Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto...
She had three days to prepare for a mission that would keep her in Uzumaki Naruto's company. Alone. With Naruto. To say that she was having a bit of a mental breakdown would not be an exaggeration. Which is why the next day she found herself out on the training grounds, by herself, attempting to perfect the newest taijutsu combination that Neji had been teaching her as a form of therapy to get her mind clear of all nervousness.
How had she gone so long without being paired with him on a mission and what's more concerning, why hadn't she noticed? She had been on a few missions with him before, of course, since there was no way to avoid working with Uzumaki Naruto, the ninja that could fit into any team, but she had always been with either her team or his. But now it was just going to be her and him, all alone, for a few weeks.
This whole train-so-you-can't-think thing wasn't really working. All she could think of was traveling through the trees with him, soaring like eagles with the wind under their jackets like wind under wings, with Naruto as bright and strong and swift as the eagle she thought him to be, though she would probably be more like a hawk. She dipped low, twisting in her crouch to whip one leg out as powerfully as she dared, allowing the momentum to twist her like a corkscrew right back up into a standing position, her hands following to end in a vicious punch, and a stumble. She mentally hissed at herself, wondering how in the world Neji had done this so smoothly and without a single stumble or jerky movement. The key to making it work was swift, continuous momentum, which meant she'd need enough speed to push through multiple attacks. But every single time she either didn't get enough and ended up having to jerkily push herself onward, or she got too much and ended up stumbling through her finish.
Neji had looked like a dancer on ice he was so smooth. She felt more like a drunken bull in a china shop. She took a deep breath, trying to center herself before pushing herself right back into the maneuver, cursing when she stumbled so much she almost tripped over her own feet. She had to focus if she was going to get anywhere, she knew that, but her mind and her muscles were flustered and everything seemed to want to work against her. She could feel a light line of perspiration down her back, making her jacket cling to her skin, but she was used to it. Her uniform was kind of a bother in the summertime when the sun was high and mighty in the sky, beating down on those of Konoha who ventured out beneath its rays. With pants that cut off just above her ankles, a normal fishnet training top and her lavender jacket, she was good and set for cold weather. Admittedly, her jacket was a light one and allowed for a lot of breathing room, but still she found herself wondering if she should just leave it at home every now and again.
Attempting the exercise once more, she was so focused on getting it right and making sure her speed and momentum were controlled but precise that she didn't even notice the gradually approaching figure. Her leg spun out, perfectly timed and tactfully level. Her hands followed suit, spinning with a newfound sense of purpose, before she breathed through the release of her fists and corkscrewed back up, biting her lip as her finishing punch was delivered flawlessly, her stance sure and stable beneath her. Finally, she rejoiced, so happy she felt she could fly.
"That was awesome!" a bright voice called, and Hinata jerkily turned to see Haruno Sakura walking over to her. Slipping out of her offensive stance, Hinata smiled at the incoming kunoichi, a light blush spreading over her cheeks in her embarrassment at being caught.
"Hello, Sakura-san." She greeted, curious as to what brought the medic so far away from the hospital. Her outfit was her normal ninja-wear, so it was clear to see she either had already finished her hospital duties or had the day off. From her rejuvenated temperament, Hinata was certain it was the latter.
"Did you just learn that?" Sakura asked, brow raised.
"Hai, Neji-nii-san introduced it to me."
"It was beautiful, like dancing. I can't imagine ever having the patience to do that in battle, though. I think my tastes are more suited to grisly wreckage than pristine strikes." The pink-haired woman smiled widely, eyes alight with mischief as Hinata laughed and accepted that that was probably very true.
"At the stage I'm at right now, I'd never dare to try it in a real battle." She explained, lifting a hand to tuck the right side of her hair behind her ear. "It's too…incomplete. It's rough and unfinished. Actually, what you just walked up to was the best I've managed to do so far." Sakura nodded, thoughtful. She lifted a hand to her pointed jaw, rubbing it before tapping her finger against it once.
"Yeah, I can see that. Are you planning to use it with Jūken? I thought I saw your hands fisted, though." Hinata's brows raised, surprised at her friend's quick observation.
"Since I'm just learning it I've been using fists rather than Jūken, but certainly once I can fit it into my normal taijutsu style I'll switch over to Jūken for more efficient damage. Why wouldn't I, right?"
"Definitely." Sakura nodded, a sudden gleam rising to her eyes. "Say, Hinata, we haven't sparred for a while. Wanna give it a go? You can try it with Jūken on me, if you want."
Hinata's lavender eyes widened and before she could stop it she found her mouth lifting into the vestige of a smile. She couldn't remember the last time someone had sought her out for a spar. It was refreshing and made her feel like she was improving enough to be worth seeking out. She nodded her head, loving the sudden pump of adrenaline that coursed through her veins.
