Chapter Two:
"No, no, no! Don't cower, dodge! There is a goddamn difference, you know!"
Hinata struggled to hold back the tears that had been burning in her eyes for hours as Itachi prepared to throw another round of kunai at her. She remained deadly alert, knowing that Itachi was in no way pulling his punches for her. This had been going on all morning, the act Itachi insisted on calling 'training.'
Hinata called it attempted homicide.
Much to the Hyuga heiress's demise, Itachi had been serious the day before. Well…she'd known he was serious (when was he not?) but she thought if she could only avoid being alone with him she'd be okay. That plan hadn't worked very well, because he'd woken her up what seemed like five seconds after she'd shut her eyes in order to train her. So now here she was, the sun just rising mind you, waiting to be bombarded by more deathly kunai. It might have been easier to handle had Itachi's level of ninja art not been so above her own. His capabilities were more that double hers, and so was his expectancy level. In other words, he was throwing everything in his pouch at her continuously and chronically while she dodged one out of every five he threw. He was too fast for her, and his temper was getting faster.
He watched angrily as she struggled with the simplest of tasks, disgusted. All she had to do was dodge the fucking knives. Was that really so difficult? He'd known how to do this when he was half her age. They'd been here for only about four hours and she was already panting and bleeding everywhere. The sun was coming up already; she should have it by now!
But no, she was near to tears, and he'd be damned if he let that stop him.
After a long while of him cursing and her holding back tears, he decided to call it a day before he actually did kill her. Which at the time didn't sound like so bad an idea.
He rubbed his hand over his face. "Ugh, fine Hinata. We'll continue after you've eaten."
"B-but, if I fight after I've eaten…I might…um, I might…"
He grew irritated. "Spit it out!"
She blushed. "Throw up…"
He glared at her callously. "So? You should be less worried about that and more worried about your current physical state."
Turning away, she nodded.
"Good. Now come on, little sis. I'm sure by now everyone should be up."
She looked at him perplexedly at his calling her by her pet name. He wasn't glaring anymore. Instead, he had on the usual stoic expression, but it wasn't nearly so cold to her. It never was. She smiled as she took her place beside him.
When they'd entered, the aroma of burnt food was so bad that both jerked their heads outward as it rose to meet them. Hinata coughed and covered her mouth with her hands in a futile attempt at fresh air. Itachi somehow withstood it, but he was in no way unaffected by it.
"What the hell is that smell?!"
Fugaku poked his head through his bedroom door. "Your mother tried to cook again."
"Damnit, doesn't she ever learn her lesson?!"
He shrugged. "Guess not." Seconds later he was attacked by a flying pillow from within the room. He smiled sheepishly into the room. "What??? I ate it, didn't I?"
Sobs were heard, followed by Fugaku's great sigh and then his re-entering the room.
Hinata and Itachi bravely made their way to the source of the smell: the kitchen. As they got closer, Hinata's coughs grew more consistent and rough, though she tried to hold them in. Both Neji and Sasuke were in the kitchen when they got there, opening windows while fanning the air with rags. Upon seeing Hinata, Neji threw her a rag.
"Help us, would you?"
She instantly began fanning the air with them, but her coughing didn't stop. Itachi soon grabbed the cloth from her.
"I'll do it. Go outside and wait for me."
She hacked. "N-No Itanii-san, I can—"
"I have no doubt you can, but I'm going to do it. Now go outside."
She blinked, but when another cough attack came, she ceased her arguments and went out into the yard. Once out there, his choice of words struck her. The way he'd said what he had…the wording, it sounded like…like he believed in her. Maybe she was being unrealistic, but he said he had no doubt of her. She smiled softly to herself. If anyone should believe in her, she wasn't surprised it would be Itanii-san. Cold as he could be, she knew more than anyone he cared…to an extent, of course.
Several minutes later, she heard her name being called by Neji to come back into the house. She did so immediately and went back into the kitchen. She heard sobs coming from within the master bedroom. Not so surprising. Itachi's mother, Mikoto, was a bigger worrywart than…well, than Hinata. She hated to say it, because it sounded so rude, but it was the truth. Fugaku definitely had his hands full with her.
"Hey Hinata where were you this—Hey! What happened to you?!"
She smiled shyly at her cousin. "W-Well, I was out training with Itanii-san, s-so I could get stronger…"
Neji gave looked over her fresh cuts and worn out body…it had not been a good training session. "If you wanted someone to train you, why didn't you tell me?"
"Because Hinata wanted the best ninja to train her," Itachi said, walking out of the kitchen. "And that's not you."
Neji glowered at him. "This doesn't concern you, Uchiha."
"What?" Sasuke said, also just leaving the kitchen.
"What do you mean 'what'?"
"You're the one that called me."
"No, I was talking to your brother."
Only Hinata noticed the look of anger that passed over his face before it returned to its black stare. "Oh."
