SUP SUCKERS!! HOW YOU ALL LOSERS DOING??!!
Anyway, here is the next chapter!!
The much awaited (by me) Naruto Chapter!! Here I'm gonna clear things like Naruto's feeling and all that stuff.
AND...
I have a HUGE announcement to make after this chapter. So read ahead, and find out!!
THAT'S ALL FOR NOW!!
JA!
If I were the rain that binds together the earth and the sky, who in all eternity will never mingle, will I be able to bind to hearts together?
-Tite Kubo
As kids, he'd never noticed her in the academy. Back then, she'd been a wallflower, never the type to stand out. Shy, quiet, these were her main qualities. He didn't even think to look past that exterior. In fact, no one did.
To him, Sakura had been more appealing. She was more confident, more strong, more pretty, more smart, more everything. That's what he thought anyway. In addition, Sakura stood out, didn't hesitate to put him in his place. He never though to look past that too, and see Sakura for what she truly was to him. At that time, it had only been a crush.
Later, she became his teammate and the blunette was all but forgotten. That's is, if she was even a part of his thoughts in the first place.
The first time he'd acknowledged her had been during the first part of the Chunnin Exams. That day, she'd offered her answers to him, knowing the risk that came along with it. That day, he learned that she was selfless.
They hadn't crossed paths for the while of the second part of the Exams. He had been surprised, to say the least, when he found out that her team had been the second one to reach the tower. At that time, his most important concern had been to make sure that none of Team 8 was going for Hokage.
At the third part of the Exams, he realized many things at once. Like him, she never gave up. She was strong, in the sense that she kept on trying. That day, she earned his respect.
Later on, he remembered going to the hospital to visit her while she was still unconscious. He found out that she had a sister too. He remembered the little girl as she sobbed helplessly, her tears falling on Hinata's face, as she begged her to wake up, repeatedly apologizing for something.
Haha is words had rang in his head for quite some time, again and again, like a mantra. A chant for good luck.
"I'm sorry, sister! I was wrong! You have been there for me! You have always been there for me! Now is the time I need you the most, so please wake up!"
Then, the news came that Hinata had woken up. He'd gone to meet her again, this time Sakura and his sensei accompanying him. They had been making way to her room, when they'd heard the screams. At first, they'd panicked, their worry only increasing when they realized that the screams were, in fact, coming form Hinata's room.
On running closer, he'd seen her teammates tense, her sensei standing by the door cautiously, ready to ran in at a moment's notice. However, she made no move to do so. And when, they tried to enter, Kurenai had stopped them, shaking her head.
She requested no interruptions, She'd said, Besides, she needs to let that out. Put things out in the open.
He hadn't understood back then. To him, Hinata had been hurting, and that's all that mattered to him. That was all the reason he needed to save her.
It had taken a while for him to realize that she was saying something, and that too with so much pain and anguish, that even Kakashi had flinched, grimacing beneath his mask. However, he looked unsurprised.
"Where was the "You're my daughter" statement when I needed it years ago!? Where were you when I needed you years ago?! "
Then, her voice had quietened down, but not enough to escape their ears.
"A father...is supposed to love his daughter. Regardless of who she is, or what she wants to be. For the past eight years, all I've wanted from you was a little love. My team gave me that. Why couldn't you?"
When she'd received no answer, she'd screamed again.
"Tell me, damn it, why couldn't-"
But, before she could finish, she was hit by a coughing fit. At that, Kurenai had dashed inside, Kakashi hot on her tail.
A moment later, a man had walked out, stoic faced, unfazed by the words he had to hear. He would later learn that he was Hinata's father.
That's was when he realised that there was so much more to his blunette friend than her shy exterior. However, before he had the time to discover more, he had to go.
After his training of three years, he'd returned. Sakura, he realized, was the same girl he remembered. He didn't know what he was expecting, nor why it disappointed him.
Sure, Sakura was smarter, stronger and prettier, but she still had that caged, immature look in her eyes. It didn't take long for him to figure out that she was still 'in love' with his best friend.
Then, he'd seen Hinata, and for a moment, he'd stopped breathing.
Physically speaking, she was a mess. She had taken off her jacket, and one of her sleeves had been missing along with a small part of the lower half of her shirt. Her skin was covered with dirt, and her hair, which he assumed had been long, looked as if it had been chewed off. The ends were burnt and uneven, a little below her neck at the back and all the way past her shoulders at the front.
She smelt of fire.
And yet, despite all that, he'd found her beautiful that day, when she was returning from the Hokage's Office, her arm raised in a wave as she ran towards Ino, asking for a haircut.