"I haven't fought someone with my level of chakra control in, well, ages." Sakura admitted, reaching down to her pack and pulling out her short black gloves. Hinata could only believe her, what with fighting alongside Naruto and Kakashi, two powerhouses that truly didn't need the level of control she or Sakura had, though if they did she was certain they'd just be even more indomitable.
"It should be interesting." Hinata smiled, backing away from her new opponent. Her heart was dancing behind her ribs, calling out for this incoming battle; ecstatic to get to test herself against someone who wasn't entirely familiar with her arsenal of moves, as Shino and Kiba were.
"Everything goes?" she clarified, one violet brow raised. Sakura nodded her head, cracking her gloved knuckles and smiling at the resulting glance Hinata gave them. She could not let herself be careless; she knew how strong Sakura had gotten, even without her chakra-enhanced strength. She was teammate of Uzumaki Naruto, Hatake Kakashi and a member of ANBU Root, apprentice to Lady Tsunade herself, and had been teammates with Uchiha Sasuke. She was not someone to take lightly and Hinata wouldn't dare to underestimate her in such a way. On the other hand, she wondered if the pinkette would underestimate her, because she was seemingly as delicate as a flower and was always being cared for and accompanied everywhere she went. Some innate feeling in the back of her mind told her that Sakura wouldn't do that, though, especially now that they had grown closer with the bond of medicine tying them together and bringing about a friendship they had never seen coming. The pink-haired woman knew how hard Hinata had been working to grow stronger, knew how little free time she had because she spent most of it training. Sakura could relate.
"Of course." Sakura answered, pausing only for a moment to allow Hinata to move a fair distance away, shaking her hands to really get the blood flowing to her fingertips. Hinata activated her Byakugan without a single ounce of effort, the action so innate it was second nature. Everything became clearer, more comfortable, and she watched as Sakura's chakra channels moved and flexed with her preparations. She allowed her body to fall into a defensive position, one hand out before her and the other behind her, her legs held firmly beneath her for optimum balance. She drew a single breath in through her nose, feeling the air go through her at the same time that a single crow took flight above them, squawking and calling out. As the air transformed within her and returned back through her lips as carbon dioxide, she simply twitched her fingers in Sakura's direction; a taunt.
Sakura came at her hard and fast, a blur normal eyes might have missed completely. It was too bad that Sakura's opponent's eyes were far beyond normal and could see everything, including the maneuvers Sakura would wish to keep hidden. They fell into a tangled web of evasion, Hinata ducking and twisting and skirting whilst Sakura pushed forward and delved deep, trying so hard to land a single blow on the fluidly moving Hyūga. Hinata swiped low with one leg and made an awkward push forward with her palm flattened, taking Sakura off-guard. The move looked completely rough when compared to the fluidity of the Hyūga's dance-like taijutsu, and that was enough to cause Sakura to make a mistake, though she was quick to make up for it. As Hinata tried to press forward and hit the chakra center at the crease of Sakura's pelvis, which was at eye level from her comfortable crouch, the pink-haired medic pounded her heel straight down into the ground.
Hinata wasn't taking any chances, not this early on in the match. She leapt back and away before the shattered earth could harm her, flipping yards away and landing poised and unruffled back in her original stance. Sakura usually had the advantage of being able to hide in the aftermath of such devastation, most of the time coming straight up from underground to pound into meaty flesh. However, she was fighting against a Hyūga so any and all attempts to hide were useless. Hinata waited for her to burst through the ground, moving the scant inch she needed to in order to avoid Sakura's upward advance. Without time to block or defend herself, Sakura took three impossibly fast jabs to her left arm, shutting down chakra center after chakra center. As Hinata moved to strike once more, she realized Sakura wasn't moving away from her for a reason and had a split second to understand that first off, her wrist was going to be broken, and secondly, that she would have to heal it whilst escaping Sakura's clutches. She had a second to figure out which direction she wanted to somersault in as she felt Sakura grasp her incoming arm, as she'd known she would, and break the bones there in a single grasp. Hinata's left hand flew in with amazing speed and shut down the chakra centers surrounding Sakura's offending hand, giving her just enough time to extricate herself from the pinkette's grasp and leap clean over her head, landing solidly on one foot before projecting herself in a back flip away.
