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HYUUGA CHRONICLES:
THE STORY BEHIND HIS CONFESSION
Chronicle Two: Pathetic
By: xll KUROI TSUBASA llx

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IMPORTANT NOTES:

"This is a dialogue."
'This, on the other hand, is a thought.'
Blocks of italicized text are flashbacks.
Sudden shifts from italic to normal and vice-versa indicate emphasis.

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"Hey Natsume, open up." Ruka called out while tapping on the door of raven haired lad's special star bedroom.

'I do hope that Natsume goes to school today. He's been cooped in there for a day." the blue-eyed boy muttered while staring at the door worriedly.

True to Ruka's words, Natsume has not left his room ever since the night that their whole class had gone out drinking. He didn't even come out to eat nor did he come out when he and his other classmates came to visit him. He simply shrugged them off and said that he was all right and that he would come to school on Monday but he had also hinted that he didn't want anybody to bother him. To top it all off, he had done all that with the doors closed, not even bothering to show his face to them. And because it was so obvious that the guy wanted to be left in his solitude, they had granted him just that and did not bother him until today. Some fan girls of his even made a 'Do not Disturb' sign on the door.

Once again, Ruka knocked on the door. He was about to call out to his friend for the second time when the door that he had previously been tapping on opened abruptly.

"Na-Natsume?! What the hell happened to you?" Ruka cried out with wide eyes as he took in his best mate's haggard appearance

"Was it another mission? That Persona… Why I ought to-" he continued but was stopped when Natsume placed a hand on his arm.

"This is nothing and I wasn't sent on a mission." The fire wielder explained briefly before closing his door and passing Ruka.

"What happened?" Ruka asked, worry etched in his voice as he caught up with him.

"I told you. It's nothing." he replied with a tone of finality thereby ending their conversation.

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Everywhere he went, people stared at him. Moreover, the stares that he had received today weren't the usual ones that people gave him. Normally, the stares that he got were categorized into three. They were either of the annoying and full of affection kind, the frightened and apprehensive kind, or the hate-filled and condescending kind. But now, all the people stared at him with a different kind of expression – a fourth kind. They all gaped at him with wide eyes and dropped jaws, disbelief etched in their faces.

"Don't these people have their own lives to deal with" he grumbled under his breath while sending intense death glares at everyone in the vicinity in order to restore at least a portion of the usual normalcy around the campus.

True enough, people began to scamper back to what they had been previously doing once they received the pyromaniac's infamous glare for fear that they might be sent to some infirmary.

Finally, after a whole lot of tiresome glaring, Natsume reached his destination – the cherry blossom tree. He expertly jumped on one of its branches before leaning his head on its wide trunk and closing his eyes, willing his mind to go blank so that he could get the sleep which he was seriously deprived of for the past day. However, all his efforts of emptying his mind remain futile for no matter what he did, scenes from that night kept plaguing his mind.

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The exhausted teenager was already halfway towards the door when a weak but audible voice suddenly called his attention.

"Natsu-chan"

Immediately, he spun around, worried that the brunette had woken up. Thankfully, she hadn't and was only sleep talking so he merely continued his previous task of escaping to his room. He was about to turn the knob when he heard three words that would surely plague his mind for some time.

"I love you."

Upon hearing that, his eyes widened considerably. But apart from that, he stood there completely immobile in his spot. In fact, if the brunette hadn't interrupted his reverie by wailing Hotaru's name, he might have stood there like a frozen statue until morning.

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"Natsume?"

The second he heard that familiar voice, Natsume's heart began to palpitate at an amazing rate and a single thought crossed his mind.

'Damn. I do not need this right now.'

"Natsume, I'm really sorry for bothering you but could you go down for a bit? I have something important to ask you."

'I should just feign sleep. Wait. What the hell am I thinking? Why am I acting so damn cowardly these past few days?'

With that last train of thought, he gracefully leaped towards the ground and came to face the brunette who he had been previously been avoiding.

"Oh my! You look like a wreck. Are you okay?" the brunette asked worriedly as she tried to reach out and touch Natsume's cheeks but before it could touch him, he roughly slapped it away.

"I'm fine. What do you want?" he grumbled coldly as he tried to look at anything except for the person in front of him.

