Well, I finally got this chapter up. First time I've ever managed to get one of my stories past Chapter One. It's just this plot which gets me going. :3

The reason it took so long was because I lost Hinata for a while. I've always found it rather easy to slip into her self-hating character, as odd as that may sound, but for the first few weeks I tried, I just couldn't. It turned into boring monologue and I had to start again. If there's any trace of this left in here, please forgive me. D: It's amazing what happens when you delete a whole page. It just went from there. I finished half this chapter within two days. ;3

Anyway, a few notes. Some of the below may seem like I'm just filling up the page, but it will mean something in the future. I'll try and make sure this isn't just unresonable people hating Hinata.

Thank-you very much all reviewers and watchers. It's nice to still see that you can put up with me, despite my late updates! A few questions have appeared in reviews, as well, so here's a few answers:

Hinata Cries A Lot- Not really a question, but still a good point. Yes, she cries a lot in this story. Mainly because Naruto isn't in her life until right about the end of academy years. If you think about it, in actual canon everyone's pretty beastly to the poor girl and Naruto is one of the only things which is giving her hope. Without him, life will definitely look a lot worse for her. Hence, the lots of crying. She's not always going to be this way. I plan for her to get stronger all the same. ;3

Hinata's Return To The Forest- Yes, it's illogical for her to start playing with a demon child. But, from what I can find of the canon, she had few or no friends in it. Naruto appeared to be her sole ray of sunshine at the academy, in canon. If you're very much starved of attention, and someone starts being nice to you all of a sudden, it is human nature, really, to go back for more. And demon or not, which he hadn't displayed much of at the time, she did so.

Didn't You Post This?- Yes, I've put this in both the summary and as a quick note at the beginning of chapter two. Forest Demon was originally on here a while ago, but during a clean up of some old stories I deleted it instead. So after a few minutes of punching the chair I was sitting in, I reuploaded it with an apology. Again, I'm so sorry this happened. D;

Why's Kata So Mad At Hina-chan?- Kata has his reasons, which will appear later. For now, I can tell you that he, of course, does enjoy bullying those weaker than him and takes a joy in malicious acts. Hinata, particularly, because he sees her as a pampered result of the Hyuuga, as he said a bit of in chapter one and I think is somewhere in this chapter as well. There are reasons for this also. As a last hint, they mainly have to do with his family, as revealed slightly in this chapter. You'll just have to wait and see, hm? :)

As a last note, the story title has been changed from 'Forest Demon' to 'Your Eyes'. Forest Demon was originally just a name for it to be called until I found a more inventive one, and on the posting of Chapter Three I thought Your Eyes would fit. Generally because a lot of my describing involves Naruto's ever-changing eye colour. :3

Enjoy! -Vixen

Tomorrow brought no sign of Kata.

Or the next. And the next, there was no sign of him either.

What had Naruto done?

I was literally scared out of my mind: spending half my time with Naruto in the forest simply pacing the floor in anxiety. He didn't ask why, or the subject of my worry. He knew, of course, and it seemed to just darken his mood further. Sometimes I'd hear things like 'control' and 'damn Kyuubi' being muttered under his breath, but it always seemed to abruptly stop whenever my pacing lines across the forest floor reached him. It angered me at the same time as making me feel isolated: unwanted. As if the long days at the start of ninja school had returned, when others would whisper about you, then stop immediately when you came near. I felt like a child again. A silly, fool of a child.

Staring bleakly at the bark of the tree I was leaning my forehead against, I tried not to close my eyes from exhaustion, hard as it was. Whenever I shut my eyes, the scenes - make-believe and real - replayed in ever moving wheels, like a film stuck on pause all the time. The red, searing chakra burning into my skin. An angry blaze of fire in the form of a fox attacking a terrified Kata. Two clawed palms rising into the air to bring a final blow upon its victim. The images tore through my mind as easily as if it were paper. Absently, my fingers traced the worn ridges of wood. Making indecipherable patterns in the element. What if.. What if Naruto had killed Kata-kun?