As she was upside down in the air, already healing herself, she sent loose a couple shuriken and ended up with a kunai in hand, bounding once more when her body straightened so that she was never a sitting target. She watched as Sakura easily evaded the incoming shuriken and pushed forward, coming right for her with a kunai of her own in her dominant hand. Hinata reached to her own pack and grasped another kunai so that each of her hands was holding one, finally coming to a stop to intercept the attacking pinkette. As their kunai clashed and a mad tangle of limbs ensued once more, Hinata swiftly flung one of her kunai straight up into the air under the guise of wanting a free hand to attempt to strike Sakura with chakra-laden fingertips. Sakura didn't seem to notice or care about the wayward kunai, only pressing forward harder and faster than before now that they were evenly armed. After a few more moments of fighting where Hinata took a few cuts from Sakura's kunai while the latter seemed untouched by Hinata's, the violet took a deliberate cut in the arm and disappeared in a tuft of smoke. Where before a human girl had been a log now remained.
However, the work that Hinata's clone had done with the kunai had been successful and the real Hinata now standing behind Sakura raised her hand to activate the seal she'd attached to the sky born kunai, watching without looking at it as it slowly fell back towards the earth. Within a second, Sakura was facing her once again but the explosion from the air made her pause, looking up to see fast approaching senbon heading right for her. Without a second thought, she lifted her arms as if to deflect some of them since they were too close and coming too fast for her to leap away from. But the moment she tried to lift her arm she hissed instead, feeling the cut of a wire as it dug into her skin there, though she was too distracted with the incoming needles to see how exactly Hinata had managed to wrap a wire around the arm holding her kunai. Hinata waited for Sakura to deflect the needles one-handed, knowing that she could, and waiting as she did, before she jumped back in to attack. She'd managed to get the wire around Sakura's wrist multiple times when they were fighting kunai to kunai, and she'd even managed to get it wrapped around Sakura's waist a few times as well. That was majorly to her advantage now, as Sakura was having trouble moving without feeling the bite of the wire slowly trying to sever her in half.
Hinata's hands searched for somewhere, anywhere to strike Sakura as the pinkette growled, now on the defensive. They were both panting, though it was unclear whether it was from exhaustion or exhilaration or both. Finally, as they clashed together once more Sakura swiped her foot through Hinata's and dragged her down to the ground, moving so fast there was no way to not land without her on top of the violet. There was a loud combination of sounds from Hinata's back hitting the ground and Sakura's body landing heavily atop her, and the dust they'd kicked up managed to clear enough to show that the match was over.
Hinata lay panting on her back, kunai point digging into Sakura's side enough to pierce the skin, clearly in a position that should she simply thrust upwards Sakura's kidney would be destroyed. However, lying atop her with legs straddling the violet's hips, Sakura had one hand wrapped around Hinata's throat and another with a kunai of her own poised over Hinata's thundering carotid artery, dipping in to draw a bead of blood. They laid there, unmoving, panting into one another face's for a long moment before Hinata's lips slowly rose and brightened like a sunrise over her dirty, bloodied face. Sakura felt a responsive smile lifting her own lips and found herself laughing as she removed the weapon from her friend's neck, pushing herself off so that she rolled over next to her, back in the dirt. Together they laughed so hard and so long that their sides began to hurt from it, uncaring that anyone that might've come upon them would've certainly thought them insane.
"Wow," Sakura gasped, sounding elated. Hinata nodded, agreeing entirely with the unspoken euphoria that they were both feeling after a suitably wonderful, dangerous spar.
"That was better than sex." Sakura then blithely remarked, causing Hinata to blush to the tips of her toes and hide her face in the elbow of her sleeve. They laid there for a long while, just smiling up at the sky or with eyes closed, waiting for their pounding hearts to find a steady rhythm once more. Finally, Hinata managed to pull herself up into a sitting position and reached over to uncoil the wire from around Sakura's right arm. The pinkette let her, hissing when the wire had to be removed from her skin and cursing aloud when she had to sit up so that the violet-haired woman could unravel the coil from around her waist. Shooting the other woman a playful glare, Sakura waited for her to coil the wire all the way up and return it to her pack before she spoke. She didn't seem to mind the bloodstains.
"When did you even put that on the kunai to get it wrapped around me? I swear I didn't even know it was on there until the damn senbon storm, which, by the way, fuck you. I had no idea the Hyūga heiress played so dirty." Hinata looked sheepishly back at her friend, blush rising to answer the truth of the pinkette's statement and accusation.
"I have quick hands," she explained simply, shrugging. She pointedly ignored Sakura's sarcastic I hadn't noticed and rolled her sore neck, courtesy of a punch so powerful it'd twisted her neck too quickly for the muscles there to accommodate for it.
"It was all during the kunai component, Sakura-san. Didn't you question my movements and the strange directions I was striking in?" Sakura looked confused, her brows knitting in a frown and her teeth coming down to gnaw on a full lower lip.
"I was a little surprised you weren't aiming for my soft spots," she admitted, still chewing on her lip. The lavender-eyed woman nodded, waiting for the understanding to prickle over her companion.