Hinata blinked at the fleeting face of Sasuke's, but no one was noticing her right now.
"I'm going to keep training her," Itachi said with finality.
"Not if she doesn't want you too," Neji countered angrily. "What do you say, Hinata?"
She didn't answer.
"Hinata?"
She blinked and averted her gaze to her cousin. "H-Huh?"
"…Were you paying attention?"
She blushed. "N-No, Cousin Neji. I-I'm sorry…"
She had been too busy staring at Sasuke. There had been something so familiar in his eyes when he'd looked angry. Kind of like the way she looked when someone berated her and then praised her little sister, Hanabi.
Neji's voice tuned her out of her thoughts. "Hinata? What do you say?"
"H-Huh?"
"What are you looking at?"
She blushed. "O-Oh, nothing! W-What do I say to what?"
"To Itachi training you."
"O-Oh…Um, I," Itachi was glaring at her from above Neji's head, which didn't exactly ease her discomfort, "Um, I think i-it's a, uh, g-good idea."
Neji lifted his brows before following her gaze and looking directly into Itachi's death orbs. "Stop scaring her," Neji growled.
"Everything scares her," Itachi said easily.
"Not true, Uchiha. You just happen to scare everything."
Them's fighting words in my country.
But Sasuke saves the day. "She still exists, you know. Why talk about her like she's not here?"
They both turned to him.
"Since when do you care?" Neji asked irately.
Sasuke ignored the question. "She already said she was okay with it."
"Yeah," Itachi agreed (a rare sight). "It's not as if she needed your permission anyway."
"N-Neji-kun, I'm really…I mean, I'm okay with it…I just want to get stronger…I want to be with Naru—"
She realized her mistake before she even finished her sentence. One: Itachi was glaring at her. The sound of Naruto's name had the tendency to irritate him. Two: Sasuke looked surprised, so she knew he knew who she was talking about. And he was partners with Naruto! Three: Neji knew who she was taking about. Meaning now she would never be able to get within five inches of him.
Or, more accurately, Naruto would never be allowed within five inches of her.
An awkward silence followed her words, and she covered her mouth with both hands as she blushed ten different shades of red. Sasuke spoke first.
By now, he'd gotten over his surprise and went back to his nonchalant mannerism. "So you like Naruto?"
She shook her head. "N-No! I-I mean, uh, I don't…I…"
He shrugged. "It doesn't matter if you do," he said. Itachi knocked him upside the head for it.
"Hell yes it does!" he shouted. "She can't like that dumbass! Don't encourage her!"
Sasuke rubbed his as he glared at his brother. "She gets to make her own decisions."
"No she doesn't!" both Neji and Itachi said.
That made Hinata feel very nice.
She was tired of this. As unnoticeably as humanely possible, she snuck past the three and went into the kitchen. At least she almost did, but trying to sneak past those three was as impossible as getting high off sniffing candy canes.
"Where are you going?" Itachi demanded.
"I-I'm going to go eat…Y-You said that afterward, um…we could continue our training…"
He stared at her a second, before going back to that stoic and yet not so cold expression he reserved for her. "Sure. Let's go."
They both went to eat breakfast and when they were done, Hinata followed Itachi back out to the murder scene…I mean, training grounds.
By the time night fell, Itachi was angry enough with her that he could have left her outside to sleep. But then he'd have to deal with that damn cousin of hers, then his own father, then his mother…no, it was much easier to just ignore her.
She might have improved, but not enough to save her own body. She was covered in scratches, more so than in the morning, and blood was tricking across her cheek and arms. And to top it all of nicely, her prediction had come true: she'd thrown up. She looked disgraceful. He'd given up on her for the day.
"Go take a shower, eat, and then go to sleep. We're doing this again tomorrow."
She felt miserable as she literally dragged herself off to the shower room. On the way she passed Fugaku, who looked at her with a worried expression.
"What happened?"
She smiled weakly. "I-I was, um, training with Itachi."
He looked shocked for a moment, but it morphed into a suggestive grin. "Oh, I get it. Sure, you were training. I'll buy into that." He elbowed Hinata playfully. "I never realized you were so playful Hinata."
She genuinely had no idea what he was talking about until he called her a 'naughty girl.'
She was covered in cuts and bruises and he was thinking about that.
She blushed. "No! M-Me and Itanii-sama…we, um, we're not anything like that…"
But he went on teasing her, and she kept with her embarrassed denial. After a few minutes of bothering her, Mikoto called from her room for him to stop. He flinched at her voice, and winked at Hinata before going to his own room. Hinata sighed as she walked sheepishly to shower and then to bed.
-
"Hinata, wake up!"
Hinata groaned quietly as she turned away from the obstructive noise.
"Hinata!"
Laying for a moment to ask why this was happening to her, she finally sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes sleepily.
Stretching, she yawned. "Okay Itanii-san. I'm awake."
Neji shook her again. "It's me, Neji! Wake up Hinata, we're leaving."
