Kisses to Airyo-chan who Beta'd it again! I think she likes Hinata-Pov more than Itachi Pov... Aww... to bad that his Pov will be coming up in chapter 4! Anyway, thanks to all the reviewers that reviewed the story! I can only PM people with accounts... so guests, hurry up and make accounts! XD! Enjoy! PS Hinata is still 10. At the end, she'll be around eleven or so.

Invisible

Before that fateful day, Hinata might have said that she appreciated being invisible. It gave her anonymity, and a sense of mystery. However, Hinata now understood that she didn't know how invisible she really was. Although she didn't particularly care about much, anymore. The morning after her enlightenment, when she had entered the classroom, all in black, she gave the class somewhat of a shock.

"Who are you?"

"Are you new?"

"Where are you from?" Such responses could be heard from all around the classroom. Hinata inwardly scoffed, but keeping up a blank façade, she walked to her old seat. People were whispering behind her back, she knew; despite the fact, she was actually realising that she just didn't care. Her life no longer revolved around pleasing others; she now had a purpose, a goal, a mission. If she failed it, well- the devil shall reap her soul. She would not let it be her fault. It wouldn't be her fault.

That was besides the point. She sat in her seat, staring blankly at Iruka, the teacher of the class. He seemed quite befuddled, and started the class slightly later than he was supposed to. "Class, calm down!" And then he looked, at her, quite sheepishly, then asked, "I'm sorry, are you lost? This is supposed to be the class that is graduating in three years."

If she were the old Hinata she would have broken down in tears, right then. Unfortunately, that Hinata died with her family's betrayal. " I am Hyuuga Hinata, and I have been here since the beginning of the year." She said, her eyes and voice blank. Iruka looked over his register, before finding a Hyuuga Hinata.

"I'm so sorry about that," he apologized, and embarrassed blush creeping up his cheeks. Then he stopped the chatter. "Lets get to work!"

Hinata stayed silent. She would not grant him her forgiveness, there was no need. She knew that he did not care enough to actually be upset about it; it was all an act, an act to appear somewhat nice and mannered. Throughout lesson, she paid rapt attention to Iruka. However, he was blabbing on about things she already knew. She had learnt them as a Hyuuga heiress, after all.

Then they were ushered outside to do some shuriken practice. That was good; the old Hinata would have faltered with her confidence, but this Hinata didn't have the luxury. What if when, she was supposed to kill her clan, someone survived then went off to destroy Konoha because of her miserable aiming skills? No, she could not allow that to happen.

They took turns. Hinata lined up, not especially caring when she would have to throw. She, however, was behind an annoying guy... Sasake? Sesuke? No, it was Sasuke. She remembered now- the only person that Itachi Uchiha had spared during the Uchiha Massacre. It wasn't him that she found annoying, no, it was the hoard of girls that were always surrounding him. No matter, not even loud annoyances could bother her concentration today. "Next!" Iruka called, and handed her four shuriken, to aim at the straw stuffed body. She had read a book about human anatomy; the best places to hit a person and kill them would be the heart, lungs, stomach, and eyes. Hinata threw, a shuriken at the left eye of the straw, and then without pause at the lungs, the heart, and the stomach. After she finished, she turned to Iruka with dead eyes. He- and the rest of the class- seemed stunned, unable to comprehend that Hyuuga Hinata had just struck four lethal accurate blows on a straw body, while most of the class was only able to manage one or two, at most.

Hiinata just blankly stared, and walked to the back of the line, silently hitting the unfreeze button in this scene. Iruka silently handed Sasuke another four shuriken, and Sasuke took them, and aimed. He managed to get all of the shuriken to hit the straw body, however, none of them were lethal shots. They would heavily damage the opponent if hit, yes, but they would not kill him. Sasuke grunted, as all of the girls went crazy over him, disregarding the fact that Hinata's shots were more lethal.