"But you look horrible. Just look at those dark rings under your eyes. Have you been on another mission again?" the woman continued to asked, unaffected his indifference.

"Dammit. I told you that I'm okay so stop your bothersome nagging!" Natsume angrily spat, accidentally whipping his head to face the worried brunette. However, he quickly looked away once he felt a sudden surge of heat creeping up his face.

"If you have nothing important to say, then quit bothering me." He grumbled once again as he turned to leave but the caramel-haired girl caught his hand and prevented him from escaping.

"Okay, I'm sorry for prying into your business. I was just worried. I mean who wouldn't be? You've locked yourself in your room for a day, refusing to eat and then when you finally decided to leave the confines of your room, you end up looking like this."

"Let go."

"No."

"For the last time, let go"

"No."

"Do you want to get yourself burned?"

"Oh please. Do you really think that would work on me? I've mastered my Alice already. You couldn't hurt me. You of all people-"

Before Mikan could even finish her long speech, she was pinned to the ground by an angry fire caster.

"Why did you come here?"

"Ugh. Natsume, get off!" the female exclaimed while trying to wiggle herself out of the teenager's grasp.

"Answer the question, dammit!" he spouted, his tone sounding dangerous, causing the female to finally stop resisting and gulp before hesitantly meeting the pyromaniac's fiery gaze.

"I just wanted to as you if uh…"

"Spit it out."

"Okay, okay. Don't be such a grouch." she replied while pouting a little and looking away.

"I just wanted to ask you if you've seen or heard something… uh… unusual when you carried me back to my room the other day."

Upon hearing that, Natsume's eyes widened for a bit and his thoughts began to go haywire once again until he felt the brunette wriggle below him, thereby snapping him out of his silent musings. As soon as he was brought back to reality, he hastily stood up and started to walk away once again.

"Hey! You haven't even answered my question!" the brunette exclaimed as she tried to catch up to him.

"I didn't."

Those were his last words before he suddenly disappeared in the forest.

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Mind your own business and sod off

That was Natsume's answer when someone had the courage to inquire about his problems when they realized that there was something wrong with him. But of course, he didn't use that exact sentence to answer everyone. In fact, he had actually been quite polite towards some (especially Ruka) but had been harsher to others (eg. Tsubasa). But despite the varying intensity of his answers, the context remained the same: he wanted to be left alone to solve his own problems.

After that incident under the cherry blossom tree, he had started avoiding the brunette. And during the instances that it was impossible to avoid her, he simply ignored her presence and acted as if he didn't know that she was there. This in turn, ticked off the said female to the point of having to confront him.

"Hey Natsume!" the brunette called out as she rushed towards the raven-haired lad after classes ended that day. However, instead of stopping to acknowledge the brunette, the boy addressed merely continued his walk, acting as if he didn't hear a thing (even though the woman's shouts were indeed audible, loud even). But despite the lad's indifference, the auburn-haired female continued to go after him with much vigor.

After some pushing and a few complaints from those who she pushed aside, Mikan finally caught up with him.

"Are you deaf or something?" she asked irately as she walked by his side albeit panting a little but the guy in question continued to ignore her, not even bothering to spare her a single glance.

"Hey, stop ignoring me," she continued but was met with silence yet again.

"I know that you're not really a fan of manners but could you at least have the decency to stop and listen to me?"

Again, there was not a single sign that the teenager heard her.

"I've had enough. Stop ignoring me!" she exclaimed as she turned Natsume around so that he could face her. Then she stared directly into his eyes, hoping to find some sort of explanation for his odd behavior for the past week but when she was only met with a blank stare, she sighed a little before speaking up again.

"Have I pissed you off again? Or are you just doing this to annoy me? If so, then you're doing a terrific job. I'm really irritated with you right now." she ranted with an evident irate expression. However, the fire wielder simply continued to stare at him with the same blank expression and made her feel a bit concerned.

"Natsume, are you all right? Even after a week, you still look awfully haggard. Is it because of the missions? Have you-" she asked in a worried tone as she reached out to touch Natsume's face but her arm was harshly slapped away.

"Leave me alone, hag" Natsume finally spoke, his tone venomous.

Upon hearing that, Mikan stared at him stunned for a few seconds before contorting her facial expression to that of utter indignation (puffed cheeks and all) and giving him a piece of her mind.