The resulting mental image through this idea was so excruciatingly horrifying, I gasped out loud, staring unseeingly at the cracked ground. And for a moment, I thought he'd heard it too, and come rushing over as he used to. Used to. But he either hadn't, or didn't care. There didn't seem to be much of a line between the two, I had noticed bleakly.

Twisting my fingers together, which had become more and more often lately, I let my head rise to stare at one half of my anguish. Naruto didn't return the stare, muttering vague, faint things as his own bleak stare caught on that of a leaf falling to the ground on his left. For a single, selfish moment, I took the time to study him again. Blonde, ruffled hair which was sticking up in various directions as usual. The same, curious whisker-marks glancing in three, diagonal strokes on either cheek. And the same, strange eyes. Eyes which could be blue as day, or red as a demon. Eyes which scared me more than Hiashi, my family or Kata. Eyes which made me want to die.

Even if I had wanted to, I couldn't have twisted my head in time to avoid being caught by those violent, deep purple eyes when they found mine: staring. For a moment, it seemed as if the whole Kata incident hadn't happened. Everything was normal. He would burst out laughing, and I would too. And then he'd grab my hand and take me somewhere else. Like a fairy tale.

But this wasn't a fairy tale. And instead of the familiar smile, the features twisted and turned to make some sort of horrible, out of place grimace. Then, for the first time in days, he spoke.

"Spit it out then. If you want to say something, say it." I flinched slightly at the words, so blunt and uncaring, voiced in an equally cold voice. It was just somehow wrong on him. Wrong on the happy go lucky Naruto. Wrong on the sunshine hair-coloured boy. And it hurt that I was probably the cause of it. Nothing new there. For a brief moment, I opened my mouth to deny his statement - or accusation, even - but then shut it without voicing the words. After all, I couldn't lie to him. Couldn't lie to anyone. The silence stretched like a taut rubber band before I finally let out a strangled whimper and turned my gaze away from the fierce, slowly turning red one. As if satisfied with my reaction, he turned his back on me again to stare flatly at the trees. He scared me - and it scared me even more that I cared for him anyway.

Trying again, I swallowed against the tight bubble in my throat and tried to push something out resembling words. It took a moment, but I managed. "D-Did y-you hurt K-Kata-k-kun?"

The eyes briefly resembled black coals as they turned around to study me again. Black, soulless holes. Despite it being petty and weak, I was proud I didn't shudder under his demonic gaze. Naruto was silent for a few moments as he watched. Maybe looking for a chink in my armour to gauge me through, was the helpful analogy my mind supplied. Swatting away my misgivings, it was only a tiny shiver that passed through my frame when, just as suddenly as a Jounin, he appeared in front of me with the same scowl marring his forehead. Only the deep, red eyes gave away his sudden burst of anger, and my breath was immediately swallowed and forgotten as I was suddenly pushed against the tree trunk harshly. It was so different from any other encounters, that I was suddenly confused and hurt at his actions. Which was both irrational and stupid.

"Did I hurt K-Kata-kun?" he repeated with a hiss into my face, cruelly imitating my unfortunate stutter in a mocking way. "Did I hurt Kata? Kami, yeah, I did. I hurt Kata badly. Permanently, even." I shrunk away from the word. Permanently. It sounded so.. final. The end. I refused to entertain the images which tried to make itself apparent. "And what could it be over?" I shuddered properly this time, as the strange scars on either side of his face seemed to darken and become the imitation of whiskers. He growled lowly when I didn't answer, and for a moment irritation rose in the face of danger. What the heck did he expect me to say? "I hurt a villager because you came crying to me about it. And why, over you? Why.. Why over you?" His voice seemed to lose the vigorous anger towards the end, and suddenly became more questioning as he stared at me with the same, purple eyes. I couldn't think: my mind seemed frozen as his anger peaked and faded away to leave someone who was just as lost on what to do as I was.

