Chapter 5.
It was only her first day at Konoha and Hanabi already loved it there. From the moment she stepped foot on the cheap linoleum floor of her new school she could already tell that it was different. The atmosphere in KL was nothing like in her previous snobby school, the fact that Hanabi appreciated very much. No cutthroat competition, no pretentious entitled classmates whose biggest concern is what color should their clothes be during a yet another party at the end of the week.
Don't get her wrong, there were plenty of great people in her old school, and she was sure they will accomplish a lot in their life. But there was no connection between students, everybody more or less did their own thing and didn't give a damn about others. Hanabi supposed Hinata hadn't lied when she said that Konoha was like a family compared to their old school. Teachers seemed to really care about their students and not just working off their salary. Even Mr. Hatake seemed more human than the so-called 'elite' teachers that taught her before. The thought of her previous homeroom teacher, Mr. Ebisu, made Hanabi shudder. He did make for an excellent topic of conversation, though, and Hanabi made many a friend using the shaded teacher as an icebreaker. Konohamaru and others had a blast hearing about her escapades in her old school.
As the final bell rang, Hanabi remembered that she was supposed to have an extra lesson with Mr. Hatake after classes. So, cutting her conversation with her new friends short, she practically ran to the arts classroom.
"I see you are serious about this," Mr. Hatake commented as she entered his workshop while not even the last student from the just finished class had left.
"'Course I am!" Hanabi exclaimed, letting the few remaining students out and taking a seat right in front of the teacher's desk. On her way there, she spotted her sister again. Apparently, she was supervising a lot of Hatake's lessons this month, so it was no surprise to see Hinata there.
"Do you plan on overseeing this lesson too, Miss Hyuga?" Mr. Hatake asked in his characteristic brusque manner.
"Unfortunately, no," Hinata replied, seemingly undeterred, although Hanabi could see the irritation slip in on her normally kind expression. "I have to attend to my primary duties too."
A pregnant pause hung in the air, with the two adults glaring daggers at each other. Clearly, something happened during the last lesson that made the two antagonize each other even more. So, deciding to break the heavy silence, Hanabi acted.
"So, what are we gonna do?"
As if a spell was broken, Mr. Hatake turned away from her sister and gave his student a contemplative look. Hinata broke the eye contact as well, wishing her sister a productive session before leaving altogether. Had Hanabi paid a little more attention, she would've noticed both adults let a small sigh of relief at her intervention.
As soon as the health assistant left, Mr. Hatake stood up from his desk and came up to Hanabi's. Seeing her confusion as he loomed over her, Hatake raised an eyebrow. Man, was he a spooky individual, the girl thought to herself. The red paint on his mask and a scar over his eye did nothing to help his image. At least Hanabi hoped that those red stains were from paint…
"Are you going to let me sit?"
"Oh, sure," Hanabi replied, recovering from her daze and scooting over to the second seat, confusion still apparent on her face. As her teacher seated next to her at her desk, she felt a strong need to sit a bit straighter, to behave a bit better. Her own thoughts surprised her – perhaps Konohamaru and others were right about Mr. Hatake having a power to scare anyone. "So, we are going to have individual lessons?" she asked, figuring that if he wanted to sit next to her it meant there were no others coming.
"Today, yes."
"So… I'm not the only one?" she peered at him questioningly.
"The only one with brains," he muttered, turning his body to her so that they could have a conversation. "Now, tell me, why did you sign up for the extra lessons?"
The look he gave her was neutral enough, but Hanabi couldn't help but think that she was being judged.
"Well, I always liked drawing, and I always wanted to create something of my own, so…" she replied, scratching the back of her head somewhat embarrassed.
To her surprise, Mr. Hatake didn't tear her down to shreds at such a lame reasoning. Instead, he seemed to take interest in her explanation.
"By creating something, do you mean an artwork, or…"
"I…" Hanabi never felt so shy before as she was right now, "I mean something like… a comic." Noting a lack of response from her teacher, the Hyuga hurried to explain. "You know, like a webcomic."