"I secured the wire then wound you up." She explained and the understanding finally took hold, washing over Sakura like a bucket of ice water.
She oohed and whispered, "You witch!" before shaking her head, upset that she'd been so easily duped. Hinata blushed again, nodding.
"Damn. No matter how many times I fight you I always underestimate you, and I don't mean to. Honestly, I don't. But when you threw that kunai up into the air? I knew it'd have an explosive on it, but the senbon storm took me completely by surprise. I don't know why I didn't realize…how I didn't see it coming."
"Tenten-san taught me that one." Hinata smiled, fondly remembering how she herself had reacted to the storm of incoming senbon coming from Tenten's exploding kunai. "But it's understandable. I'm coddled and self-conscious so it makes me seem weak. You're not the first friend I've had underestimate me and you won't be the last." Sakura was already shaking her head before Hinata finished, her expression now completely serious.
"I never thought you were weak. Quite frankly, I don't think you're coddled, either. I think your clan bugs you a bunch and are uptight assholes that need to give you some space, but I feel like that's even more of a burden on you than it is a help sometimes. If there's anyone in the village who is liable to have a mental breakdown, it'd be you."
"…Thank you?" Hinata paused, wanting to laugh. Sakura seemed to realize what she'd said and what she'd meant hadn't really come across well and quickly moved to clear things up, scratching the back of her head in a way that was distinctly reminiscent of Naruto. That made Hinata smile more, taking in the pinkette with a fondness that years of battles, protectiveness, and hard-earned trust had wrought between them, knowing that she'd picked that gesture up because she was always around Naruto.
"Well, you know what I mean. You have all this pressure on you and it's been like that since you were born and I know a lot of people take that for granted. A lot of people just see you and your assistants and Ko and they think 'spoiled princess'. But I know it's hard for you because we're close enough for me to have seen the other side, ya know? I know how caged you are and how much pressure is always put on your shoulders and it's like, no one ever sees that. They don't see how scary it is for you to even think about disappointing your clan, let alone your father. And how scary it is for you as the heir, as the older sister, to try to keep the clan's grimy mitts away from your sister. I don't know, I guess what I'm trying to say is a lot of people underestimate you, Hinata, because they don't take the time to understand you. And I'd be a bald-faced liar if I said I didn't used to be that way, before I really knew what you were about. People are lazy and brains are even lazier, we both know that. If they're not invested in you as a person, but just see the Hyūga heiress, then they're gonna accept whatever comes easiest to their brains, which is usually that you're a spoiled princess. It takes time and effort to realize that you're in a really shitty position with a lot of shitty side-effects."
Hinata sat speechless, wide-eyed and in wonder at her closest female friend. No one had ever understood her situation quite so well, let alone chosen to actually voice it. Especially someone who didn't come from a clan and didn't have that first-hand experience that allowed for them to understand how dark and twisted clans often were. Hinata realized then that Sakura really had to have paid attention to her life, to her as a person, in order to have come to those conclusions. She really cared, and even though they were friends and it was a give-in that Hinata cared deeply for Sakura, she was insecure enough to still be amazed at the revelation that Sakura honestly, truly cared about her. If there was ever a need for proof, there could be none greater than this right here. She felt like crying but refused, absolutely refused to do so. She was past that.
"Sakura," she whispered, her voice shaking slightly with emotion she couldn't hold back. The beautiful pink-haired kunoichi was leaning back on her arms, her shoulders jutting forward and her legs crossed over one another. Hinata looked over at her and smiled, her eyes gleaming with the love only best friends could feel for one another. "Thank you."
"You don't have to thank me, baka." She shrugged, as if her words hadn't just shattered Hinata in a new and lovely way that made her want to embrace the pinkette and cry.
"I just thought, you know, that you should know that there are people out there who understand what you're going through. Well, as much as we can without actually ever experiencing the dreaded clan." The way Sakura said the latter one might think it was a poison on her tongue, something vile and dastardly and terrible. It warmed Hinata.
"Kami help me if I ever get involved with a clan. I'd tear them and their stupid rules apart with my pinky fingers. They'd hate me so much." She was smiling as she said it, her eyes glazing over as she clearly began to imagine it. Hinata could only imagine with her, the sight of Sakura in a kimono of pure white with silver-lined sakura blossoms adorning the hem, smashing through buildings with only her pinkies, demanding that the clan 'give her some breathing room'. The thought made Hinata smile, too, and before long they were laughing again, just too women relaxing after a hard-fought battle, basking in the beauty of their youth and their freedom. They sat there silently for quite a while, long enough for the sun to switch places in the sky and the temperature to very gradually begin to drop. They watched the village before them shift and shimmer and the people, who from this distance appeared as tiny as ants, bustle about in their every-day lives. Hinata was sitting hunched over her crossed legs, elbows resting on each thigh with her jaw in her hands when Sakura's voice once again broke the silence.
