Summer Snowflake

x.Nanako-chan.x

xxxxA/Nxxxx

Yay, new chappie :D Thankies to all of you who took the time to answer my questions: TheFirstHokage, KakeruTenshi, Darksmile, notapunk, fried ryce and thanks to the rest of you who reviewed: Violet, Danimals, kibagaaralover18, Kaylyn0706, Raven's Familiar, Azalie-Kariu and HinataDelDesiertoUchija!

This chapter is also pretty long as well… kinda my sorry for updating late with these two chapters. (I was typing it up at school and forgot to upload it so I had to re-type… and my compute got messed up and yeahh….)

And yay!! Summer Snowflake hit over 2000 hits :D Thankies guys

Little present for fried ryce-san as well...

xxxxEndA/Nxxxx

Chapter 5: Acquaintances… and Enemies

My eyes snapped open though the echoing of the young child's voice had yet to cease. I dried my damp skin. I had been crying unconsciously while I was sleeping. I used to do it all the time when I was a child.

I quivered. Sighed aloud I thought of how much I missed kaa-san, even though I'm glad I was still able to recall her voice and face. I thought of the garden. Our garden. I had taken care of it ever since kaa-san died and didn't dare let any of the Hyuuga maid's take care of it. I hope it's still blooming – it would be terrible if all those flowers wilted and died.

I got out of bed and did a couple of stretches to relieve me of the kinks that had formed when I was asleep. I looked over to the clock that hung on the wall beside me.

6:58, it read. I had gone to sleep awful early so it was only natural I had woken up pretty early.

I made my way to the bathroom to wash up. I grabbed a brush and ran in through my silky, dark hair and pinned it up with a red and black butterfly clip – it was Nanako's. I proceeded to brush my teeth and wash my face. After I had finished, I slipped into my academy robes and made my way to the kitchen.

7:32.

I decided to cook natto (1) and rice for our breakfast today. I grabbed a kettle from the cupboard over me and filled it with water for my tea and Nanako's coffee.

As I waited for it to boil, I decided to do a little studying before class started. Grabbing my book bag from my room, I made my way to the dining table.

Kido exists for attacking, binding, and healing. Like conventional magic, most of these spells require an incantation of some sort to activate their effect. These spells are performed through channeling spirit energy, which the incantation then focuses into a specific effect…

Sssss….

My head shot up as soon as I heard the shrill cry of hot air coming from the kettle. I stood up and took two ceramic cups from the cupboard before carefully removing the kettle off of the hot range.

I walked over to the pantry to grab a tea bag and the jar of coffee grounds for Nanako. Carefully, I poured the hot water into the seperate cups and dipped the tea bag and coffee grounds into the cearing hot water.

Almost, as if one cue, Nanako stumbled of the bathroom looking tired and groggy, steam dancing out from behind her….. she… wasn't a morning person. She slumped over on the nearest cushion at the table and downed her coffee. Didn't I say the coffee was cearing hot? Expectedly, her face flushed red and panted trying to 'air condition' her tongue.

"I think my tongue just died," she stated and slumped her head on the table

I giggled softly to myself and observed her out-of-character behavior as she ate breakfast. Unlike last night, she was taking her time, trying not to gobble her food like a gluton.

"…so," she started casually, eying the rice, "have you made any friends at the academy?"

I nervously started poking my fingers together – the old habit just had to come back, "I-iie," I replied. It had always been hard for me to make friends with other people – more spcifically girls. Aquaintances, yes, I had a few but come to think about it Nanako had been my first 'girl' friend.

She didn't seem to keen on talking and she didn't seem to hear me – she also seemed more sleepy then before. Her scelera was reddish, deprived from sleep and the dark bags under her eyes this morning could've almost rivaled Gaara's.

"A-ano, Nanako-chan?"

"Hmm?" she replied, not taking her eyes off her mud coffee (2).

"D-did you g-go somewhere last n-night? You s-seem awful tired today," I asked meekly.