For a moment, Hatake was silent. It was as if he was struck by her words, his eyes somewhat looking into the distance, rather than at her. Hanabi was afraid that he wasn't impressed with her after hearing her childish dreams, but a couple of seconds later her teacher seemed to recover.
"Alright, you have a goal at least. That is good," he commented, bringing the girl's hopes up. "But do you know how to get to it?"
"Ehm, uhm, I was hoping… you'd tell me?" she answered, more like asking a question. She was sure she'd done it now. She ruined her first impression and now he'd think of her as some naïve fool who didn't know a thing about art and working in general. She already prepared to a harsh let down, closing her eyes in anticipation. Just like her Father always did when she dared to speak to him about her dreams.
However, once again, Mr. Hatake's words surprised her.
"Very well."
Blinking owlishly, Hanabi tried to process her teacher's words. There was no let down. He actually accepted her silly motivation! She knew that he was an art teacher and that it was his job to do so, but the young Hyuga still couldn't help but feel a little bit grateful.
"Thanks," she mumbled, fidgeting with the hem of her sleeve.
If she were to look up, she would've noticed Hatake's stunned face. The older man clearly was unfamiliar with such words directed at him, so he didn't know how to respond. But that wasn't the weirdest thing that happened during their conversation…
"Just like that idiot…" Hatake muttered, making his student arch an eyebrow. His features seemed to soften, as if a fond memory was playing in his head. At that point, Hanabi wasn't sure if her teacher had all his marbles intact. "Anyway," he shook his head, finally making sense to the girl, "let's begin."
To say that Hanabi was happy she'd taken the extra lessons was to say nothing. Mr. Hatake had talked to her about the advanced curriculum, as well as the career opportunities one could get if they were to pursue art as a profession. He briefly explained to her about colleges and universities that offered 'decent', in his opinion, training for future artists and animators. Thus, the first hour of their session was spent on introductions.
"Mr. Hatake, sir, may I ask a question?" she said after they finished finalizing their schedule.
"Yes?"
"I was wondering… where did you study?"
Hanabi hoped her question wasn't too much for the grumpy teacher. From what she heard Mr. Hatake was an extremely private person. To her delight, he reluctantly gave her an answer.
"I graduated from the National Institute of Arts."
If Mr. Hatake felt satisfied by Hanabi's impressed look, he didn't show it. NIArts was the best arts university in the country. Authors of her many favorite shows and comics graduated from there.
"Awesome!" she gushed over, making the stoic teacher wonder how the exuberant girl before him could be related to a quiet woman that supervised his lessons. "Did you study with anyone famous?"
Her questions were successfully ignored by the older man, and instead he motioned towards his office. Curious, Hanabi followed her teacher at first, but came to an abrupt stop at the doorstep. Peeking inside the tiny room that suited more to be an equipment closet than an office, she saw a couch that clearly looked like it was being used as a bed. She then remembered about a rumor going on about the infamous art teacher; that he lived at school. Seeing Mr. Hatake's office herself, she was starting to believe that it was more than just a rumor. The whole room looked more like a space intended for living… no, sleeping, rather than working. Not one to judge, and not one to invade others' privacy either, Hanabi patiently waited outside.
It wasn't long until Mr. Hatake reappeared. He was holding a hefty stack of folders in his arms, so Hanabi immediately offered to help him carry it to their desk, which he promptly refused. Once the folders were spread on the desk, she could see the labels on them correspond to a particular date, ranging from relatively recent days to up to fourteen years into the past.
"These are useless," her teacher said, taking away all the folders dated later than ten years back. Hanabi didn't say anything, although she was curious about the contents of the later folders. "You can have a look at the rest," Mr. Hatake said, nodding towards the numerous older binders.
Locating the earliest one, Hanabi opened it. Inside were pages upon pages of drawings and paintings. Hanabi looked at the works, stunned at the masterful way they were drawn. Most of them were illustrations of some kind of a character, and the girl couldn't help but marvel at how alive those pictures looked! A lot of the characters were drawn from multiple angles, as if a concept art for a professional project.
"Did you draw these?" Hanabi turned to her teacher, awestruck.
