Tea
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto, or any of the characters affiliated with it, and this is merely a fan-based piece of work.
Hinata stirred the tea and poured it into her cup, before taking a sip of the warm liquid as she paused, trying not to scald her throat. Deep in thought, crossed-legged on the tatami mat, she looked at the flowers in the vase atop of a table, smiling. Her favourite hobby, ikebana, or, flower-arranging, always managed to keep her in the right frame of mind. There was something lovely about looking at flowers in a vase as not just flowers that grew out of the ground, but as things which had a purpose – to enlighten someone's day, or to provide the ground with spots of beautiful colours, swaying in the breeze. She really liked making patterns out of the flowers, each a different colour, and could sit on the floor for hours, staring, humming and moving them to places where she thought would suit them best.
Holding the cup with two hands, she shuffled a little, careful not to disturb the scrolls around her which had fresh ink on them. She was preparing for some of her exams in the Academy on a wide range of subjects, to Shadow Clone Jutsu to Chakra Building and was getting very efficient at them. Well, she had to be – she was the heiress of the Hyuga clan, of course. As well as being taught the art of calligraphy, she was being trained by her cousin Neji to achieve the optimum results that she could, and her father would not expect any less from her. After a hard day of training, she would usually either crash into her bed face-first and hope to Kami that she could last for tomorrow's session, or have a long, hot shower to ease away the knots of tension in her shoulders. She also trained with her team, Team Eight, when she wasn't with her cousin, and listened to the discreet Shino Aburame's advice, or listen to Kiba's usually brash comments. But truthfully, she didn't mind them at all – she felt happy, wanted, even.
Back at home, she felt restless sometimes. All this pressure on an heiress who could well be denounced from her position by her younger sister who had far better skills than her in most of the nin-techniques had Hinata feeling weary, and disappointed in herself.
But she somehow managed to shrug this all off with a quiet reasoning of 'If I can get through this day, then tomorrow will be another challenge, but it is a challenge I am willing to undertake.'
As she stared at the darkness unfolding outside her window, the sun's sparse light, (or what was left of it) waning, and as crickets chirped noisily, she simply sipped her tea, and then got back to her studying, her wrist flicking with each inky stroke, her eyes sharp, and her muscles sore.
Someday.
Someday she would prove them all wrong.