Neji'sTrueLover: Ha! I told you that I can write long chapters! Take that Neji!
Neji: So you wrote one long chapter. Big whoop.
Neji'sTrueLover: It is! Just ask any of my readers!
Neji: Alright –he walks away-………..-comes back- There was no one to ask. That didn't take long.
Neji'sTrueLover: -strangles Neji-
Hinata: Neji'sTrueLover does not own the Naruto characters.
Neji'sTrueLover: Hinata! Come quick! I need you to help me take Neji to the river!
Chapter 5 It's hard to see the pain behind the mask…
Hinata's P.O.V.
When he doesn't speak right away, I look at him. He doesn't look like he will answer any time soon, so I break the silence. "What is it?" I ask. He waits some more, then he finally answers. He says,
"What are you doing here? This property belongs to the Uchiha." I start to laugh. He must be on something because this land has been owned by the Hyuga for years, and everyone knows it. He gives me an angry stare, and then he snaps.
"Do you even know who I am?!" I stop laughing almost immediately. His words didn't sink in before, but I finally realize what he said. Uchiha. I look down while I think things over. The Uchiha family, or clan as they once called themselves, was killed off in a massacre about 12 years ago. Only one was left, a four year old boy. He inherited all the money, houses, and everything else his parents had, yet he was said to always been alone.
I once heard from someone that the last Uchiha had moved back to his secret house because he never returned to his foster family's home ever since 2 years ago. Maybe he lives somewhere in the forest? While I think, he waves his hand in front of my face.
"Hey, answer me. Tell me your name too," he says. I stare him in the eye. I don't know what possesses me to answer him; I not even sure if it is safe, but I do.
"My name is Hinata Hyuga and I wanted to take a walk today on the Hyuga property, so I did." I answered.
"Hyuga, huh? I've heard of only one Hyuga in my lifetime and that was about the one who died all those years ago. And I read that in an old newspaper article I had." He gives me a smirk.
This guy is really getting on my nerves. I've answered all of his questions, yet he has not answered the only question I asked him. So, I'm going to make him tell me. "Well, you know who I am. What's your name?"
"Uchiha," he answers simply.
Now I am really mad. Who does he think he is embarrassing me like that? "Your real name!" I snap. He looks me in the eye, and then he looks away.
"My name is Sasuke. Though I don't really think that you need to concern yourself with it." And with that, he walks off. But, before he does walk away, Sasuke turns around and gives me a smile. Not the smirk that he has been using for this whole conversation, but a real smile. I feel my face flame up with a blush and my heartbeat race as he steps into the shadows and disappears.
I walk back home in a daze, and when I reach for the door, it opens. I snap back to reality as I stare into my mother's eyes. I break from the intense gaze and look at my watch. 9:05. I stand, frozen to my spot, until I am thrown into the house. I hear the lock click and I look up to see my mother walk toward me.
We've been through this procedure many times before. Mother would grab my wrist and slap me once to make sure I'm paying attention. Then she would talk on and on about how I cannot leave the house, except for school, and then slap me a few times in between sentences. Then she will start hitting me harder and harder while saying that if I told anyone about what goes on here, she would find out and kill me. Finally, she will throw me against the glass table, that will definitely break, and she'll command that I have to fix later, and then she will pick up a large shard of glass and start hitting me with that. When she is satisfied, she will walk through the front door and leave me bleeding on the floor. As soon as she's gone, I will slowly get up and walk towards my room and collapse on the bed. I will sob silently and then faint from the loss of blood and intense pain my body goes through.
And just as I predicted, everything happens. Mother lifts me up and gives me a good slap. This time though, it is much harder than it should have been. Normally, she will save this for the ending punishment. Just then, she slaps me again. This time with the same amount of force, and manages to draw blood from my cheek. Mother then throws me to the floor. This surprises me since she hasn't even started giving me lectures yet; She hasn't even said one word to me yet.
Just then, I hear the sound of breaking glass, and I look up. I see her holding a broken beer bottle in her hand. I was so deep in my thoughts that I didn't even notice the smell of alcohol drifting around the room until now.
So she has been drinking again. This time in the morning, so she must be having a really bad day. Crap, this is going to hurt.