I couldn't breathe: couldn't think. What was there to say? In every way - I wasn't worth it. Wasn't worth losing control over, despite the warm feeling the idea had produced a few days ago. I'd made him enter Konoha, against all his wishes, and hurt someone, possibly killed. It hurt far worse than any physical pain. He had become a part of me, over the weeks of companionship. His hurt was my hurt.

And send me to hell if it didn't hurt.

The silence seemed to infuriate him further as the eyes turned from smoky maroon to glowing red. The only sign of him moving was the tiny flow of wind as the grass moved. Then he was sitting on a branch above me, as if he'd always been. Instead of running away, I shrunk into the earth, trying to make myself as small as possible. The muscle in his jaw twitched slightly at that, I could see from my vantage point, but otherwise no reaction.

"What is it about you, Hinata?" he questioned the wind in a voice too unnaturally quiet.

But I didn't say anything. I stayed silent. Because there was no answer.

Kata returned the next day.

I was sitting in my window desk, staring at the tree line in the distance and - as usual - wondering, or rather worrying, about Naruto. All my thoughts seemed to revolve around Naruto. Time spent with Naruto. In such a short time, he'd fitted into my sense of well-being as if he was always there. Half my happiness wasn't mine: it was his.

So as I contemplated these rather disturbing thoughts, I didn't notice the stiff figure sitting down next to me until he let out of a hiss of pain. Jerking my back pencil-straight out of habit, I turned - only to find the slitted gaze of Kata glaring at me, light shining of the pupils so they glowed. I shrieked slightly, before nervously scooting myself to the end of the bench: as far away from the boy as possible. As it was, I managed to get a good look at him in the process. Wearing his normal t-shirt and shorts, the effect was rather awe-inspiring. Even a Jounin would have done a double take at the extent of his injuries.

Large, ragged claw marks seemed to cover his body everywhere. Though the bandages did their best to cover the horrifying and puckered markings, the tips of ragged scars were still visible above the bloodied material. As if they had already healed over in a nasty, disturbing way, snarling red claw marks covered his bare arms in distorted, gruesome patterns. Like some kind of sick person had cross-hatched his limbs for the fun of it.

I didn't know what I was expecting if he did eventually return: but it wasn't anything like this. Some small part of me had been harbouring the hope that Naruto had said that he'd harmed Kata just in the heat in the moment. That he wouldn't truly hurt a thirteen year-old boy so badly. Maybe a few bruises, but nothing more. I should have expected this, even before feeling the searing, burning chakra when he had lost control.

Absent-mindedly, he reached down and scratched the side of his stomach in a seemingly harmless gesture: but when the t-shirt wrinkled up I caught a bare glimpse of mangled skin before he hurriedly replaced it. When my gaze returned to his, it was almost mocking, but the bare pain at the edges seemed to strip him of all malicious intent even as he tried.

"Happy with what your boyfriend did to me?" he asked casually, voice raspy, "I told them I got hurt by a bear. Best reason we could come up with. After all, they weren't going to believe the Kyuubi did this to me, hm?" To exaggerate the point he patted the side of his ribs, before seeming to think better of it as a visible shudder passed through the area. I watched, with wide eyes. "Couldn't find a reason for the chakra marks, though. Rogue ninja bear? Hah."

The stinging of dust hitting my wide eyes made me blink, but when I readjusted my vision the markings- no, the injuries wouldn't go away. The red substance seeping through the bandages wouldn't leave my vision, even when I looked away at my perfectly harmless blue textbook on the desk. Bitterly, I wondered if I'd ever recover my once perfect relationship with Naruto from this. Or would I remain permanently scarred for life?

In a small flash of rare rationality, a thought which was puzzling me irritated my conscious until I voiced it.

"Wh-Why didn't y-you tr-try to tell th-them?" I muttered, noting dispassionately that my throat had gone dry, "Wh-Why not even tr-try to get r-revenge?"