"My portfolio for admission to NIArts," Mr. Hatake nodded simply, putting the folders he deemed 'useless' away. "Keep them. Study them. If you want to study in a university like NIArts you must be able to produce work of equivalent quality to the ones you see in front of you."
Hanabi looked at the masterpieces in front of her, her mind blown away at the realization that it was produced by someone practically her age. Mr. Hatake must have been in his seventeens-eighteens when he applied to university. And even though she did art for more than ten years already her level was nowhere near her teacher's at her age. How good he must be now after fourteen years of improvement she didn't even dare to imagine…
The realization was humbling, although it thankfully did nothing to tamper her desire to become an artist. If anything, she felt more motivated than ever to become better. Mr. Hatake seemed to have noticed the change in his student's expression, as he let a huff of approval, before sitting down beside her once again.
"If you are willing to continue, we can begin our real lesson now."
"Let's do it!" Hanabi fist pumped, all fired up. If she were to see through her teacher's mask, she would've been surprised to spot a rare smirk on his face.
Time flew by with the two of them having not noticed at all. The sun had long set, but neither Hanabi nor her teacher seemed to care. They would've kept at it with their session had the door not opened, allowing for a much needed, albeit unappreciated by the older man, distraction.
"Oh, it is you," Mr. Hatake said dismissively to the newly arrived woman. Unlike him, his student beamed at her sister.
"Good evening to you too, Mr. Hatake," Hinata rolled her eyes, coming up to their desk. "It's almost seven and Hanabi still hasn't called, so I wanted to check in on her."
"As you can see, there are no breaches of professional conduct. Came to supervise the lesson?" he sneered, likely still bitter about having his classes supervised. "Or we could finish right now?"
With those words Mr. Hatake turned to Hanabi, clearly letting her to make the decision.
"I would like to complete the practice, if it's alright with you, Hinata," she said diplomatically. She felt like her teacher was truly being kind to her, so she didn't want to seem ungrateful.
"Sure thing," Hinata smiled. She didn't mind if they finished up on whatever they started.
"Alright," Hatake nodded, the two returning to their lesson.
Hinata took to observing. In truth, it was more like a conversation, rather than a lecture. Hatake explained things Hinata didn't have a slightest idea about, and Hanabi listened and asked questions. Unlike with other students, Hatake seemed to have quickly found a common ground with her little sister. It was a miracle in on itself how the pair seemed to have come to such an understanding. The funniest thing was that Hatake didn't behave much differently from the way he was during a regular class. It was Hanabi's reactions to his behavior that allowed for such a fluid communication. Hatake's snappy remarks were taken by the younger Hyuga at face value, seemingly unaffected by her teacher's rudeness. Hatake, in return, seeing a competent and willing student, was much quicker to show approval.
Hinata frowned, remembering her most recent 'fight' with the bull-headed art teacher. It started out as a normal classroom situation, where two students came late to class. As a teacher, it was Hatake's job to maintain discipline, and from what she knew about the man, he was very efficient in that aspect. However, she didn't expect him to handle the situation the way he had.
"Sorry we are late, Mr. Hatake," she remembered the two students, Naruto and Sasuke, apologize.
Although the pair had been late by more than twenty minutes, Hatake himself came only a couple minutes prior to their arrival. Hinata was sure he'd scold them and the whole situation will be over quickly, but as she came to learn about the art teacher, nothing with him was ever that simple.
"You two are always late. Why should I allow you in?" she remembered him say. She could feel the teens' retort practically on their tongue, but thankfully they decided to keep silent.
"But you yourself were late." she heard someone from the class say instead.
The look the poor student received from Hatake for his trouble had sent chills even down Hinata's spine.
"I don't recall asking for your opinion, Shikamaru," Hatake retorted casually, standing up. Even though he sounded nonchalant, nothing in his form gave an impression of being unthreatening.
As Hatake strode towards the dark-haired boy, his anger seemed to rise. The young Nara tried to remain calm but Hinata could see the hints of growing unease in his widening eyes. The tardy pair that stood at the door seemed to get anxious as well, as if anticipating something. Before the teacher could do anything more, however, she decided to intervene–
"Wow!" Hanabi's loud voice pulled Hinata out of her ruminations. "That is a perfect Zuko if I ever seen one! Are you sure you never studied the show?"