Hinata woke at the moment. "W-What?! Why?! Did…" she hesitated. "Did Itanii-san say we have to leave?"
Neji lifted a brow. "No. And who cares if he had?"
"Then…Then why…?"
He started picking her up off the bed. "Your dad wants you."
She opened her eyes wide. "My…? No!" she whispered shrilly. "I-I don't want to go back!"
Neji paused a moment to look at her, then lowered his face within eye-level of her. "Look, Hinata, if there was something I could do…But there's not. I'm part of the cadet branch, and my job is to protect you."
"I…But…"
"Hinata, don't make this harder."
She paused before nodding hesitantly.
"Good. Now, come on." He grabbed her arm gently and lifted her. Then, after pausing a moment to make sure no one had awoken, they disappeared.
-
Itachi was not pleased. He'd woken up early, thought up a harder exercise, gotten all revved up (or as revved up as the Uchiha could get) and for what? For an empty room. And a dirty one at that. In other words, Hinata had bailed on him.
The amount of anger currently instilled in him was immeasurable.
Hinata had ditched him. Yes, it annoyed him so much that I had to use Italics, Bold, and the Underline. But if she thought she was going to get away, she was wrong. He went directly to the source.
"Hey, Neji! Get your ass over here!"
No reply.
Oh, he was being ignored now too. Growling, he screamed louder, and this time he did get an answer. From Sasuke.
"They left already," he stated simply, passing Itachi in the halls.
"What." His voice was cold and clearly pissed.
"They left," repeated Sasuke.
"And how do you know this?"
"They're not here anymore, duh." Then Sasuke left Itachi.
Oh, so Hinata just up and decided to leave. That was real nice. Not to mention the fact that she'd taken her cousin with her. The only problem was that he didn't know where she was going. She'd come here to run away from home, meaning she wasn't going there. Uzumaki's house? Nah, there's no was Neji was letting her do that. And she'd left the room dirty, not even bothering to clean it up.
Hey, wait a minute…The room's dirty? That doesn't sound like Hinata. Normally, when she came over their house, she had the decency to clean up after herself when she left. Sometimes, she even cleaned up the other rooms. There was no way she was leaving the house dirty for them, it wasn't her nature. Hmm…Maybe she didn't leave after all.
Maybe she might have even been taken.
No, there was no way anyone could have gotten past his keen senses. Then again…he had been awfully tired yesterday. He'd fallen asleep as soon as he hit the pillow, which was indeed a rare occurrence. And if she'd run away, he seriously doubted she'd go and wake her cousin. Neji, he knew, would let her go only home and she didn't want to be at home. So, in Itachi's eyes, this is what happened:
Someone had obviously come and attempted to kidnap Hinata. She hadn't cleaned the room like usual because she had no choice. Neji, who slept on the floor by her bed, must have been awoken by some noise. Then, once seeing Hinata, obviously on the verge of being kidnapped, he must have followed the man. And judging Neji's own capabilities, he'd probably gotten his ass kidnapped too!
Oh shit, Hinata got kidnapped.
Itachi felt something that was not panic settle in his heart, making it not go at least 50 beats per second. NOT. Because he wasn't nervous. He was Itachi, and Itachi did not get nervous. He ran in to the kitchen to find Sasuke for purely entertainment purposes. And then his voice was only slightly worried, and it wasn't because of Hinata. It was because…he was…slightly worried about…Global warming?
Once having proposed his idea to Sasuke, Sasuke lifted his brows. "You can't seriously think that's what happened."
"Look at the facts you dumbass! If you can't accept every possibility, then you'll never make it as a ninja!"
"You're right as always, Itachi. I should look at the facts and ignore that piece of paper right there under your nose."
Itachi glanced down at the paper Sasuke was indicating. It read:
Uchiha family,
Thank you for having me. I'm sorry I couldn't stay longer, but I had to return home immediately. I'm so sorry.
Sincerely,
Hinata Hyuga.
He read it once, twice, even three times. In fact, some very brave (or suicidal) soul might say he was stalling. But eventually, he glanced up at his brother, who was currently smirking.
"Wipe that grin off your face or I'll do it for you."
Unfazed, Sasuke went on smirking. "No problem. I just wonder what Hinata would say if she saw you so worked up over her."
"And you'll keep wondering," he retorted in a cold voice, "because you're not telling her anything."
Sasuke's smirked broadened. "Sure thing, Itanii-san."
Growling irately all the way, Itachi left his house and went off to the Hyuga estate.
Shimi-chan: I did it! I thought it was impossible, but it wasn't! I made Itachi look dumb without getting out of character…well, kind of. I'm listening to 'Numb' right now, because I think it matches a lot of the personalities in Naruto, but in different ways. Hinata, at the moment. Well, tomorrow is the pizza party, so I guess I'm done. You don't know how many times I looked over and re-wrote this chapter. All my chapters, actually. But it's worth it. I think.