"A-ah. I did," she started rubbing her eyes, trying to relieve the drowsiness that they had been ridden with. Her eyes watered and she furrowed her brow in response. "Went to go see a friend at the hospital – idiot tried challenging his captain 'while ago, lost, got out of the hospital to go see off a friend, overdid it and collapsed…. again."

I could recognize the hint of amusement in her voice as she chuckled at her friends antics and muttering something about him being a baka to challenge his captain – still, I couldn't help but recognize the small swell of pride hidden in her voice when she talked about him challenging someone so strong in comparison.

"N-ne, N-nako-chan,"

"Eh?"

"What's y-your friends' name?"

"You'll meet him soon enough," was her curt reply. "Shouldn't you be heading off to the academy?"

I cocked my head to the side. I was a chuunin, I didn't need to go to the aca…. Oh right. Not a chuunin anymore, I chided to myself, I'm a Shinigami in training. I looked over to the clock that hung on the wall beside me: 8:03, it read.

School started at, what 9:30? No reason as to why I should go right now. "Iie," I replied, "I'm gonna make me some lunch. W-what some?"

"Mmm," she grunted, "Please do."

I made my way to the kitchen and started making terriyaki chiken, miso soup, and chichi dango for our lunches.

After I packed our food in individuel bento boxes I handed one to her and looked back at the clock – 8:47.

"Arigato."

"I guess we should go now, n-ne?" I asked as I turned back to her.

"Hai-hai," she said, getting up.

We both pulled our sandels on and headed out the door. Walking leisurly towards the academy, I wondered how long it would take for me to graduate – the captains wanted me to graduate ASAP so we could go back and scout the Shinobi nations and set up sectors for future missions.

Without realizing we had stopped, I bumped into Nanako who had been walking in front of me.

"Here we are," she announced. I still couldn't get over how odd she had been acting today – stoic, gloomy. It was an odd contrast to her usual 'take no crap from no one' attitude.

I ignored that fact – she was probably still tired from last night. We said our goodbyes – well, I said goodbye, she just grunted- and I walked through the academy gates. Even before I had entered the academy I was still able to hear the quiet mutters of the various shinigami students chatting amiably with their companions.

I walked silently through the corriodrs – I was a ghost, a shadow. Not a single person even turned to awknowledge my presence. I followed a brown-haired boy through the corridors, head down, almost as if I was shamed. And to my surprise, the boy I had been following entered the same classroom as me.

I heard a group of giggles errupt and turned to see a bunch of girls looking at the guy in front of me, red tinting their cheeks.

C'mon, I thought, how hard is it to just walk up and say hi?

While I was facing an inner conflict trying to solve wether or not I should greet the group of girls in the back of the class I accidentaly bumped into the person infront of me.

"A-ah! G-gomenasai!" I sputtered out while bowing in apology.

When I looked up the only thing I could see was warm mossy green.

"You're cute."

While my brain was trying to process what had just happened I felt glares piercing the back of my head. As the heat rushed up to my face, I reluctantly turned around and saw the group of girls I wanted to approach earlier. Pale violet eyes met pairs of icy blue, warm, disapointed brown, frozen green and fiery, angry red.

Red, red lips lifted upwards into a sadistic smirk. Holy crap. I just angered the fan girls

…. Not again. I inwardly groaned.

Flashback

"Hyuuga-san, otou-san told me that there is a clan meeting between the Hyuugas and the Uchihas being held at the Uchiha estate. He requests that you tell Hiashi-sama."

"H-hai U-uchiha-s-san"

He walked away then. After that all I could feel was this crazy killer intent inside the room.

"Oh my gosh!!! Isn't that that freaky eyed girl with Sasuke-kun?!"

"He said more then just 'hn' to her! She must be taken down!"

"Oooohh!! That witch! Let's get her and teach her a lesson!"

"Yeah, Sasuke-kun belongs to us!"

