Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters in the series. The original creator goes by the name of Masashi Kishimoto. Just type it out in google or something. His life story's actually pretty neat.
Author's Note:
to Raven Ariana:
Thanks! I'm glad you like it. And yes... my interpretation of her is that she is rather head strong. After all, out of all the kunoichi in the series she's the only one that I can think of off the top of my head that right from the beginning had such a big dream. And then from the databook you learn that her most desired opponents are two of the top most powerful female charaters in the series. I like her character too. Out of all the Konoha kunoichi, she's my favorite. But she never gets much spotlight... which is probably why I'm writting this.
Oh, I'm so glad people actually like the Eldest. You'll learn more about him eventually. I was actually kinda worried 'cause he's my first Hyuuga OC. But the way the story seems to be winding about I'm probably going to have to introduce more Hyuugas.
Thaks so much for the compliments and the review. Encouragement is always very much appreciated.
to L0v3L3ss
I read your review and I was like... wow! My story's good enough to get death threats! Whee! Lol. I'm glad you're not gonna kill me with a fork. I've got my own though... and I know how to use it! Please be a little bit patient. Do you know how hard it is to get some of the stuff I have inside my head down into words? I've discovered that it's one thing when you're daydreaming in class... it's quite another when you're trying to write it out.
to tomboy901
Arigatou!
K.C
Will Neji accept? That is the question to be answered... unfortunately not in this chapter though. Well, whatever, I'll get there. :p She's gotta have some luck... otherwise there wouldn't even be a story. - And maybe... it'll be just the thing to balance out Neji's bad luck. That ankle problem's gonna tie in later too. Gah! I wish I could write all the stuff down that's in my head in an instant with perfect clarity. It's so hard though. Oh yes, and about Hanabi... you'll see.
I'm going to have to apologize ahead of time if I make Hanabi a bit out of character. She has to be in order for the story to work out, and there's a purpose behind her being like this instead of just another 'stuffy Hyuuga'. And also, there's really not that much known about her. Even less than we know about Tenten. And if it helps, her name does mean firecracker.
Oh hai! Hai, Setsuna-chan09, I'm going, I'm going!
Hopefully this is interesting enough for ya. :3
Tenten's POV
-
The mite-sized Hyuuga girl was certainly a quick little sprite. If I had not been using my jutsu at that time
there was no way I could have caught up to her while dragging my foot.
As it were, I managed to catch up with her just before we got to the main entrance of the building
which I immediately assumed to be the dinning hall. It was fortunate for me that we had arrived
and so I didn't need to run anymore.
-
She turned around and looked at me, "Not bad... But you should still work on it.
Do laps regularly or something, you look out of breathe."
-
If it weren't for the fact that I often got the same thing from Lee, such a statement
no doubt would have gotten me extremely angry. As it were, I told her exactly what I told Lee.
-
"I prefer to jump through the trees. Running on the ground doesn't suit me."
-
"Yes… you do like jumping from high places don't you? I change my mind again,
maybe you really are a thief."
-
After saying this she gave me a funny looking grin. I hesitantly grinned back.
She was annoying, but not necessarily in a bad way.
-
"Come on. I'll show you inside. We should really hurry, dinner's about to start."
-
With that being said, she quickly grabbed my hand and started dragging me inside.
I almost lost control of the jutsu from that sudden and unexpected move.
-
Strangely enough I was actually enjoying the experience of being lugged around
by someone barely half my size and weight. Compared to most of the Hyuugas I've met up till then,
Hanabi was a breath of fresh air. So it seems not all the Hyuugas were stiff or shy. Hanabi certainly wasn't.
Although she did seem to have what by then I had termed 'the Hyuuga superiority complex',
all the members of the clan seemed to have it to some degree.
-
And I was beginning to become suspicious. Since when did you drag someone you considered
to be either a thief or a beggar, into the place where you ate?
-
And thus it was a short while before abruptly she halted in front of me.
Once again we almost crashed. I almost expected her to comment
on my slight clumsiness and call me a thief or a beggar again.
-
"Nee-san! Look there's my sister... Oi, nee-san! Over here!"
-
So that's where Hinata went. I was a little eager to see her again.
After being separated in the courtyard during that harrowing incident I hadn't heard from her since.
Hearing her name being called, Hinata turned her head towards us and her eyes widened in surprise.
-
"Hanabi! Eto…T-Tenten-san! D-daijoubu ka?"
-
After giving me a worried but thorough look, she seemed to have determined that I was okay.
Then she glanced from me to Hanabi and back again, and began to appear very confused.
-
Giving me a quick glance, Hanabi replied, "We ran into each other. Literally."
-
"S-sou desu ka?"
-
"Hai," I replied.
-
"You two seem to know each other…" said Hanabi.
-
"It's a long story."
-
"Oh, how long?"
-
"Since this morning."
-
"That's not too long."
-
"Believe me, it's a long story."
-
"Fine, keep your secrets then. It's not like I can't just get it from Hinata afterwards anyways,
right nee-san?"
-
"Eto…"
-
"Although to tell you the truth… Hinata hardly ever tells me anything. For example,
there's this guy she's been in love with since the second year of academy,
and she won't even tell me who he is! Every time I ask her...
ell, you can see for yourself. She's doing it right now."
-
I looked, and there right as clockwork, was the cutest and reddest blush I had ever seen.
She really was as red as a tomatoe! I remember being extremely curious about who this 'guy' was.
