's...the...mission...Kakashi-sensei...?"
A slight chuckle escaped the Jounin's lips. Or at least, through the mask. Why didn't he take that off? Maybe he had a charred face and he didn't want anyone looking? Hinata had a lot of images running through her head at the moment, but she didn't have time to be thinking about that, amusing as images of Kakashi-sensei with a fish face might be.
The Jounin looked down towards the Hyuga, and he looked down towards the scroll again before looking back at her again and speaking:
"Well, it's a rather difficult mission, assigned by a man that we only know under the initials: KaHa."
"KaHa?" Sasuke turned away from Naruto for a moment, and gave Kakashi-sensei a questioning look.
Naruto-kun, though, was a bit more enthusiastic.
"His initials, huh? He must be tracked down by a great Nin-society, and he doesn't wish to give out his true identity, in fear that he will be caught and killed!"
"...Ehehe...not...quite. But good guess, Naruto."
"EEEEEEEHHHHHHHH?! Then why does he go by his initials? Huh? Huh?"
Kakashi-sensei shook his head, and then looked back down at Naruto. He didn't say a word, but sometimes you can just tell what he was about to say. Even though he didn't even say it.
"Then what do we have to do?" prattled on Naruto. "Do we have to beat up some guys who are threatening him, or what?"
"No, you don't. Your job is something triply difficult than that."
"OH! We get to fight a bunch of shinobi?!"
"Just..." he chuckled again, and turned his backs to the students. "You'll see. Follow me."
The three did as they were told, but each of them had their own doubts filling their heads. Hinata felt a strange pressure in her stomach, but she had no idea why...
"Well, here it is."
"Ano...Kakashi-sensei..."
"Hai, Hinata-chan?"
"It's...an...Apartment..."
"That's more or less the idea."
The building stood before them, towering over their shorter figures as they looked up at its decaying walls and tinted, grimey windows. Each genin looked at it in a different fashion than the others; Sasuke with disgust, Naruto with a mixture of disappointment and maybe a little excitement, and Hinata with anxiety. The place looked like it was going to fall apart at any moment, and there was a little voice in the back of the Hyuga's mind (you know, the one who talked to her all the time, but she ignored it) that this mission was going to be worse than the time she and Aunt Hanako had to clean out Hanabi-chan's room and throw out all of her dirty clothes that she refused to let the maids touch because she didn't want their 'lowly hands' touching them.
Oh, it couldn't be that bad, Hinata thought, trying to keep her positive attitude up. But she knew that that positive attitude would be gone in a few minutes anyway, so what was the point of trying to keep it where it was?
"Oi, oi! Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto-kun looked towards the Jounin-sensei, but he said nothing. Instead, he just led them forward, towards where the place they were supposed to perform their mission. They walked up three flights of stairs, a fire escape, three garbage chutes, and then they finally landed on their feet in front of a door that was covered with some moss and a bit of dirt. The nameplate was illegible, and if you were an American who liked older teenage-ish movies, it would remind you of the movie "Joe's Apartment" with the dancing roaches and the guy whose apartment looked so bad that even exterminators wouldn't get close to it.
Hinata felt like running, herself.
But if this was where they had to be to perform their mission...
No—she would endure it. Even if it DID smell worse than someone died and was covered with animal feces.
But...the mere idea of going in there made her stomach queasy.
Naruto-kun, though, was pumped to go inside there. He strode to the front, crossed his arms over his chest, put on a cocky grin, and...
...Promptly kicked the door down. Hinata was amazed at his boldness. Not even Momoko-sempai took candid pictures of Neji-niisan with such eagerness. Not that she ever succeeded, mind you. Lee-san would always make Momoko-sempai's plans obsolete, so she couldn't even attempt them (and that made her cranky every single time).
But...
Sasuke let out a cough.
Naruto-kun looked ready to throw up.
Hinata just stared.