His eyebrows rose in something akin to surprise as he studied me thoughtfully after my small outburst. Perhaps he thought I wasn't intelligent enough to realise what his true purposes were? If I'd been in a more healthy mental state, I might have been silently angry. But the small beginnings of it faded almost immediately. After all, he wasn't the oneI should be angry at. But I was incapable of being so at the one who deserved it most.

"Revenge?" he repeated softly, in an almost foreboding voice. I looked up sharply at his change of tone. I knew that tone well enough. And I'd seen enough of that almost manic glint in his eye to almost guess completely what his next words would be. "That'll come in time. But for now, it's my revenge." Without thinking, I shuddered at the implications behind that promise.

"Of course, it'll be difficult," he tacked on almost casually, but an unusual hard edge to his voice made me focus again, "My family being allied with the foxes, it'll be hard to kill the big boss himself. A challenge, even. But that's what I was born for." Abruptly, I cranked my head up to stare at him. Though my neck felt like it had a crick in it. The foxes?

I'd never paid much attention to the big, bragging talk Kata and his little group had practically announced all over the playground during breaks. It was humiliating enough having to give in to him, let alone listen to his great achievements. Belatedly, I realised I didn't really know what kind of animal his family specialised in, though the sharpened fangs had hinted upon the fact.

So now I knew. Foxes. Maybe the Kyuubi ruled over them all or something like that. And it would obviously be some sort of law in their family to not kill the foxes.. I frowned as my information ran out. Truthfully, I'd never paid much attention to the animal side of the ninja world. It had never seemed that important - and that reflected when I needed it the most.

"So, you still seeing the Kyuubi demon then?" he broke into my thoughts with the almost easy comment. But the searching eyes gave it away. Maybe telling me that he was going after revenge was the starting block for his quest. Someone in front of me turned round, and I cringed. Takai looked equally startled before turning back to the front again.

"Don't say it so loud!" I hissed quietly with a silent plea.

"Oh, what, Hinata? Afraid someone will hear us talking about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?" he mocked with an amused glance towards Takai, whose ears were slowly turning red from our point of view. "What's the matter, Hina-chan? Not comfortable talking about the demon? After all, you spend enough time with him - not much of a difference, talking, is it?"

For the first time in my life, I felt the urge to slap him. And the rush of adrenaline pumping through my veins in answer to the violent thought felt good.

"I th-thought you s-said you were g-going to pr-pretend it was a b-bear?" I murmured, turning away to the window again so he wouldn't see the pathetic tears pooling at the corners of my eyes. Rubbing them away furiously, I thought for one wishful moment, a blonde haired fool was peering through the window, looking straight at me.

Then it was gone. Wouldn't surprise me. Wishful thinking.

Apparently, he'd seen the tears though. "Crying, Hina-chan?" he almost laughed, the supposedly sisterly ending tacked onto my name sounding like a nasty nickname coming from his mouth. Almost like a brother really comforting his sister, he reached over and patted my shoulder in what could have been taken as a loving gesture. It was just a little too heavy handed for that. "Dear dear, have we got feelings for the demon?"

He meant it as another jibe: another jab at my self-confidence. Nothing more, nothing less. He couldn't possibly think anything like that. After all, who ever heard of a human having feelings for a jiinchuriki?

All the same, the next few seconds were a blur as my hand raised itself of its own accord and smacked Kata round the cheek with a resounding 'slap' sound. It sounded sickeningly like a wet fish against tarmac.

Briefly, I stared at the familiar, soft fingers of my hand in wonder. They tingled with something which could only be described as.. Well. Magic, if I wanted to be childish. Pain was probably a more accurate description. Already, I could feel the blood rising to the surface of my skin as it turned a dull, dark pink colour. Stunned, my pupil less eyes rose to find an identical-coloured hand mark on the shocked cheek of Kata: who was somehow lying on the floor.