Mother hits me repeatingly until I hit the floor, almost knocked out. She then leaves through the door without looking back at me. I lay there for a long time, until I feel good enough to move to my room. Slowly, I push myself up off the floor and walk/drag myself to my bed. Once there, I collapsed instantly onto the bed. Even though I feel exhausted, I don't fall asleep. I feel like all of the energy that I normally have has been completely drained from me, yet my eyes refuse to close. For some unknown reason, all I can see is that boy I meet earlier.
Sasuke my mind continued saying, until all I can see is darkness. The same type of darkness as Sasuke's eyes.
Later On
I awake with a start when my alarm goes off. I stare at the clock that says 7:01 p.m. I figured that mother would not be home until at least 1:00 in the morning or she might not even come home at all for a while. Knowing my mother, she is probably off at a club somewhere and getting wasted.
When I try to move my arms and legs, pain immediately shoots through my entire body. Slowly, memories of earlier come rushing through my head. The images of Mother hitting me, my blood seeping
through the bandages on my arms, the moment that everything turned black, and all that I wanted to do was just die right there and then.
When I come out of my little reverie, I realize that something warm is running down my cheeks. At first, I think that it is blood from one of my head wounds, but when I touch my cheeks, I see that they are tears.
It surprises me more than I thought, because I had jumped, which causes pain to once again run throughout my body. I haven't cried in a long time. I can't even remember what it felt like to cry, and it felt good. Letting down my façade and allowing the warm tears to stream down my face, felt like heaven. When I think about my past, more tears come. Faster this time.
After a while, when my eyes felt like there are no more tears to shed, I feel the same feeling I've felt for most of my life. Loneliness. Only this time, it is different. Normally, when I feel lonely, I just stay frozen and the feeling goes away soon after. Yet this time, it hurts. My heart hurts painfully, not exactly physically, but internally. Mentally. The surprise pain is so great, it takes my breath away and I clench my chest in a desperate attempt to get rid of it.
Even though it was an old and forgotten feeling, one thought keeps coming back to my mind. I want to speak to someone. I want to say and confront my secrets, to spill my heart to someone. Maybe, not just anyone. Maybe to that Uchiha boy. Maybe to...
"Sasuke" I whisper.
I come to my senses quickly. I remember that today was Sunday and that I needed to go to school tomorrow morning and if I don't clean up the mess in the front room, Mother will surly get mad and hurt me again.
With that thought, I try to sit up. I guess that I try a little too quickly, for as soon as I get up, my head swims in a deep fog and the oh-so familiar pain once again makes its way through every vein in my body. A soft moan comes from my lips as I lay back down.
Once my vision clears, I try to sit up again. Only slower this time, and it works. Barely any pain comes, so I press my luck by trying to get up. Guess today is my lucky day. My legs listen to me as I drag myself off of the bed and towards the bathroom. I have to clean myself up before anything else.
When I reach the bathroom, I hurry to the cabinet. My medicine and bandages are there, and, as always, I proceed to unwrap the other bandages. When the new, clean bandages are wrapped all along my body, along with new clothes, I quickly make my way to the front room. Well, as quickly as I can in my condition. Luckily, I am only limping a little, which should go away within the next few days. If I try hard enough, no one will notice.
When I reach the front room, all I can see is blood and broken glass. The horrid stench my mother left behind was gladly gone, so I feel relief at the thought of not having to hold my breath while I clean. I quickly set off to work.
Within the next hour or so, I finish my cleaning and go back to my room. My muscles feel drained, my limbs sore, yet my eyes remain open. Since I have nothing else to do, I take out a notebook from my bag and start studying for tomorrow's quiz. I abruptly stop, and laugh at myself.
How weird am I that I live with an abusive mother, yet don't tell anyone? Or that I don't even want to cry much? That said mother smokes, drinks, and does everything that a mother – or what really people – shouldn't do, yet I don't smoke, drink, and I uphold the law? And how is it that, if any other girl were
in my place, she would normally spend her free time crying, or cutting herself, yet here I am. Studying. At the top of my class?
Another laugh escapes me as I look back at my notes and continue studying.
Neji'sTrueLover: Yay! Finally a longer chapter, but how long will it last? –insert twilight zone music- I'm kidding, but this is the beginning of what I think will end up being a trilogy. I already have the ending planned out in my head and it will defiantly end as a "to be continued", but there will be many chapters in this one, so don't worry about it ending soon. –anime tears- I have such a long way to go…