That room...that room...it was...the most ugly thing that Hinata had ever seen in her life—even worse than Hanabi-chan's room on its worst day. Dust lined the four walls of the living room, old ramen cups sitting around on the tables with books and dirty clothes covering the entire floor. Flies weren't buzzing around the room, but the dirt was still fresh. A TV was overturned in the living room, and an unused gaming system was sitting in front of it. The smell of old miso soup permeated through the air, and Hinata felt herself get sick. There was nothing worse than the smell of old miso, and this proved it.
The silence stayed between them—one that had a tinge of disgust edged into it. Kakashi-sensei was the first to speak, knocking the three out of their reverie:
"Well, have fun, guys!"
'Have fun?'
Naruto-kun gagged. " 'Have fun'?! Whaddya mean by that, Kakashi-sensei?!"
"Your first mission...is to clean up this dump!"
"EEEEEHHHHHHHHHHH?!?! Nani?!"
"Hmph. As expected."
"A-Ano..."
Hinata was ready to hyperventilate, to put it lightly. They'd have to...clean...this?!
She stepped forward, looking up at Kakashi-sensei with her soft white eyes. But she couldn't bring herself to say anything. She didn't want to be rude and question her mission. But...still...
How?!
Sasuke-san stood in the living room, looking at the two other genin with his usual cold expression. His hands were in his pockets, and he was looking down towards the floor. Naruto-kun stood to Hinata's right, and Hinata looked towards the Uchiha survivor with an apprehensive look. Sasuke-san never failed to look intimidating, even when he didn't even try to. Hinata didn't want to say anything that would incur Sasuke's anger.
"Anou...what...do we...do now?"
Sasuke-san sighed, and then shook his head. He didn't want to do this either, apparently. He was just more quiet about his distaste. He jammed his hands in his pockets and looked around the room once before turning to the two others who were looking straight at him.
"We're going to have to get separate jobs." Sasuke-san said simply.
"Separate jobs?" Naruto-kun didn't seem to like getting orders from Sasuke-san. It was obvious in the way he glared at him. "Oi, oi, Sasuke! You're just gonna give me and Hinata-chan the hardest jobs while you do the easiest stuff!" He crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm not gonna take orders from you!"
"Say what you want, Dobe. But arguing won't make this house any cleaner. I don't know about you, but I want to get out of here before midnight."
Hinata was in agreement with Sasuke-san, but she didn't say it aloud.
Naruto stuck his tongue out at Sasuke-san, and then turned to Hinata and smiled brightly.
"Ne, ne! Hinata-chan! You agree with me, don't you?"
Oooh. A bad thing to ask. On one hand, Hinata could agree and lie, and on the other hand, she could tell the truth and get Naruto-kun upset. And she didn't want to make Naruto-kun upset—but then again, she didn't want to lie either. This was what she hated about making decisions...
"A...ano...um..."
Sasuke-san walked towards one messy cabinet, and started arranging the objects on it, not looking at Hinata or Naruto-kun. Naruto-kun looked towards Hinata, and then towards Sasuke-san.
Naruto-kun gave Hinata a pouty look, and that made the distress in her mind even worse. She couldn't say 'no' to him when he was like that. She couldn't say 'no' to anyone when they were like that...she didn't want to make anyone unhappy. She looked back and forth between Naruto-kun and Sasuke-san, and then she nodded to herself.
She had to get out of this situation, and fast.
"Ano...I'm going to...um...clean the kitchen..."
That was her first instinct. Just say that she was doing something else to dodge a topic that might prove unpleasant or cruel to the one who was suggesting it. She looked around the room, and ran towards the only area that could possibly be the kitchen—the door to the right. The doors to the front were obviously the bedroom and bathroom, due to their position. But the kitchen in a normal apartment was located to the right of the front door, and usually it was very small.
So she ran towards it and flung the door open.
And nearly fainted.