"You jerk! I was only worried about you. If you want to be like that, then fine!" she lashed out before stomping away with angry mutters of "Uncivil jerk", "Inconsiderate bastard" and "Let's ignore each other 'til we die" heard in her wake. Unbeknownst to her, the 'bastard' that she was referring to was actually staring at her while deep in thought.

'Damn it. What am I doing?' he asked himself in aggravation as his eyebrows furrowed.

'That's a stupid question. I thought that you were a genius. I guess a week of sleep deprivation really does eradicate a person's brain cells.' another voice piped in.

'Who the hell are you?' Natsume demanded, his eyebrows furrowing even more.

'I'm the devil and I've come to collect your tarnished soul.' the voice answered nonchalantly and pausing for a few seconds before speaking once again.

'I'm you, you dope! I can't believe that you've grown this stupid in just a span of one week. Cowardly too if I may add.'

The pyromaniac mentally growled.

'Anyway, I'm your kinder, more sensible, and wiser inner self. It's nice to finally meet you.'

'Go away'

'Oh, have I struck a nerve, Natsu-chan?'

'Fuck off'

'You do realize that you're cursing your self, don't you?' the voice asked, his tone amused and slightly condescending. This question simply earned another growl from the flame caster.

'By the way, just to answer your first question – the one wherein you asked yourself what you were doing – I would say that you're being a coward. Why don't you just confess to the woman and get this over with? This is becoming pathetic. You're becoming pathetic.'

'Mind your own business.'

'It is my business, you moron. I'm the wiser side of you, remember?'

'Just piss off and leave me alone'

'I can't and I won't. I won't leave until I knock some sense into that empty head of yours. Can't you see that you're being an airhead here? The girl that you've been hopelessly pining for since you were 10 has finally confessed to you – albeit by accident. Nevertheless, it still is a confession – so why don't you just go and ask her to be your girlfriend already? What are you waiting for? Some kind of grand proposal? And don't even start about that excuse about the dangers that she might face if she becomes your girlfriend. You know that that is utter crap. Even without her being your girlfriend, everyone else – except her. She is extremely oblivious after all – knows how you feel about her. Even the AAO know about this so there's no point in hiding it anymore. Besides, despite her idiocy, you of all people should know that the girl is capable of protecting herself. And we're not talking about her Alices here. She, herself, is a strong woman.'

'I told you to sod off. Stop saying such disgusting things' Natsume growled mentally. However, his so-called inner self didn't pay any heed to him and simply continued his rant.

'Are you still in doubt of her abilities? Or are you in doubt of her confession? After all, she didn't exactly say 'Natsume', right? She said 'Natsu-can'. But then again, she doesn't know anybody with 'Natsu' in their names unless you count that robot that that freak inventor created. But as stupid and strange as she may be, she doesn't look like the robot-loving type. Don't you think so too, Natsu-chan?'

'Shut your trap. You're making no sense.'

'Oh really? But I'm not done yet, Natsu-chan. I also think that it's possible that you've put off your own confession because frankly, you don't really know what to do. You know what you want to say but can't say it because you've been repressing your emotions far too long. God, that sounds so pathetic. But it makes sense. I can't believe that-'

"SHUT UP!" Natsume shouted all of a sudden, fed up by his inner self.

This sudden outburst effectively stopped his inner self's ramblings and was also able the scare away a group of previously giggling girls. As he watched the group of girls scamper away, the pyromaniac couldn't help but let out a short hollow laugh.

"I'm finally losing it." he said to no one in particular before striding towards the Northern forest and putting his mask on.

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AUTHOR'S NOTES:

I wasn't able to edit the last portion of this chapter so I hope that you'd bear with my mistakes. From where I live, it's almost 12 AM so you could understand how stupid I'm feeling right now (I can't even come up with the appropriate word. Stupid. Pfft). On top of that, I'm a bit sick as well so my brain really isn't functioning properly so I hope that you'll excuse this crappy chapter.

By the way, I really will appreciate it if you guys review. It doesn't matter whether it's a praise or a criticism. I simply want your reviews since I find it quite disheartening that only four people reviewed the first chapter. But then I also understand that it's highly possible that you didn't bother reviewing because you thought that my story sucked. Damn. I should stop this rant. I feel like an idiot.

-:-Kuroi Tsubasa-:-