"Never," Hatake confirmed. "It takes a lot of practice, but you can deconstruct another artist's style down to a few basic things and then reproduce it back." With those words, the teacher proceeded to demonstrate his deconstruction technique in more detail.
"I can't believe you did it all in your mind in less than a minute!" Hanabi exclaimed, amazed.
They continued their lesson until it was eight o'clock, finishing up with Hanabi's 'homework' and a promise from Hatake to teach her more exercises and tips. Whatever that meant, Hanabi seemed pleased. Hinata never saw her little sister speak so passionately, even about such a beloved subject as art. She reluctantly admitted that Hanabi's personality seemed to have fitted well with the coarse art teacher. The young Hyuga seemed to have found a kindred spirit in Hatake.
Hinata continued to observe the two with interest, sometimes catching the teacher's furtive glances. As much as he wanted to seem nonchalant, Hinata was sure her presence affected him. Well, considering the incident that happened before… The woman just hoped that people would forget about it as soon as possible.
When the lesson had finally come to an end, it was time for Hanabi and Hinata to say goodbye to the art teacher.
"Yeah, yeah, I'll see you tomorrow," was his only reply.
Sharing a knowing smile, the two girls proceeded to leave the school. They had an evening of celebration planned, and Iroha already waited for them in the car.
Half an hour later, the two of them were already sitting comfortable at the couch in Hinata's apartment. A half-eaten takeout sushi on the coffee table beside them. Hinata smiled contentedly; her normally quiet studio was brimming with warmth with her sister's presence.
"I talked with Father by the way," Hanabi said with a grin, "he said it's fine if I stayed with you for the night!"
Her sister's words elicited a matching grin from Hinata. "That's awesome! We can go to school together!"
The two girls squealed in excitement.
"I wish we could do this every day," Hanabi said wistfully, plopping down on the couch, to which her sister could only sigh in agreement.
"It's okay though, we'll still be seeing each other every day," Hinata reassured. "Besides, this makes the nights like this even more special!"
Hanabi smiled at the older woman. Her big sister always knew what to say to make everything alright. It was one of her qualities that the younger sister found herself sometimes jealous of. No matter how she tried, she couldn't be as understanding and diplomatic as Hinata. How many times she fought with Father because she couldn't keep her mouth shut? How many times she could've gotten what she wanted if only she'd tried a more subtle approach? Compared to her, Hinata was the epitome of grace and repose. All the weirder it was that her sister seemed to dislike Mr. Hatake.
"Tell me, sis, how it is that you can get along with everyone but Mr. Hatake, the only guy in school hot enough to be your match?"
Although the question was out of the blue, there was a hidden agenda from Hanabi's part. Aside from teasing her sister, she was quite concerned with her lack of romantic life. Even she had a boyfriend or two, even though those relationships hadn't come to be anything meaningful.
"H-Hanabi! This is inappropriate!" Hinata tried to play the 'I am a professional' card, but to no avail. They both knew from the beginning that when Hanabi starts a topic she won't back off until she gets a satisfactory answer.
"Come on, Hinata, admit that he's hot," she kept pressing her sister with a teasing smile, her finger pointed at the older Hyuga.
"So what if he is handsome?" Hinata conceded, arms crossed, just as Hanabi knew she would. "His personality is what matters!"
Hanabi seemed to take notice of her big sister's rapidly reddening face and decided to lay off for now. Instead, the topic of conversation steered off to their school. It was another thing Hanabi was interested to learn about where her sister was concerned. Unlike her, Hinata didn't seem to have a clear goal in her life. She was always doing what others told her, not really stopping to think about what she wanted.
Hanabi remembered her drawing earlier today during the art lesson. Mr. Hatake had immediately caught on to the meaning of her painting, and Hanabi hoped Hinata understood at least a little of her feelings. The truth was, Hanabi was worried about her sister. Hinata always seemed somewhat lost in life, and Hanabi tried to reflect that lost feeling in her drawing. How many times she caught a melancholy look on Hinata's face when she thought nobody was looking. Her sister was strong, but even she couldn't hide the tiredness and dissatisfaction from her face. Not from Hanabi.