End Flashback

I shuddered. Those were the creepiest days of my life. Snickers erupting from every bush, piercing glares, someone even threw a rock through my window…

I turned back to the boy in front of me, my face still flushed from what he had said. A hearty chuckle erupted from him.

"Haha, I was just messing around with you, silly."

"A-ah," I stuttered, "s-sorry about t-that t-though."

"Not a big deal," he waved it off. He extended his hand, "Yuudai Tatsuya."

"H-Hinata H-Hyuuga," I replied, my hand firmly grasping his.

We were seated and a couple of minutes later the class had filled and Professor entered the room.

"Today," his booming voice filled the room, silencing all the students chatter, "we will be out in the courtyard gauzing your abilities. We will be testing your speed, ability in hand-to-hand combat, swordsmanship, and we will see how well you are able to control your reishi."

"These," he said, "will be your combat teachers for the rest of the year."

On cue, about ten Shinigami dressed in black robes walked into the room, each one wearing stern expressions on their faces.

I looked over each one of them – seven men and three women. I hardly heard Professor drone out the various names for each groupe.

"…Yuudai Tatsuya, Chinatsu Aki, Hyuuga Hinata, Momochi Haku…"

My breathe hitched. M-momochi Haku? That name seemed awfully familiar…. Wasn't Momochi Zabuza one of the Seven Swordsman of the Mist? I-impossible… purely coincidence! I thought. My mind drifted through my past memories, ignoring Professors' calls of various Shinigami students.

N-naruto mentioned someone with Zabuza at the mist so maybe… no. Maybe he could be a relative…? No… I doubt Zabuza had family. I shook my head to rid of all of this nonsense. No way could that boy have affiliations with Zabuza or ANYONE in the Nine Shinobi Nations. Absolutely no one from the Land of Fire, the Land of Water, the Land of Sound, the Land of Earth, the Land of Rain, the Land of Grass, the Land of the Waterfall, the Land of Lightning, OR the Land of Wind.

"Group one please follow the your two professors over there," Professor pointed to a woman with bleach-blonde hair and amber eyes and another man with blazing red hair and gray eyes, "Please be respectful of them. Their names are Yuzuki Hitomi and Tsubasa Sora. Hitomi will be guiding you in the works of Kido and Sora will be testing you in hand-to-hand combat, agility as well as swordsmanship."

While I was busy thinking about how coincidental the situation was, I felt a rib slightly nudge into my rib.

I turned to see Tatusya beckoning me to follow the rest of the class.

"H-hai, a-arigato Y-yuudai-san."

I saw him wrinkle his face in distaste at how I called him but I waved it off. It was getting annoying how everyone wanted me to change their suffix.

We followed the rest of the departing Shinigami into the courtyard and exited chatters erupted as we followed our two senseis.

We finally reached our training spot – a huge field near and old shed, stiff wooden sticks lining its walls.

"Now," the male started, "I am Tsubasa Sora. Please refer to me as Tsubasa or Sora-sensei. Today I will be recording you on how well you do when it comes to strength agility and how well you work with weapons. Just try your best – we have a year to improve whatever needs to be done. We," he motioned to our other teacher, "just want to see where you are right now. You're first years so we don't expect much… just… try your best," he finished lamely while the girl just nodded.

"Okay," the woman finally spoke up, "Yuzumi Hitomi. Just call me Hitomi, no suffix. I'm gonna call out ten names; all those who I call follow me into the other side of the courtyard. The other half, please stay here so Sora can gauge your skills. I will be teaching you the basics of Kido after I see how well you can control your reishi. Now…" she started calling out the names

It seemed I was placed in Sora-senseis' group.

"Now, I want…." He pointed to me, and two girls other girls – ahem, the same who had been glaring at me, "you three to dash around the courtyard. I wanna see how fast you guys are." He pulled a stop watch, pen and clipboard out of his duffel bag. "Line up."

The three of us followed his order, the other two sending me a dirty look for what had happened earlier – it was the fiery red-head (obviously dyed) and the icy blue-eyed blonde (obviously bleached).