"So have you planned for your mission yet?" It was posed innocently enough, but being that this pink-haired firestorm was teammates with the very person Hinata was going to be travelling with, not to mention how aware both Sakura and apparently everyone their age was of Hinata's 'crush' that the violet wondered if she shouldn't have expected this line of questioning. She glanced over at her friend and smiled shyly, bending a finger to rub against her soft cheek as a mild distraction.
"I…have not. I planned to today, of course, but before I knew it I was here training."
"Distraction." It wasn't a question, because they both knew it was true. Sakura leaned forward and mirrored Hinata's position perfectly, finding it was more comfortable than her previous position and also enabled her a better view of her long-haired friend's face.
"Yes." Hinata admitted. "To be honest, Sakura-san, I'm not sure what to do. I've never been on a mission with just Naruto-kun."
"It's easy: just bring him a lot of food and make him a lot of food." Sakura joked, flipping her short hair. Hinata smiled at her, admiring her confidence most especially when it came to Naruto.
"Easy for you to say, Sakura-san. You don't clam up and act like an idiot every time he's even in the same room as you."
"I used to, with Sasuke-kun. Hell, if he was right here I'd probably still do it. Boys have an annoying habit of doing that to us girls, don't they? How dare they be appealing." Sakura whined, chewing on her lip again. The gesture was telling and Hinata knew that even though she joked, Sakura was actually thinking very seriously about the subject matter.
"Do you still love him? Sasuke-kun, that is." She asked it hesitantly, not wanting to upset Sakura but genuinely curious all the same. They had a relationship where these kinds of things, things that were very personal and could easily stir up volatile emotions, were often shared between the two without fear or judgement. If someone had told Hinata at the academy that one day in the future she and a certain spunky pink-haired kunoichi would be the best of friends, she might've laughed at them. But now, in the moment, the thought of sharing secrets and personal information about herself like this with anyone other than Sakura felt wrong. Sakura looked over at her, face wiped entirely of any amusement or teasing. Hinata knew that even now the pinkette was cautious with her information, scared to speak it for fear of it roaming around, even when she knew that Hinata would take it to the grave. She'd had a few mishaps growing up after the academy, where information she'd wanted, needed to keep private had been wrongfully spread and had hurt her beyond repair. And here and now the affects were still showing, as even before her best friend and one of the quietest most trustworthy people in the entire village, Haruno Sakura hesitated.
"I don't," she finally admitted, and a light blush spilled over her high cheekbones. The blush was what keyed her in immediately, more telling than Sakura might've liked to know. She was being completely honest, Hinata knew that with certainty, but the blush spoke of a current affection for someone who was very obviously not the subject they were speaking of. Hinata couldn't help but smile, so proud of her friend for overcoming an obstacle she'd been struggling with for years, the obstacle of a girl promising to love a boy until the end of time only to realize as a woman that the man she'd promised to love was…different. Unworthy, Hinata would even say, of her love. Sakura was a wonderful person, kind when she could afford to be, a leader when she needed to be, calm and reticent when she knew she had to be, and always strong. Uchiha Sasuke had abandoned a frail young girl and never knew the treasure he was abandoning, though some might speculate that maybe it was his leave that jump-started the trip down the road that led Sakura to become such an amazing woman.
Hinata wouldn't believe that for a second. Sasuke may have left Sakura behind, but from the moment he did he was out of her life and she was on her own. There was not a single person, not even Naruto who had stayed beside Sakura all those years afterwards, who could claim responsibility for the strength Sakura embodied today. No one but Sakura could claim responsibility for who she was now.
Hinata gave her a knowing look, demanding with her eyes that Sakura spill and tell her who her new love interest was. Sakura only laughed, shaking her head and eyeing her suspiciously.
"I thought we were talking about you and Naruto!" she evaded, blushing even more. Hinata frowned, trying to morph her face into the one Akamaru often made when he knew she'd bought beef jerky and still had it on her. Sakura's eye twitched as she saw it and she looked ready to protest before finally expelling a large sigh, dropping her head down to rest on her legs.
"I'm not at liberty to say exactly who just yet, but he's…definitely…older." Vague as she could, she peeked up at the heiress and groaned into her legs when the puppy-dog look was still there.
