Himawari Like the Summer Flower Chapter 2, a naruto fanfic

Disclaimer: Naruto is the property of its author, and not me.

Please, if you enjoyed reading the story, please review. :-)

Life; everything in it is preordained…

We are all born to live what was destined for us.

It doesn't matter if you wanted it or not.

Fair? Who said any of our lives were going to be fair?

All men were not created equal…

Only those who were destined to claim happiness will live happily…

While all the rest of us are trapped in misery like caged birds.

Just waiting…waiting for the only thing in life…

Every man shares…

[his death

Himawari-Like the Summer Flower

Chapter 2: Hiding and Seeking

"Himawari."

"Huh?"

Her voice was very delicate but I didn't miss a single syllable.

"The flowers. They're Himawaris."

"Uh, …oh! Um, I've never seen anything like them before. They're so big…and, and bright!"

"Are they…too strange?"

She asked, as she looked down.

I was not close enough to see clearly, but she looked a bit disappointed…

As if we were actually speaking of her and not the flowers.

"N-no, I…I think they're really beautiful!"

I shouted so that she can hear me.

I had no idea why I rushed myself to say that but I was afraid I had said something to hurt her.

She quickly looked up towards me again, and after a few more seconds, she smiled.

"I really love them too!"

For some reason, her smiling face relaxed me and made me smile also. But, at that moment, I remembered why I was there.

"Oh, um, did you see a boy come in here? I'm looking for him. We were all playing hide-n-seek outside and I think he accidentally came in here."

"A…boy?"

"He's about the same age as me. Did you see him?"

"I…"

She looked sort of confused, so I thought she couldn't hear me very well, so I began making my way through the sunflowers to get up a little closer to where she was.

"By the way, what are you doing here? You know we're not supposed to be in this garden, right?"

I moved the endless waves of sunflowers out of my way and kept walking towards her. To the right, then to the left.

"I…didn't see anybody here."

She said, this time whispering.

"But, I heard him."

I said, while I moved in closer and closer.

"I…I don't…"

for some reason she began to look a little uneasy, the closer I was getting to her, she began to move backwards.

"Neji!!!"

Right then, I heard the kids outside calling my name.

"Hey Neji! Where'd you go!?"

"We found him!! We're all here now! Let's go home!"

"Where the heck could he be?! I thought he was supposed to be the one looking for us!?"

"Neji!!!"

So he wasn't hiding here?!

I thought.

I had to get out of the garden before they found out I was in here.

"You better go…Neji-dono."

She suddenly said to me.

I turned to look at her once more.

I wasn't able to tell when I was further away, but she seemed to be a little older than me.

A soft breeze blew through the garden and sent a very sweet fragrance towards me.

Was it her perfume?

"I'm sorry I couldn't be of any help to you."

She said.

And then I saw her eyes for the first time.

What stared back at me were not the eyes I usually saw on a Hyuga.

They reminded me of the color of the early sunset.

I wanted to look at them again so I knew if I was just seeing things.

But before I was able to d that, the girl bowed her head deeply and walked into the building adjacent to the sunflower garden.

"Wait!"

I called out to her, but she didn't look back and disappeared into the darkness of the building.

"She didn't even tell me who she was… and what she was doing wandering around in this garden…"

I looked once more towards the building she went into.

It resembled any old mansion that were around in the Hyuga clan property.

Nobody has ever mentioned a mansion within the western garden.

Is this somebody's home?

Does that girl live here in the garden?!

"Neji!!!"

I heard the voices of the kids outside again, so I hurried towards the hole in the gate. I dove down into the darkness of the sunflower stems and left the garden. When I was on the other side of that hole, my body was suddenly all sticky with sweat again as the heat of the summer sun beat down on me.

The cicadas were noisily calling out again and I saw the children running towards me.

"Neji! There you are! Where in the world were you!?"

"We were looking all over for you! In this heat!"

"Sorry guys, I must have gotten lost while I was looking."

"And you were the one who wanted to play this game!"

"I'm tired! And all sweaty!! Let's go get some ice-cream!"

"Yea. Let's go over to Neji's house and eat his ice-cream!"

"H-hey! What!?"

"Yea!!!"

"Yea, let's go to Neji's!!"

The kids all pulled on my arms and were headed to my house.

::Sigh:: Oh well, at least I didn't have any training with Father today.

But, I knew that this was definitely going to be the last time I suggested playing hide-n-seek.

"Ice-cream! Ice-cream!"

"Yaaaaaaay!!!"

"Hey, you guys…?"

The kids all stopped fooling around and looked back towards me.

"The far west garden…why aren't we supposed to go in there?"

I looked at all the kids, straight into their eyes and waited for them to answer me.

"I…I don't know."

Said the first child.

"Garden? What garden?"

said another.

"Because everbody says not to! Duh!"

said the other.

They didn't think anymore of it and started running towards my home again singing the "ice-cream yay" song which they just came up with. But I looked back…

Towards the garden once more before I started to walk behind them. It was faint, but in the distance, I think I heard the sunflowers swaying with the summer breeze…

"Hii-sama, is something wrong?"

The elderly care-taker came into her young master's room. Caring for her since the moment she was born, it was not too hard for her to sense any change in her young master's mood.

It was still bright out and she usually liked to be out in the garden tending to the flowers at this time.

"Nothing is wrong Hibari. I'm sorry if I made you feel concerned."

She stood by her window staring out into the distance.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes…"

"Himawari-sama?"

"…

…Neji-dono…"

"!!??...what?"

Hibari felt her own heart stop for a few seconds.

"Neji-dono…came into the garden today…by accident….apparently, he and his friends are all told not to come near here…to this garden…"

"Oh, Himawari-sama…"

Hibari tried her best not to let her young master sense her shaking voice.

"But…I was happy. I finally…got to meet him…my cousin…Neji-dono."

When Hibari saw that tiny drops of tears were spilling from her young master's beautiful coral eyes.

It was then, she realized that she too was shedding tears.

This excuse I like to call an Afterword:

Thank you for reading this far of my fanfiction. Please review and give me some feedback. :-)

Some notes:

Layered kimono: The women of the Heian court in Japan used to wear very elaborate (and not to mention totally heavy) layered kimonos called 12 hitoe. Like the name, the kimono consisted of 12 layers. It is sort of a sign of the person's high rank in the social ladder.

Suffixes on the names: "-sama" and "-dono" are all signs of honorifics. "-sama" may be used for both sexes, but "-dono" is usually used for males.