Iruka broke the silence that had accumulated. "Now, you all get your own target to practice. Take the shuriken that I have given you, and line up in alphabetical order." Hinata went in between Sakura and Kiba, shuriken in hand. How can I completely defile my target? She wondered. What would a ninja do? Ninja's use chakra. If I can somehow transfer chakra into my shuriken... Completely disregarding Kiba and Sakura, she activated the Byuakugan. She gazed at the chakra in her hand, concentrating on the tiny dotes that were the pores of her chakra.

She spent the next five minutes experimenting on opening and closing the pores in her fingers, and the five minutes after that concentrating on letting the chakra cover the shuriken fully. All in all, it took her around fifteen minutes to master this simple technique. When her shuriken was covered in chakra, she threw the shuriken straight through were the body's heart was supposed to be, ripping the whole thing in half.

Huh, she thought absent mindedly, that was only one shuriken, too... Iruka walked over to her, seeming nervous. Hinata deactivated the Byakugan. "Hinata, how did you learn this technique?" Iruka asked, looking nervous. Hinata only stared at him blankly, until she understood what he was trying to say.

"Byakugan." She said, as if this explained everything. It did, in a way... a really vague way. All of the students stared at her in awe, noticing her for the first time since she had entered the Academy. Most of the girls were jealous, however, which was understandable, as they had nothing better to worry about. Hinata, unlike them, had a lot of things to worry about.

"Maybe... you should move up a class?" he suggested, his eyes on the blown up straw dummy. Hinata thought about it for a moment... if she moved up, that would mean more work. More work meant less time. Less time meant less training. She had no time for this nonsense, as her goal wasn't graduating. Her goal was to become better, faster, stronger... enough to kill her family. To do that, she needed to find her own special techniques.

"No, thank you." Hinata replied coolly. "I find that I have a lot more to learn in this class." She said, and then walked out. "If that is all, as I have done my work, I'll be dismissed from class." Were her last words, before she walked off. Hinata knew that she would have to pace herself: enough to be at the top, but not enough to get her moved up another level.

Suddenly, she heard the rustling of a river. During her time of daydreaming, she ended up at a small waterfall in the forest. She stared at the area, contemplating on what to do. Maybe she could use that area to train... yes, that seemed like the best idea. She would be left in peace, with no people to disturb her.

A few months later, she found herself staring at the same water fall that she had discovered a while back. She had been training for a long time now... around three months. Throughout those tree months, she had developed her chakra manipulation skills, as well as her strength and endurance, however, she had failed to create her own, original, jutsu.

"Curse it all!" she screamed, staring at the canopy of leaves above her. If only... she sighed, and started pacing, failing to see what she was standing on. "I'm a failure!" she yelled into the forest, stomping her feet. The water rose up with her. She only then noticed that she was standing on the river, with the water encircling her from all around. She touched the crystals with fascination. "That's right, water!" she muttered to herself, experimenting with moving the water without actually touching it.

"Byakugan!" she murmured, activating her jutsu. She stared at her chakra as she moved the water along. She stared as she tried making the water go green, to change its outward appearance. She failed; instead, the water turned a beautiful lilac colour. She reached out to touch it, but before she could, some of the droplets had hit a tree. She stared in horror as the tree trunk was eaten up, disintegrating because of the toxic water.

To calm herself down, Hinata fingered the locket around her neck. It was becoming a frequent habit of hers; even though she had no idea where the locket had come from. Two weeks or so ago, she had woken up on a bench, with no memory of how she got there, with a strange metal around her neck. That was when she discovered the locket, a platinum metal decorated with diamonds and rubies, shaped as a fan. Hinata cautiously recognized the Uchiha crest, but decided to keep that truth to herself. If she were to ask someone, she would ask Sasuke, but she'd rather not approach the depressed pre-teen; he always put her in a more dreary mood than usual.