The smell of old miso and rotting food attacked her nostrils the moment she opened the door. Appliances were lying everywhere in a mess, and old food was thrown about as if it was the newest fashion statement. The counters were covered with a messy substance that she didn't even care to identify, and the refrigerator was wide open, as if it was recently in use. She stepped over the old cans of red bean paste and brown bean paste and looked towards the fridge, as to close it so the door wouldn't impede her work space.
But the moment she put her hand to it, she blinked.
She didn't feel anything cold.
No, it was quite warm.
Did it even work?
There was a small crack between the refrigerator and the counter, and since she was small she managed to squeeze into it, looking behind the appliance to see if there was anything wrong with it. She didn't know the first thing about refrigerators, but Aunt Hanako's broke so often that she could notice the signs that it was broken, at least.
But none of the signs were there. Nothing was smashed, and there was no fluid coming out of the back. It looked perfectly fine...except one thing.
There was a plug—it was one of those plug-in ones, apparently.
And it wasn't plugged in.
Did this man even know how to take care of his own house? His wife must be a very sad woman. Maybe she left him because he was so dirty.
She knew that Neji-niisan wouldn't have even looked at someone who was slightly cluttered in their habits. Either that or he would have cleaned their house every single day he came by. His cleanliness obsession was well-known in the Hyuga home, and Momoko-sempai had even made a conscious effort to clean her house thoroughly every day so that when he did come to see her, he wouldn't be upset with a dirty atmosphere. She was so devoted to him, it was very endearing.
But endearing as it was, it still wasn't going to make this kitchen any cleaner with her thinking about other things.
This...needs to be done...
She rolled up her sleeves and started to pick up the old cans off the floor. That was a start, wasn't it?
"GYAHHH!!!!"
The kitchen had just been finished when Hinata heard a loud scream come out of the living room. She almost fell over as she heard the sudden noise, instead dropping the rags that she was holding all over the floor. She knelt down and scooped them up in her hands, but not before she heard more noises coming from what seemed to be the living room:
"What the hell is this?!"
Na-Naruto-kun!
"...Urusei."
Sasuke-san...
"It's bubbling and stuff! Is it supposed to do that?!"
CRASH! Whack!
Hinata didn't think twice about leaving the now-clean kitchen behind to run into the room where all the sounds were coming from. Her heart raced, and her body tensed up at all the loud noises that were coming from there, and loud noises weren't too good of a sign from her personal experience.
She peeked into the living room, and the sight of it all almost made her burst into a fit of giggles.
Naruto-kun was so cute.
There he was, sitting in the middle of the room, covered in bubbles from laundry water, grabbing onto a washtub and tangling with it like he was fighting against it in battle. If he just had some cute doggy ears and a tail, she'd think the image was perfect. Some clothes were lying strewn around him—the clothes he had to wash, no doubt—and there was a pair of pants slung over his shoulders as he tangled with the washtub. His jacket was off, too—he was instead donning a thin black shirt that, since it was wet, clung to his form. A deep blush came to Hinata's cheeks.
Sasuke-san was standing in the corner, shaking his head as he looked outright embarrassed to have Naruto-kun in his presence.
Naruto-kun stopped moving for a moment, and then looked up towards Hinata, who just couldn't tear her eyes away from him. He grinned and scratched his head.
"Oi, Hinata-chan!" he said in his usual cheery voice. Hinata nodded her head in acknowledgment, but just couldn't keep her head up.
"Na-Naruto-kun...daijoubu?"
The blond nodded. "Yep, I'm fine!"
And then his hand slipped on the washtub, and he fell flat on his face...
Straight into soapy water.
Hinata was already at his side when he got up, coughing a bit as he tried to get the water out of his mouth, which probably tasted horrible. He shook his head, and then looked up, straight at Hinata.
"A...Ano...would you...um..."
A pause.
"Like...some help?"
Good girl!