"Nope, no, no, Hinata. I can't say right now. We were talking about you and your inability to keep your cool around the idiot." Instantly, with the tables turned, Hinata mirrored Sakura's movements and dropped her face onto her legs, though she kept the groan in her mind. She'd let Sakura off the hook for now, though that didn't mean she'd be looking at every single shinobi that was older than them with a more critical eye from now on, regardless that that was sure to be a failed venture. Whoever it was that was currently holding Haruno Sakura's affections—were they even that serious yet? Hinata wondered if they simply only held her admiration—would have to own up to certain expectations one reclusive little Hyūga heiress would unabashedly demand of him. She may be shy and anything but forward, but if someone was juggling her best friend's heart in his hands, he'd better be able to come clean and measure up to the standards Hinata knew Sakura deserved. Like loyalty, honesty, and challenge. Sakura was a brilliant woman, one that needed constant mental stimulation in order to live a fulfilling life. The previous Hokage must've had this in mind when deciding on who her Genin squad would be, since she'd had to focus on one unstoppable force on her left and another wholly uncontainable force on her right. Sakura needed that stimulation, that constant challenge that was often followed by exhaustion, because she was upbeat and modern and ambitious. As her best friend, Hinata was not planning to let her settle on a loser who could hurt her, not again.
"What do I do?" She moaned a moment later, peeking over at Sakura the same way the pinkette had looked at her. Sakura smiled knowingly, and for the next couple of hours proceeded to coach Hyūga Hinata as best as she could in the arts of acting normal around someone you otherwise don't know how to act around…at all.
Sakura's advice had been solid and more helpful than Hinata could've ever hoped. Her friend's words had made her realize that if she was going to get through this mission without any breakdowns or a stream of constant anxiety, she truly needed to give her mind a break. She couldn't keep thinking and being nervous about what was to come in the future and she couldn't even pressure herself to perfect the new taijutsu Neji had shown her. She needed to put her mind to rest for at least enough time to actually cool off and settle her jumpy nerves.
She did this through gardening, and painting.
Though gardening often settled her nerves the most, it also served to keep her mind busy and focused and ultimately anything but relaxed. Mostly because she used most of her gardening talent to procure herbs and medical brews for all sorts of healing and thus needed to make sure everything was precise. Of course not all of her gardening skills were spent with medicine in mind, as she had a full garden within the Hyuuga compound as well as in the same place she always painted.
Her hobbies weren't something the public knew about, especially her paintings. In fact, if she had a choice, she would make sure that she was the only person who knew about it. But that was a little difficult when your entire family had the ability to see through walls and even long distances away. She knew they probably wouldn't mind her hobby, but it felt personal to her. It was hers, and hers alone. And if she sat on the veranda and tried to paint she'd just be worried if someone somewhere in another section of the compound was watching, too.
Which is why she'd taken to bringing her supplies to the top of the Hokage monument, stashing her brushes and paints and even her easel away in the core of an indistinguishable tree. Not that it mattered where she chose to hide everything, since any member of her family would be able to see everything if they were to come up here. But they wouldn't, she was certain. The monument was at the back of the village and was so high up it was rare to find anyone else up there. And it wasn't as if anyone in her family was interested in what she was painting. Her father thought the pastime useless and a waste of time, and he had no qualms about voicing said opinion. Often. Hanabi found it amusing but never poked fun at her older sister, mostly because Hinata was one of the only people who knew of Hanabi's own particular hobby that she kept hidden away from the clan and her friends: flower arranging.
It was no surprise that the tough and stoic little brunette would want to keep such a hobby a secret, especially from her father who thought Hinata's own hobby of gardening was silly though he did in fact see the benefits it could have medicinally. Just what would he say of his youngest daughter enjoying the tutelage of one blond-haired mega-gossip in the art of arranging flowers to look their best, with no contribution to her strengths? Hinata hated the judgmental air that Hiashi often wore around them, though she understood why he had it. But that didn't mean she was going to let him and the clan crush her little sister's only hobby aside from fighting, so it was more than easy enough to enlist Hanabi's help whenever Hinata wanted to add to her gardens. The young brunette was well informed of flower types and their respective meanings and favored the delphiniums, though she never specified a favorite color. Hinata's favorites were hydrangeas. And so, of course, every garden she began was riddled with mostly those two types of flowers, though Hanabi often brought home several other species from the Yamanaka's shop.
Today she found herself setting up her paint supplies beside her easel, staring out over the reconstruction of Konoha, the breeze playing with the ends of her hair. She was glad to be wearing her jacket now, since the tail end of the breeze was cold and left chills in its wake. Stretching her arms overhead before she began mixing colors, she allowed an image to take its place in her emptied mind. This was how it always happened for her: she'd clear her mind and let the wind take her thoughts away before an image would appear, dim and unstructured, calling out for her to detail it and bring it to life. Most of the time the scenery up there affected her and she would paint trees and forests of deep greens and earthy browns, or maybe skies of aquamarine speckled with clouds of stark, stark white. Sometimes she just drew birds, of all shapes and sizes and kinds, ranging from steely grays and harsh blacks to golden maroon infested creatures that looked doused in flame. It all depended on her mood, on her day, on her heart. Whatever that beating organ conjured up for her, she would paint.