Although there was hope too, how could she not notice? Hinata clearly enjoyed her current work, and especially the people she was meeting with at Konoha Lyceum. Hanabi was sure her current job was far closer to her sister than whatever she'd been doing up until this time before. Her sister did so much for her when it came to her passion, and Hanabi wanted to repay her by helping her find hers.
"I'm glad that you are happy, sis," Hanabi said, taking Hinata's hand in her own. "You don't have to listen to what Father says. Just do what you like."
Hanabi was confident her sister could understand her feelings clearly despite her ineptitude at sentimentality. The younger Hyuga still tried to convey her support as best as she could. Despite what Hinata said, she was sure that Father's words and his disapproval deeply affected her older sister. Heck, even she felt saddened by it sometimes. Hanabi wished someone would tell their dad that he was being an ass. She wished she were strong enough to tell him that herself, to make him understand how hurtful his refusal to understand was to his daughters.
Today, however, was not a time nor place for such depressing thoughts, so Hanabi mustered a smile and happily surrendered to the bliss of having to spend quality time with her big sister.
Meanwhile in the basement of Konoha Lyceum, in the art teacher's tiny office, Kakashi sat at the edge of a worn couch. His hand hurt from the exertion of the past day. Knowing that he won't be able to sleep for a while, the man distracted himself from pain by replaying scenes from today in his head. The first lesson when Hyuga made him introduce her sister; said sister's remarkable ability and resemblance to a friend long lost… But one thing had stood out in his memory, forcing out the familiar and practically natural to him feeling of guilt.
"Stop it this instant!" he remembered Hinata say as he approached Shikamaru. Turning to her, Kakashi was shocked by the angry expression on the young health assistant's face.
"And what gives you the authority to order me in my own class?" he drawled, his pride letting his tongue loose. How dare she discipline him in front of his own students? As if he was the snot-nosed, lazy brat who did nothing but sleep during his lessons!
"If you've forgotten, I am your assigned supervisor today and on most days. I can easily report today's situation to the principal," she said, eyes hardening. The excited murmur that passed along the room was more than enough indication that students would support her if it came to a formal investigation. "That aside, I cannot sit here and watch you abuse your students!"
A collective gasp resounded.
Kakashi remembered being so livid; even now hours after the incident he squeezed the report Hinata had handed him at the end of the lesson in muted anger.
"What abuse?" he asked through gritted teeth. "What abuse? You seem to know a lot about the subject so enlighten me: what kind of atrocity I committed for you to call it abuse?!" he was practically shouting now.
In his anger he hadn't noticed that he now stood right in front of the health assistant. The woman was tiny against his tall frame, but she displayed no fear. Looking him straight in the eye, she calmly said, "There is more to abuse than just physical harm."
He hadn't thought about it like that before, but now that he'd calmed down… Something in the woman's words indicated that she was indeed familiar with the subject of abuse. Guilt washed over him. Contrary to what others said about him, Kakashi wasn't heartless. He knew when he was overstepping his boundaries, and the incident with the Hyuga woman was exactly such a case. She tried to hide it but Kakashi could see the hurtful memories flash behind those violet eyes. How couldn't he? He knew that look, having perfectly mastered it himself. It was the look of suppressed sadness and anger. Defeat. He couldn't elicit such a look in anybody's eyes if he wanted to respect himself. Especially if it was such a decent person like the young health assistant.
Kakashi was many things. An asshole, a failure, a waste of talent. But he wasn't the kind of person to hurt someone by attacking their most vulnerable. Every time he'd done something like that, he made sure to apologize. He may have been an asshole, but he had his principles too.
His eyes turned to the crumpled paper that he'd tossed on the floor in his frustration. He didn't need to see what was written on that report – afterall, there were only two sentences that he had memorized by now.
"You are a good teacher. Work on your nurturing side!"
Kakashi sighed. Tomorrow he will have to apologize.