If she had an Inner Hinata, she would have jumped up and down with triumph. Progress...yes, there was progress! She had managed to speak a few words to him without dying, although even that took all of her willpower to do. But as he looked straight at her with those deep, cheery blue eyes, she was starting to get scared. Maybe he didn't want her help after all? Maybe she was just being rude and impertinent, maybe...
Until that sunny smile became even larger, and his eyes sparkled even more at her.
"Hey, thanks! You're really nice, Hinata-chan!"
Na-Naruto-kun...I...
"I only have a washing machine at home, and even then Iruka-sensei has to help me set it up whenever I wash clothes because it always breaks whenever I touch it. He said something about it overheating or something. But do you know how to do this by hand, Hinata-chan? I can't figure it out. There was this weird serrated thingy, but I don't know what to do that for, so I put the bucket on it, but I don't think that works either..."
He scratched his head, and then grinned at her. Hinata gently picked up the tub and then grabbed the scrubber board from under it. She set it down at Naruto-kun's feet.
"Ano...you're supposed to...scrub the clothes with it..."
"Scrub them?" Naruto blinked. "I thought you scrubbed with sponges."
She picked up a pair of shorts from nearby, and made scrubbing motion against it with them.
Naruto-kun opened his eyes a little wider, and then stared at it.
"So...that's how you use it?"
Hinata nodded. The words just wouldn't come out of her mouth to speak.
"Thanks, Hinata-chan!"
He grinned, and then grabbed the tub, picking it up and running towards the kitchen, as to fill it up.
But three steps forward, his feet got caught in a set of shirts, and he fell flat on his face...again. Fortunately, the tub didn't break. Mr. KaHa wouldn't have been happy if that happened—and it might have cost them the mission. Or they would have had to buy him a new one. She stood, worry for the blond ninja instantly gripping her heart.
"Na-Naruto-kun! Are you all right?!"
"Yep! Don't worry about me, Hinata-chan!"
Her heart fluttered as he got back up and ran into the next room, bursting with energy.
Kami-sama...thank you...
The rest of the day went smoothly. Sasuke-san almost threw a few of Mr. KaHa's swords at Naruto-kun for making a crack about his anatomy again, and Naruto-kun managed to wash the windows without incident. Hinata picked up Mr. KaHa's already clean room (the only clean room in the house, actually), and then assisted Sasuke-san in food shopping for Mr.KaHa's fridge while Naruto-kun scrubbed the bathroom (which also went without incident—although when Hinata and Sasuke-san returned to the house, Naruto-kun walked out of the shower with a towel around his head—he was dressed, though!). They managed to have the entire place cleaned and the mission finished by Eight that evening. Kakashi-sensei had met them at the door when they were to leave, and Naruto-kun then proceeded to yell at him.
After the activities ended, everyone went home after a dinner of Ichiraku ramen (everyone paid for themselves, although Hinata lent a few coins to Naruto-kun who ran a little bit short for his eight bowls of ramen). Sasuke-san walked home alone, Kakashi-sensei disappeared in a puff of smoke, Naruto-kun ran to home, and Hinata walked home by herself. Nobody noticed whenever she walked in the door and went to her room to lay on her bed for a while before going to bed. Hanabi-chan was working with Father, Neji-niisan was training in the back training area, Aunt Hanako was probably in the library, and the rest of the family was either sitting with their own children for dinner, training, or in bed. She looked up towards the ceiling and a small smile came upon her features.
Uzumaki Naruto.
Uchiha Sasuke.
Hyuga Hinata.
That was Team Seven.
And what an interesting day it was.
YES! I'm done with Chapter 5! Sorry this took so long to do, but school's been getting in the way, and I've had to study a lot for my AP classes. But I'll keep working on this story when I can, and I'll update whenever possible! Don't worry about me—Jennifer still exists! As does this story! And it will, as long as there are kind readers who still enjoy this piece of work.
Until next time, bye!
Jenn-chan