And most of the time, it conjured Uzumaki Naruto.
She'd painted him so many times and in so many ways she no longer had trouble figuring out where to start, because with someone as complex and multidimensional as Naruto, it didn't matter where she started. She could begin with the golden hue of his wild hair or the stark lines of his scars, the bright horizon orange of the body of his jacket or the honeyed tan of his skin. The only area she ever felt trouble with were his eyes; so expressive, so deep, how could she ever accurately capture them? She never made the blue quite deep enough, or at the same time, bright enough. It was never the exact color and the shape was never exactly the same open, friendly make. She struggled with every painting she made of him, wanting to trash it or rip it or even burn it because it was so frustrating to have spent so much time watching him and yet still she couldn't paint him accurately. Was it even possible to capture eyes so fiery yet as blue and cool as the far out waves of the ocean?
She knew how ridiculous it sounded and she knew how obsessed people would think she was, but she didn't care. When you were passionate about something, you wanted it to be in your life all the time, in everything you see, in every breath you breathe. Painting calmed her down. It relaxed her where nothing else could. And in this way, she could use the image of the person who made her most nervous in the world and channel it into creativity, into a talent she could cultivate, and for once not be nervous.
She had so many sketches and unfinished works of just his face or his profile she didn't much know what to do with them. They were irritating, clawing at her even in the darkness of sleep, calling out to be completed. But the eyes…just weren't right. They weren't, and she couldn't come back and touch them up, and yet she couldn't dispose of them either. So they remained up above the village, tucked away into various tree cores, rolled within one another. Some were wrinkled, some were pristine, most were dirty, some even had blood on them from when she'd stupidly thought to calm down immediately after a mission, still wounded, too tired to heal herself, too tired to do anything but lose herself in the paint.
She couldn't help herself. She loved to paint him. How could any artist not want to work with what he had to offer? He was a little bit of every color, a rainbow walking amongst shades of gray and black and white. With Naruto, every smile could be painted with a new color, every expression lifted new undisclosed lines in his face that would make him look like a completely different work of art. The crow's feet beside his eyes alone were detail enough to steal her away from reality for hours, trying to paint them so that they do proper justice to his smiling eyes.
This morning, she found herself starting with his jaw. Hard and squared, she traced it with her brush and could've sworn she could feel it beneath her smooth fingertips. Naturally, her hands were steady and smooth, controlling the brush as if it was an extension of her hand. In this art, she was ambidextrous. She could paint equally as well with her left as she could with her dominant right, though she preferred to use her right hand. Both hands were equally steady and very sure of themselves, never really pausing or jerking to a stop, worried about ruining the art. She had no one but herself to impress when she did this, and so mistakes were passable within the work. She made sure to never leave the chance of being caught, even by Neji; coming up so early in the mornings that the first light Konoha saw first touched her pages. No one knew of her absence in the compound, she was far too cautious for that.
She was well and truly alone. And so she painted, working through the dips and angles that made up someone she cherished and admired. Her brush kissed his features like the touch of eyelashes to skin, as gently handled as a newborn in her hands, as steady as a stream.
Sometimes she'd come up here and look at the blank page before her and she found she couldn't see hair and skin and clothes and smiles. Instead, she saw the intricate web of bright almost neon shades that made up the working system of Naruto's chakra. She'd seen it so many times through her Byakugan eyes she could draw it from memory, though the end product always came out perfectly in her eyes, she tried to look at it from someone else's perspective. She realized after the first few times she'd painted them that people would probably be estranged from what they saw, at odds with what they thought of chakra and what she knew of it. And for that reason she tucked those away with all the rest of her works, never daring to let anyone see them, either. Though Naruto's was not the only chakra signature she painted—not by far. His had been the second, actually, behind Neji's. Then of course she'd attempted to conquer Naruto's inner workings, then Sakura, Kiba, Shino, Hanabi, Tsunade, Kakashi, Tenten, and actually…now that she actively thought about it, the only person she had left from her generation was Uchiha Sasuke. Everyone else was already tucked away on their own respective sheets of paper in the cores of several trees, hidden away and untouched since the day she'd completed them.
She tilted her head, finishing now with the rest of this Naruto's face and starting on his forehead protector and hair. How would she get Sasuke's chakra signature? She had yet to see him when on a mission, even from afar. Squinting slightly though she didn't realize she was doing so, she recalled what his chakra network had looked like when he was twelve, but that wasn't acceptable. Everyone in her group was already twenty, though some like her were still nineteen. Sasuke's chakra would be an entirely different storm within him, though from what she did recall of his young self she could probably paint him with accuracy. His was the kind of chakra signature one didn't forget easily, after all.