Blinking like an idiot, it took me a few seconds to comprehend my actions. I had.. slapped someone. Slapped my class mate. Violence. And it felt sickening. Sickeningly painful. Like something was physically wrong with me. I'd couldn't remember rising to do it, as I sat down with a painful shudder. Sub-consciously, I realised that the classroom had gone quiet and still. Ino and Sakura had stopped in mid-rant at one another to openly gape. Choji had paused with a single potato-crisp half way between mouth and packet; Shikamaru had opened one eye from his dozing to contemplate the typically troublesome scene before him. Sasuke, amid a good deal of fan girls, was looking at me with something akin to.. respect? Shino was staring ahead as usual, but a muffled buzzing was erupting from his coat; Kiba, behind me, looked slightly dazed. I could also openly feel the hard stare of Takai as the tall boy turned to assess the situation himself.

Everyone was watching. And I didn't know what to do.

Numbly, I stared at the hand which had completed the malicious act. It didn't look any different, apart from the familiar feeling of pins and needles in it. But it felt dirty: like I'd used it to murder someone.

It was that moment that Iruka-sensei chose to enter. Late, for once.

"Sorry, class, I got hailed down by an old friend who wanted to talk and before I knew it I was alre- what happened?" His voice was like a rock being dropped into a pool of water: the ripples breaking whatever trance was holding us all down. Slowly, everyone returned to their seats, apart from Kata, who I kept my eyes on anxiously: begging for him not to say anything. What would Hiashi say if he found out? I could feel my complexion blanching at the mere thought. Hyuuga's were calm, strong and collected. They didn't get down to such common things as this.

"Kata! What are you doing on the floor down there?" the teacher's voice barked again. Slowly, the boy rose to his feet, and his gaze stayed connected with mine. A few gasped as the extent of his previous injuries were revealed, and a few glares were shot my way as I realised too late I'd hurt someone who was already near being hospitalized.

"Nothing, Iruka-sensei," he chanted suddenly, without missing a beat. "Nothing's wrong at all."

I tried to spend the rest of the day not thinking about Kata: and that meant not meeting Naruto. So instead of turning onto the regular path to Konoha forest, I took the worn down one to the shops of my village.

Despite all the brightly coloured wares and distracting scents, though, I couldn't think of anything more than a blonde shock of spiky hair and a tangle of messy brown hair. In my dazed, almost confused state, they mixed together in my minds eye, making an ugly dark beige colour. It scared me that whenever I thought of one of them, the other immediately came to mind. Wherever I looked, some aspect of them appeared. A blonde shock of hair to the right sent my heart racing - only for it to plummet when the person turned to reveal a rather different face.

Bouncing off a fat man who smelt like alcohol with a mumbled apology, I let my feet run loose till I found myself with little shock at the Ramen bar. Typically, the first thing that came to mind was Naruto. Naruto-kun loved ramen. Past tense. It was like he was dead.

Shrugging away the insistent thoughts, I struggled my way to an empty seat and sat with my head bowed, hair hopefully hiding my face away from any curious onlookers. Seeing Hyuuga in a place like this would be the talk of the town, if I let it. A distressed Hyuuga would make it all the better for gossip. Ino would have a field day if she found out.

"Miss Hyuuga-san, are you alright?"

The cold voice was like a kunai driven through my brain, as I abruptly straightened to meet the icy eyes of Ayame: black irises boring into my own. Since the beginning of my daily comings and goings at this place, she had never once offered a kindly word. Always a horribly cold stare which made me want to run away. But it had been the only place to get a quick meal when it was needed - and I was far less likely to be seen by someone who would report back to Hiashi or family members. Though I had tried to make conversation - at a mere way to break the frozen silence which stretched for miles between me and the cook's daughter - it hadn't been returned, and I instead received either frigid silence or bold glares. It stung, that yet another person had started to hate me, no matter how much of a good impression I tried to make.

Now, the normally thoughtful words were simply a polite greeting. What should have been concern for another had been twisted into an almost mocking statement. Internally, I wanted to run away. Because running away was always the only thing to do. Like Kata. If you stood up to him, you just got beat down again. And as with Kata, if I stood up against her I would be knocked down again. Running was the only option which would guarantee an end to it.