We lined up and got into our positions – it seemed like they really wanted some competition from me – I really couldn't care less.

"One," they narrowed their eyes, "two," I heard a good luck from Yuudai, causing the girls expressions to turn sour, "three," I could feel their competitive glares on the side of my head, "Go!" and we were off.

I started off at a leisurely pace, no faster than I would go if I was on a C-rank mission. I looked back and realized I was leading them by a long shot. I just shrugged to my self as I saw the two girls sprinting in an odd way. Their form is all wrong, I thought. They were upright stretching their legs as far as possible while I was hunched low and taking fast, small steps. Their form looked…. Ridiculous.

Before I knew it, I had made my way around the courtyard, not even out of breathe or sweaty. I was simply used to running at fast paces – I had been training my agility ever since I could walk.

I saw my Sora-sensei turn to me, eyes wide.

"Sugoi," he murmured, eying me.

I cocked my head to the side in confusion, "A-ano, sensei, h-how f-fast was I?" I hadn't been timed ever since I left the academy.

"S-seven seconds flat," he muttered. "A-and, you're not tired?"

I just shook my head. I sat down and rested my chin on my knees and waited for the other two girls to make their way back to the starting line. I snickered to myself. How would they react if I used Body Flicker no jutsu?

The two girls finally reached us, looking sweaty, out of breathe and their hair messy and disheveled (sp?)

"How the hell did she get that fast?!?" she screamed while the other replied, "She must be some crazy concoction created by Mayuri-taicho! Just look at her eyes! She's not normal."

My eyes narrowed and a low rumble sounded from the back of my throat. Much to those girls surprise, (and mine) I was growling. The truth was I was always made fun of back in the academy – girls curing my pale, pupiless (sp?), my porcelain skin and inky-blue-black hair.

This is it! I just can't take the insults anymore – maybe back in Konoha but definitely not here!

Before I had a chance to calm myself down I mechanically walked up to them and jabbed my finger into their necks sending a light jolt of charka through the tips of my index fingers. Two thumps echoed through the empty yard and I walked away – no one was ever going to talk to me like that again.

xxxxA/Nxxxx

Yay! Hinata's developing back-bone :D

Anyways, I decided to end it here but I'll give you a little taste of the next chapter!

Beware of Nanako's potty mouth :o I already mentioned there'd be light swearing anyways right?

Anyways, I have an announcement, this pairing is now… HitsuHina!! I finally closed the poll – sorry to all of those who wanted Naruto (who placed 2nd) or any other guy to be with her – majority wins sadly :/

So, you guys are probably going "Hey, where's Toushiro?" well I don't want to rush the romance guys, Hinata still needs to install and get used to her new life – BTW I selected the candidate to be Nanako's guy, I gave you a little hint in this chapter….

xxxxVocabularyxxxx

Natto (1) Fermented soybeans and cheese… or something like that xD

Mud Coffee (2) All you do is put in finely ground coffee beans into hot water and let it sink into the bottom. It makes a sludgy kind of mess down there so they call it mud coffee.

xxxxChapter 6 Preview: (Unnamed)xxxx

Sly and graceful like a cat, Nanako entered the room.

"So," she casually started while looking and her red polished nails, "I heard about your little incident back in the academy…"

Tch, more like Sora-san ranted to me about how temperamental she was – yeah right! Hinata's anything but temperamental!

"I-If you're going to tell me how w-wrong I was to do it, just… don't. I already understand it w-was brash and rude," the words slicked off of my tongue like honey. It was hard saying something like that.

"Tch," she scoffed, "I wasn't going to bash you – I was going to congratulate you! I'm so proud!"

I turned around to seeing her squealing, giddy like a schoolgirl. I rubbed my red, puffy eyes in disbelief, "Y-you're n-not mad?"

She grinned like an idiot, "Yeah right! Those bitches deserved it!"

Ahem, reviews are lovely :D