But for fear of an explosion should any more blood rush to the poor girl's head...
I didn't pursue it any further, and tried my best to contain my laughter. But then
the idle thought of Neji blushing like that just had to pass through my head. At that,
I had to control my laughter so hard I accidentally lossened the jutsu I had on my ankle.
The sudden pain helped me clear my head, but made me grimace in front of the two Hyuuga girls.
-
They both looked at me with concern. Hanabi less so, she seemed more curious than worried.
-
"T-tenten-san... D-daijoubu ka?"
-
"Hai... Daijoubu." I don't think either one of them believed me. But neither of them said anything.
A pause followed, as we slowly collected our thoughts.
-
The dinner was going to start in about another minute or so.
-
"A-ano… Tenten-san!" She said that part with surprising clarity.
"A-are you… staying here for dinner?"
-
I nodded. Upon confirmation, her expression became a bit more nervous than previous,
but after a few seconds she seemed to have calmed down.
-
"I-I'll show you where you should sit. Come."
She started to leave, but Hanabi stopped her.
-
"Hey! Wait a minute."
-
I gave a sigh of exasperation, "What, do you still think I'm a thief?"
-
Upon hearing that, she gave me a puzzled look. Then she blinked, and looked at me as if I were somehow odd.
-
"You really took me seriously when I said that? Baka desu ne? You're worse at taking a joke than my father."
-
A joke. How could I have been so slow? It amazed me how I hadn't picked up the jesting tone in her voice.
But upon reflection, it really should have been pretty obvious by the time, even had she not said it in a joking manner.
So then I felt rather stupid. The truth was, I had allowed my perceptions of what I thought a Hyuuga should be to blind me.
-
And then I had the idiocy to reply to her statement, "...I thought Hyuugas... didn't make jokes."
-
At this she seemed a little upset. "Of course we do. What do you think we are, inanimate objects?
Maybe it really is better to have guests over more often. People really have some odd ideas about us.
Ne, Hinata-neesan?"
-
"H-hai..." At this Hinata smiled politely at me. Hanabi then tapped her on the shoulder.
-
"Nee-san… shouldn't I be the one to show Tenten-san where to sit?
You know you have to sit at the head of the table now that you're a Genin."
-
At this, Hinata's expression slowly became sad. "H-hai. I... I forgot..."
-
As she began to walk forward a little bit ahead of us the cheerful lightness that the earlier part of our conversation brought
slowly faded away. Hanabi stared at her sister's back for a while, and then slowly followed her too.
I didn't immediately follow, since I hadn't a clue. I thought were were going to eat in the room we were standing in.
However, Hinata walked further to open a screen door that revealed another room,
smaller than the current one on the other side. Hinata entered that room, and Hanabi as well
except she stopped just before to give me a look. Without words she told me to come.
I followed the both of them past the screen door and it slowly closed by itself behind me.
-
It seems, the more I got to know about the Hyuuga, the more I realized that I didn't know anything about them at all.
I also came to the understanding, slowly, that in here the Hyuugas weren't the only ones who were prejudice. I too
had my own misconceptions, and tendencies to think of people immediately in terms of what rather than who they were.
I had been annoyed at the Hyuugas for staring at me. But in truth this whole time it was me who was staring back.
Thus upon realizing my own hypocrisy I felt a sense of shame. There was only hope in my mind that this would help me
become a little bit more of an open-minded person in the future. I slowly sat down next to Hanabi.
In front of me was a semi-round, semi-long table that stretched out across the room. The surprise at seeing a table
instead of the traditional style setting must have been evident on my face, for I heard Hanabi say,
-
"We just got this a few years ago. They had it imported from the Rain country.
I think my dad was there on a mission or something and he really liked it. So he ordered a few sets.
But they didn't have enough wood at the time so they could only make three."
-
She paused for a while before saying what she said next,
-
"The kids from the Branch don't have any tables or chairs. They still eat the same way we used to eat.
But the food they get is actually better 'cause for some reason they have way better cooks."
-
The clock reached six and the miso soup was served. In this aspect at least, it appears the Hyuugas were pretty normal.
Large bowls of soup were placed such that everybody at the table could get some for themselves
using their own smaller bowls. But there was only one large spoon in each bowl so we were to take turns.
-
Before the dinner officially started, Hinata was required to introduce me as a guest. I stood up
and a spattering of hushed whispers spread through the room. It was silent when she stated in her stumbling fashion
that I was Neji's teammate. The silence was only brief, because after that the whispers started up even louder
than before. But then, Hinata also said something that made me feel incredible.
-
"A-and... s-she is also... my friend."
-
She had to say the last part a bit more loudly, otherwise it might not have been heard in the din. This time, the silence
was longer.
-
I knew some of them probably weren't too pleased that I was there.
Others were probably surprised that I was Neji's team mate. I didn't know for what reason
Hinata refered to me as her friend... And by that, I didn't know whether it was only for the sake of the people there
Or if she really did consider me as such. I looked at her, and she looked back. She gave me a shy but sincere smile.That was all that I needed.
-
"Itadakimasu." And the meal began.
-
Slowly sipping the soup, I glanced around.
The separation between adults and children was fairly easy to understand.
They probably wanted to discuss stuff during dinner that they didn't want children to hear.
But why was there a separation between Main and Branch? Looking around I noticed that
there were actually quite a few empty chairs.
Why wasn't Neji sitting in one of them?
-
Author's Note:
Oh, I hope that was okay...