Taking a shaky breath, my filed crescent fingernails dug into my palms with a sharp intensity as I struggled with my emotions. "N-No, Ayame-s-san. I-I'm f-fine." Satisfied with that, the older woman moved on to take a customer's order. No use in sparing effort on the Hyuuga girl. Ignoring the need to satisfy my hunger, I slipped from the seat to dejectedly drag myself back to the compound. The colourful cloth a mere barrier as I slipped under it to exit the place.

Even when I had done nothing, people did not want me. Shuffling clean ninja shoes through the dust, I didn't look where I was going only to bump into an older man. His grumbling was cut short when he saw the pupil less eyes, and instead moved on without a word. Was I to go through this constantly? Because of my birth right - or other reasons, beyond my understanding - I was to be either constantly hated or feared. Because of the father who abused me anyway, I was to be alone. Isolated. Without any hope of connection. Maybe it was the way Hyuuga's learnt that impenetrable shield. But one thing I could tell immediately, if that was the case. I simply wasn't cut out for this.

Wasn't cut out for being a Hyuuga.

Blank eyes followed me with a mixture of veiled curiosity and hidden contempt. Either way, all was meaningless. It didn't matter which, because both were simply emotions of malice. Something I'd never be able to learn, despite the hard handed blows of Hiashi, or the soft words of the elderly. In all cases, I was going to be the failure. No matter what happened.

I didn't meet the eyes which followed me, ignoring them till I reached the fragile safety of my room. Pushing back the sliding door, the setting was simple and nothing like the rich and lavish rooms the Hyuuga were imagined to own. Especially their princess. Just a bed, a dresser, a single wardrobe and the window. The rest, I had been told when moved from the nursery to my own room, was for practicing.

Still, despite the impersonal outlook, it was my own retreat. Though the design had been made to another's taste, I had made my own marks in small ways. Tiny scratches lining the frame for the mattress. A small collection of dried flowers hidden on top of the wardrobe. Books which meant some kind of hope or precious fantasy covered from view among the necessities in the dresser. My own small 'home' within home. When younger and oblivious to my restricted position, I had been easily delighted by the generous space and belongings which had been pronounced 'mine' with a certain glee. Now I could not find a trace of that brief happiness, and only a resigned sense of peace when I walked to the dresser and pulled out a nightgown. No sense in going to dinner. They wouldn't have prepared enough, since I was usually gone.

The only thing which seemed almost real in my little room of plain furniture was the view from the window. It overlooked the garden I was usually sent to meditate in, and I could see, smell and hear everything in the section of glass. When the time was right, the scent of cherry blossom would drift through and into my room in early mornings. Other times, birds might come and sit on the window sill if I was quiet enough. It had reminded me there was another world out there, when I had been young and disbelieving of anything outside the Hyuuga compound.

Now, looking out at the immaculate plants and garden beyond the pane of glass, it seemed slightly less magical than it had used to, for some reason.

Slipping into the plain white, almost dress-like clothing, for a moment I simply stared at the floor, stumped on what to do. When a Hyuuga was confronted with free time, they were expected to use it to train and get stronger. Myself, being a failure, even more so. But training reminded me too much of things I needed to forget, so I opted for going to bed, and staring at the ceiling.

People always told their children to 'count sheep' if you wanted to get to sleep. I used to try it, childishly, when I was younger. It never worked. The sheep always seemed to make me concentrate harder instead of helping me drift to sleep. Futilely, I tried again, staring at the ceiling in fierce concentration. The pathetic sheep I managed to create looked more like puffs of wool than grass-eating mammals.

"Why didn't you come, today?"

I tried to refuse to acknowledge the voice: I really did try, this time. I could feel my eyes unconsciously straining against my will in the need to identify it. To make sure it really was him. But I didn't want- no, didn't need to. If I did, I'd come apart at the seams. And that would bring every Hyuuga in the immediate vicinity running. But I still couldn't help myself, and I turned blank eyes on him.