Finishing up this painting and leaving it as just a profile shot of a wayward looking Naruto, she tore it from her easel and let it drop to the ground beside her, uncaring that she might accidentally step on it. It frustrated her, like they always did.
She moved with purpose, mixing brighter colors than the last, recalling how Sasuke's chakra signature had been brighter than almost all the others' had been. She remembered looking at it and thinking of a storm, even in his presence that's how it'd felt to be near him. Like you were in the eye of the storm and any false move could set you into the throes of it. She wondered as she mixed more white into the already brightened blue she'd mixed for Naruto if Sasuke would still feel like a storm or if he'd darkened to a shuddering molasses of shadows. She reached out and began to paint his chakra network, taking brief moments to pause so she could recall his twelve-year-old self and how his signature had moved within him.
It took her longer than expected to finish it, but once she stepped back and gazed at it she found herself smiling sadly. Here was the boy who had stolen Sakura's heart and broken it, who had taken Naruto's companionship and laid it to waste. Here was the prodigy of her generation, even more impressive than her own nii-san, even more stoic and close-mouthed, too. But this, this image she had captured, was not the monster she had heard him described as. This was a twelve-year-old Sasuke, one who had saved Sakura in the Forrest of Death, one who had accepted Naruto when no one else had.
Here was a boy fighting a losing battle.
This thought was enough to reinforce what Hinata had already known: that she needed to be there for Naruto, to help him no matter what the cost to fulfill his dreams, his goals. And one of those goals was to bring back Uchiha Sasuke. Sakura had basically said the same just the day before; that in order to be comfortable in Naruto's presence, Hinata simply had to be her self. Because if that was true, if all she had to do was be herself, then she would already be trying to help Naruto along on his coarse. That's just what she did, what she was proud to do, what she knew how to do. If he needed someone to stand behind him, she would be there without having to be asked. Always, no matter what.
Sighing wistfully, she started packing her things, stretching loosened muscles as she dipped down to pick up her paintings and roll them together. Her long reflections almost always lasted long enough for her work to dry enough to be rolled together without being ruined. The sun was now fully lifted and visible and the beginnings of movement in a rare few homes could be seen from her masterful gaze, meaning she had to return quickly to the compound lest she be caught missing. She tucked her tools away inside a tree, then her artwork in another, and proceeded to run freely to the side of the monument, bounding down the layers of the mountain until she landed on solid Konoha ground. She made her way speedily through the barren streets, happy to be alone lest someone tell of her early morning adventures. When she finally made it back into the compound she had to slip through her sister's window, since it was both the closest to the monument and one of the only windows facing it. It was also always curiously unlocked, much unlike all the others. As she slipped through, quiet as a shadow, Hanabi grunted in her sleep, which Hinata instantly understood to mean 'just in time.' She deviated from her intended trail through the room to hers on the other side of the hall to lean down and brush a strand of Hanabi's hair away from her face, tucking it behind a small ear.
Hanabi reached up to swat her hand away, grunting quietly once more. Hinata smiled down at her before leaving just as swiftly as she'd entered, and not a moment too soon. After discarding her clothing and shoving the pile into a corner where it wouldn't be seen immediately, she laid herself down upon her futon, snuggling under the covers and feeling the heavy droop of her eyelids. But sleep was not to come, since she'd spent longer up at her private spot than she'd thought. One of her personal assistants came quietly into the room, cleaning and bustling about with a necessary level of noise so as to inform Hinata it was close to time for her to rise. She shuffled over to the corner of the room and Hinata knew without opening her eyes that her hiding spot had been found out.
"What the…" she heard the woman mutter before she sighed and then walked over to the other side of the room, shuffling something around until light streamed in and over the heiress. She didn't say a word as she left; she didn't need to. When the light was high enough in the sky to shine into her room that way, it meant it was time for breakfast and then training with her father. Hinata rolled over, lavender eyes gazing at the ceiling. She wondered if she would be confident enough to use Neji's new form against her oto-san.
A/N: Eheh...eh. Been a little longer than I expected (dodges bullets) but as a full time college student with a job I have a lot less free time than I'd like. This chapter has been my favorite so far, mostly because Hinata's spar with Sakura is pretty much my favorite thing. There's always "therapy sessions" between dudes (i.e. Sasuke and Naruto) where they clash and talk and get things off their chest even while beating each other into the ground, and I really just wanted (needed) one such therapy session between my two favorite girls. They're both so strong and awesome, they deserve more than just a ~sleepover~ or ~night out~ to discuss their issues, though sometimes those two occasions are fitting and necessary. Let's blame it on my love for female fighters doing what they do best: destroying and looking good doing it. :)