A Tale of Happiness and Sorrow

Written by: Wind Sage 00

Chapter 5

Sadness, it was but a fleeting memory of the loss that filled Hinata's heart. She was tired of being the shy lonely girl that sat back and did nothing to tell Naruto how she truly felt. When the moment came that all her dreams came true, neither her nor Naruto remembered. Now, if she didn't act quickly, Naruto's heart would belong to someone else.

"No! I…I can't let this happen. I must get back up and fight for what I believe in, fight for the man I love…for that is my ninja way."

Hinata sat under a shady maple tree in her manor garden. Every cloud that drifted along the soft summer breeze, every gentle tree and vibrant flower…all reminded her of Naruto. She was a ninja, trained not to show her emotions or let them get the best of her. She calmed herself down, but decided that yes, if Naruto would make her happy…she would fight for him.

"No, I-I can't do that…No matter what I do, I don't think I can face…"

"Hello? Is Hinata…Oh! Hey Hinata, here you are!, said Sakura."

A shutter of fear and anger swelled within Hinata as she saw Sakura enter her manor estate.

Hinata thought to herself, "HOW DARE SHE EVEN SHOW HER FACE HERE AFTER WHAT SHE DID!!!"

"Hinata, I'm sorry to disturb you on such a nice day; but I wanted to apologize for how I acted yesterday. I was just worried about Naruto and wanted to make sure he would be…"

Before Sakura could even finish her sentence, she felt a sharp pain thrust sharply through her body. The next thing she knew she went down on her knees onto the ground. She stared up to see Hinata standing above her breathing heavily and holding the gentle fist stance.

"You…Y-You don't even get, to speak his name!", said Hinata.

"What is your problem?!? What the heck did you hit me for? I was right after all, you'd just end up hurting Naru…"

Hinata went to strike Sakura as she was about to speak Naruto's name again; but this time Sakura saw the attack and jumped backward.

"I told you! You don't get to speak his name!"

"Hinata, you can't be mad at me for speaking his name. If you like him so much, why don't you do something about it?"

"Like you did last night?!?"

Sakura was taken aback. Hinata had now seen her doing the exact same thing Hinata had done with Naruto; she couldn't play dumb anymore.

"Hinata, you can't be mad at me for having feelings for Naruto now. That's not your decision to make!"

"I-I know that…But you knew I feelings for him, and you still did…what you did anyway! You didn't even like him till now! How could you do something like that to me Sakura-chan? Why…why Sakura-chan?"

"Hinata…It's true that I didn't look at Naruto like you do until recently; but, I saw that he was the only one who ever stood by me no matter what. Naruto's been the one to protect and save me, even when I didn't give him credit or ask him to. What have you done Hinata to show Naruto how you've felt all these years, huh? The truth really is you don't know what you want. I don't want to lose him…and you don't deserve him!"

Hinata's eyes glared at her once close friend, reflecting an equally fierce stare from Sakura. Tears would not be shed and this wasn't the time to hide, this was the time to fight; to protect her ninja way, to protect her honor, and…to fight for Naruto.

Hinata struck her Gentle Fist pose and said, "Prepare yourself…Sakura-chan. I cannot let what you've said to go unanswered anymore."

"Alright then, let's do this."

Meanwhile, Naruto was feeling the best he'd felt in days. He'd been training like crazy ever since the news of his mentor's murder; asking everyone from Kakashi, to Gai sensei to help him train. Although the training with Gai sensei really hadn't paid off, he felt like he was much better off than when he started. He had to catch up to Sauske and defend himself from Akatsuki. No one would be there to defend him now, he was all alone. At least, that's what he thought before two nights ago. Everything changed that first night of training. He was being followed by ANBU all around the village for protection from Tsunade, and he couldn't go anywhere without them being all over him. So, he used the shadow clone jutsu and created a clone to go around the village and throw off the ANBU from his training.

It wasn't until later that Naruto met his shadow clone and Hinata at the top of the Hokage ridge. Naruto saw someone running and went to see if everything was ok. When he reached the top, he saw his clone and Hinata kissing. He couldn't believe it! He tried to quietly move closer when they both saw him. Hinata did a quick double take and couldn't figure out what was going on. Naruto canceled the technique, but the poof from the clone releasing knocked Hinata backwards and she hit her head hard against a rock. Bewildered, Naruto picked up Hinata and carried her back to her house. He didn't know what to do or tell her, he never knew she felt this way about him before…

And then there was the night afterwards…but this time it was for real. Naruto couldn't believe his luck when Sakura wrapped her arms around him and kissed him. Naruto had been waiting for a moment like that forever; but, now that he knew that two girls felt the same way, he didn't know what to do. Naruto was torn, he had always had feelings for Sakura; yet, she never really accepted him till now. Then, there was Hinata, who was always quiet, shy, and always fainting; yet, apparently she had always cared for him…

"Hmm… (scratching his head) What the heck do I do?"

As Naruto was walking and thinking about this, a cloud of dust and debris rose above the rooftops ahead of him.

"What the…What the heck's going on?"

Naruto arrived quickly at Hyuga Manor to see the exterior walls filled with huge gapping holes, and debris littered everywhere. A major battle had taken place here for sure.

"Whoa! What the heck happened here?"

He heard someone screaming inside the manor and rushed in to find Sakura and Hinata dueling in the main courtyard. Sakura's arms were filled with bruises from the gentle fist attacks of Hinata. Sakura's left arm was hanging limp at her side, and her dress was all dirty and torn. Hinata though…she was a mess. Her hair looked like it had been ripped off on one side, blood ran down from the side of her mouth, she was holding her right side of her body in pain and she was covered in dust and rubble from the wall debris. This was a full out cat fight!

As he stood in the entrance way dumbfounded, both girls finally caught eye of him staring at them.

"N-Naruto!", said Hinata.

"Naruto!", said Sakura.

"Sakura, what happened here?", said Naruto.

Sakura explained, "I came over here trying to apologize to Hinata about something and she went completely nuts!".

"That's not true Naruto-kun! I was…I-I was…"

"Well, what happened then Hinata?", said Naruto.

Hinata didn't know what to do. She was overcome by rage against Sakura and all that had just happened; she thought about just telling Naruto the whole story and about how she saw the two of them last night at Sakura's house. But then, she couldn't bear to think of how the news would shock Naruto of her catching the two of them together. She was so ashamed that he had caught her in this state…he wasn't supposed to be here now, seeing her like this. He'd never believe her story, or understand now why she felt the way she did. What hope did she have when he obviously had feelings for Sakura.

Hinata slowly lowered her head and began to cry, her hands clenched in fists of rage. Through the tears she said,

"I-I…I just can't. I'm sorry Naruto-kun, I'm sorry."

And with that, she ran past Naruto onto the busy street filled with people looking in to see what all the commotion was about.

"Hey Hinata!", shouted Naruto as he turned to go after her.

"What are you doing? You're going after her after she was the one who did all this? Are you just going to chase off after someone because she's crying?", said Sakura.

"I'm sorry Sakura, I have to see if she's ok.", said Naruto.

Sakura only watched in disbelief as Naruto turned and ran away into the distance.

"…Naruto…"