He was still wearing that same t-shirt and trousers. Bare footed, as always. Even the blonde hair looked the same, yet the expression made the familiar sight seem like a stranger. He was sitting on the window sill, looking over that same view I had looked out over a thousand times. Though he'd never been here before, he still looked right at home in my bedroom.

Hurriedly, I returned my gaze back to the unmarked ceiling. Just for once, Kami. Lend me the strength I need.

"So?" He flashed his first glance my way, and out of the corner of my eye I could see the colour. Deep purple. Verging on maroon, almost. Anger. It was getting easier to read the colours everyday. That, in itself, felt wrong. People's emotions weren't books to be read: they were hidden items of the mind, to neither to be seen or heard.

"I d-didn't want t-to," I tried to reply flatly, as if I didn't care one way or another. It didn't work. My voice cracked half way through the sentence.

"Why?"

"I-I.. I d-don't have to t-tell you th-that."

An audible growl from his direction suggested not so, but when I glanced over he was looking out the window, he was observing something or other which was enough to make his fists clench.

Momentarily curious and forgetting our shaky relationship, I clambered over the bed and moved in his direction before glancing at the taut features. "Wh-what is it?"

"Does your father train you like that too?" The question was tense and hung solemnly in the air, waiting to crash down when the truth came out. Inevitably, I followed his gaze to where the stern shadow of Hiashi Hyuuga was dictating my younger sister, Hana. At that moment in time, she was struggling to regain her balance after a no doubt particularly heavy handed blow from him. I watched silently, struggling to view it through dispassionate eyes and failing utterly. Trying to make light of it, I turned away so I couldn't see him out of the corner of my eye. "A-All clans t-train their ch-children," I muttered evasively.

"With hard handed blows? I may not know of Konoha, Hinata, but even I know that's wrong." The lack of suffix made me cringe having been so comfortably used to it on the end of my name. It just showed how far the gap had widened the past days.

Automatically, I shrunk and tried to avoid his question, as I always did with anyone. Despite being close to him, I had yet to approach the subject of family. Nobody, in fact, had been able to talk to me about it. Of course, curious students at the academy had tried to learn the secrets of the Hyuuga. But shyness and crippling guilt had kept me silent against it all. Other shinobi and civilians knew better than to try and ask.

Remembering the original subject, I tried to move discreetly away from him, but simultaneously his arm came out and squeezed my wrist. I didn't dare look up: keeping my pupil less eyes on the veins in both our hands. The blue lines were far easier to find in my own, against his stronger one. A sudden finger beneath my chin forced me to look up, into the eyes I feared. "Why didn't you come?" he asked again.

I tried to turn my head away, but his hand stopped it as he forced me to stare at him. For the third time, he breathed the question. "Why?"

Instead of answering, I closed my eyes, chewing my lip in debate on whether to tell him. Of course, what was there to tell? I was scared of him, as was Kata and anyone sane.

But it would hurt him if I told him that.

"I-I saw K-Kata today." It was the only answer I could think of, and still it hurt him. His hand, briefly warm against my skin, flinched away as if I'd burned him. The warmth of his palm against my skin felt cold when he removed it, and lightly I touched the place. It felt strangely empty, for some reason. Like I was missing something.

Plain despair. It was the only thing I could think of which could describe the tone of his silence: the gaping hole which now seemed to fill him. I didn't dare look at his eyes; didn't want to see the colour of them. It would seem impersonal and an invasion of space to read what he was thinking from the eyes.

"Guess that explains it, huh?" There was a forced cheerfulness in the words, and the smile wasn't his as I glanced at him. It was like he was suddenly a stranger: so far away, I couldn't see him anymore. His eyes didn't even hold the emotions I had thought I could read. They were blank and empty.