When she'd turned to him that day, her eyes had been red, as if she had been crying for some time. And yet, that had been twinkling with happiness, her smile the brightest it could get.
She reminded him fo a bird; so free and so out of reach, that for once, he felt that he were the one who was left behind.
They went on a few missions together, and he'd soon discovered that she was strong.
Unlike Sakura, who's fighting style was abrupt, robust, Hinata had been deadly on the battlefield. Her every move was calculated, her gentle face catching the enemy off guard. She was fast and flexible, as she took down opponents one after another. And she did a with ten times the grace and elegance he'd seen in anyone else.
To him, she'd always been Team 8's Hinata, Neji's sweet cousin, fourth, maybe even fifth best friend. In those few days, he realized that he could look at her as a woman too. As the time passed, he only fell harder.
But then, Hinata started distancing herself. He remembered her looking at him as if she didn't recognize him for a second. When the realization dawned, all he got was a forced smile.
Be had felt her slipping through his fingers. It was confusing to him, because he didn't have her in the first place.
A little more thought, and he realized that it was love. He loved her.
But by then, it was too late.
Regardless, at the Spring Festival, he'd confessed. He'd taken her hands in his, and told her just how much she meant to him.
But, she'd looked away, created some distance between them. And then, she told him that she was sorry.
Back then, he'd told her that he wouldn't give up. That he would continue fighting for her.
She'd simply looked at him sadly, rubbing her arms.
"But this isn't about giving up, Naruto. It's about letting go."
By the time it was morning, he realised that he'd done it. He'd let her go, out of sight, out of reach. He'd let her go.
And so had she.
Laying in his bed, Naruto clenched his eyes shut trying to block it all out. It hurt too much, thinking about the past, about how dense he had been.
And now, she loved someone else.
His best friend's older brother, no less. Naruto suddenly recalled talking to Uchiha Itachi during the war.
"It is not to be acknowledged that one becomes Hokage. It was the one who is acknowledged that becomes the Hokage."
He was the only person who had even made Naruto falter, waver, made him question his ideals and rethink his goals.
He recalled the masked man telling him, Kakashi and Yamato the truth about the massacre. The envy built up in his sudden melted into resignation.
Itachi was someone who had lost everything for the sake of the village. He'd done so much for all of them, much more than Naruto had, in a sense.
Comparatively, giving up Hinata was trivial. At last, Naruto supposed, that to Uchiha Itachi, in repayment, he would be fine with giving up Hinata.
It was the least he could do.
Itachi was dead, of course, but it seemed wrong, almost like betrayal, to Naruto that he should swoop in and claim Hinata.
Uchiha Itachi already had a lot taken away from him. It was wrong to Naruto that someone should take away his woman too.
His woman.
Naruto clenched his fist at the thought. Then, he took a deep breath and did what Hinata had told him to years ago, did what he had failed to do so after she left.
He let go.
Besides, he knew he had no chance, not when Hinata was still in love with Itachi. He'd realized the moment she'd whispered his name on the way to the hospital.
Her voice had been sweetened honey, as her lips lovingly formed Itachi's name, her tone laced with longing. It was an intimate moment, a glimpse of the extent of her relationship with him. A moment Naruto knew belonged to someone else, and yet he had been the one to steal it.
He felt no regret. Even worse, he'd do it all over again.
The road ahead of him was the one of pain and longing. It was going to be hard, Naruto realized, to forget her. But then again, he'd never been the one to give up.
The thought made his chest constrict, his gut clenching, and twisting and turning, knotting and unknotting again and again, until he could feel the tears burning behind his eyes.
It hurt. So fucking much.
Placing a hand on his chest, where now there was nothing but a gaping hole, Naruto rubbed, until the skin beneath was red.
It did nothing to dull the pain below.
I can do this, He vowed, She deserves this. He deserves this. I will let her go.
And yet, the disgusting, selfish part of him seemed to have a different plan as it whispered back,
For now.
YAYYYYY!! THERE IT IS!!
Hope that cleared up Naruto's feelings.
What are your thoughts on the chapter? Any good, or pure trash? XD
Annndd, there is another itahina scene mentioned in the chapter. Can you find it??
Really, they're just four words, but they are very important.
Lets see which one of you gets it right!!
OHH, NOW FOR THE ANNOUNCEMENT...
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..
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WE ARE ONLY FIVE CHAPTERS AWAY FROM THE FIRST ITACHI/HINATA MEETING!!
*silence*
..AND THE CROWD GOES WILD!!!
*cheers and screams*
What are you thoughts on THAT?!
How do you think it will go? Any guesses? Be sure to tell me in the reviews!!
Other than that, ENJOY!!
-Your loved author.