"After all," he started again, vacantly almost. "Nobody wants to talk to the demon, eh? They always did that when I was younger. Nobody spoke to me, nobody looked at me. There was just these horrible glares over and over again: and the names. Demon, fox, brat. There were always new names to call me." I couldn't speak, frozen in my fascinated horror. Though he'd never told me his history, he was telling it to me now. Whenever I'd pictured it, I'd always thought he'd be telling me it in confidence as one friend would to another. Not like this.. this vague, mechanical telling. It was wrong. So wrong. Nobody should have gone through such pain and become like this.

"I never told you how I found out that I was the Kyuubi, did I?" Naruto continued, eyes fixated on some distant point in the landscape I couldn't see. "It was my birthday: the day everyone celebrated my death. And somehow, there was always something round the corner to hurt me, on that particular day of the year. If I was lucky, it was just academy children sneering at me. In a worst case scenario, a drunken Jonin." The pause after that was long enough for him to draw a long, ragged breath. I could practically feel the trembles running through his body from the memory, as they seemed to vibrate through the small amount of space between us.

"It was an ANBU, that night. One who was both drunk and wearing a tiger mask. He cornered me at the end of an alleyway through explosive tags - and in plain view, though no one stopped. And then.." His breathing was altered, almost hyperventilating. Automatically, I wanted to put my hand out to soothe the pain. But at the same time, knew it would only make it worse. So frustrating, that I could do nothing when I was right beside him.

"Then.. he showed me images. Genjutsu, I think they were called. Images of when.. I destroyed the village." He choked on the last word, as if saying the very sentence had cost more than it seemed possible. His voice was hoarse as he forced the remaining words out. I could only sit numbly, as my conscious supplied images of what he described. "Many deaths, too many deaths. Burning fire. Burning chakra. Tails flying everywhere. Screams, cries. Wounds, blood. Teeth, claws. Kunai raining down upon me and their precious village. Flames, flying elements. Bodies lay everywhere. Destruction reigned. Weeping mothers, determined fathers.. I killed them all, Hinata. Every last one of them. And I loved it. Loved it because I am a demon. That's why they're scared of me."

Another shuddering breath, and I wondered absently if he was crying. Did demons even cry?

"Then he told me what I was. And that's why you're scared of me.. I'll leave you alone now. You don't have to come any more."

Naruto didn't even give me the chance to object. He was gone, leaving me staring at the point the had only seconds ago occupied, wondering how the Kami I'd managed to tear us both apart.

Graduated.

Against all the odds, I'd graduated.

Even after a day of seeing it and sleeping with it next to me, it was still hard to believe that the cold, metal headband around my neck actually belonged to me. Absently, I touched it, to check the unmarred metal was still there. What really made it seem real, though, was the way no one seemed surprised when I appeared amongst the gaggle of new genin. Nobody shouted 'She doesn't belong here!'. At the same time, no one talked to me. But that was fine too. I didn't want to talk. Not when it seemed that one word would break the dream and I would wake up to go to academy properly.

Iruka's voice rang over the numerous heads, eventually quieting even the loudest trouble makers and making everyone else sit down. Nervously, I tried to make myself as small as possible between Kiba and Shino.

"Today, all those who graduated will start on the rocky road of the shinobi world," he began, causing several eyes to roll at his dramatic entrance line. He'd used it so many times now, that the actual meaning behind it was all but lost on everyone. "I hope you all haven't forgotten overnight, but you will now all be sorted into three-man cells: two boys and one girl per team. Each team will have a Jounin-sensei also, who will be directing and training your team for missions."

Teams. Somehow the idea hadn't crossed my mind at all. Two people and an older adult would suddenly be a lot closer to me than comfort permitted. How by Kami would I live with the proximity? And they wouldn't be able to rely one me either: I'd merely be the burden that Hiashi always proclaimed I was. A hindrance.

"Alright then. Team Seven consists of Sasuke Uchiha, Hinata Hyuuga.."

Sasuke Uchiha. How had that happened? The glares on my back told me plain enough that none of the other girls in our class appreciated me being the singular girl on the team. Fair enough. It wasn't like I was going to enjoy my time with the cold Uchiha anyway. The feeling was probably mutual, knowing him.

"..And Kata Nakana."