She had tried to open the locket many times before, but had failed, miserably. She had checked the locket with her Byakugan, and had found a strange chakra covering it, forcing it closed. The chakra was really warm... but dark, at the same time, if that made sense. Like black fire. She had never met anyone before with that type of chakra.

Since seeing the chakra, she had given up on opening the locket, instead hiding it underneath her clothes. Hinata had a gut feeling that no good would come from someone seeing it.

The water hitting and blending back into the river snapped her out of her daze. With more determination, she continued practicing the technique. She wondered if she would be able to call this jutsu an original jutsu, since no one helped her master it, and no one taught her it.

Just a week after her eleventh birthday, Hinata had finally mastered the jutsu. Not only that, but she had overheard another conversation regarding what she had been hoping all along would not be true. "Have you told all of the Hyuugas of age about what will happen in two years' time?" a Hyuuga elder muttered, addressing her father.

"Yes. They all know of The Plan, and they all agree with our views. That will help speed up the process. Is the date still in order? During Hinata's first Chuunin exams?" Hiashi asked, in a somewhat eager tone. Hinata was disgusted by him. Her own father, planning the downfall of her own village! The resolve in Hinata had grown harder than ice. So had Hinata's heart. The shell had been enclosed in rock, making it all the harder to break, without shattering.

That was why, that day, she mastered what she called the 'Toxic Water' jutsu. It was so lethal, Hinata had found, that just three drops were enough to completely destroy a tree. Hinata wondered how many it would take to kill a human. While Hinata practised on trees, she couldn't bring herself to kill any harmless animals. They were innocent, truly innocent, and didn't deserve a pre-mature death. Humans, especially adults, however, where a completely different story. They were corrupted by such greed, and malice, that sometimes, Hinata wished she could kill them herself. The time for her to kill, with her being too young. She wished the time would never come... yet, somehow, knew it would.

She moved to the next part of her jutsu: actually summoning water. It took her only a couple of weeks to manage that. It wasn't as hard as actually intoxicating the water; no, not at all. But, one day, in school, when they were learning to throw needles, she was struck with a brilliant idea. She could... actually solidify the water, and hit people with that more easily! Actually, it would be easier to hit them with water... if they weren't moving. What if she ran out of chakra? She could then use the needles, as a last resort. But even better than that, would be a toxic sword. One that melted everything it touched.

Though Hinata doubted it would only take her a couple of weeks to 'make' such a weapon. As she was thinking all this, her face stayed blank. It was admirable how she'd come to control her facial expression and body language. A couple of times she had stared at herself in the mirror; wondering if this was the same Hinata, the Hyuuga heiress, daughter of Hiashi and Hozuna Hyuuga. Maybe everyone changed when reality hit them straight in the face.

Just then, Iruka called on her to answer the question on the board. Quickly glancing through it, she answered, "The twenty fifth shinobi rule is that a shinobi must never show their tears." Iruka glared at her suspiciously, but finding no change in expression, moved on. Hinata guessed that he was slightly scared from her with her now emotionless face.

Like Hinata cared.

Later that afternoon, she worked on solidifying her water. She only managed to solidify one needle, which she tried picking up, delighted that the poison didn't work on her. That was something that she had discovered a while ago, actually, when she accidentally sprayed herself and waited for her immediate death and in effect, the death of Konoha. She was pleasantly surprised when she opened her eyes, and found herself, in fact, alive. Ninjutsu worked in mysterious ways, she had concluded.

To her surprise, she had mastered solidifying water, a mere two months after she had started trying. Hinata now realised that she was Jounin level. Maybe she was a genius, after all. Although she wasn't a genius at the Hyuuga clan style. It had to do more with her high affinity of water, that she hadn't dared to explore before. Yet, she still hadn't mastered Taijutsu properly, and to do that, she had to create her sword that would melt through anything it cut. So far, she could only aim her needles.

To practice Taijutsu, she needed a partner. And a powerful one, at that. Suddenly, Hinata remembered Yuuhi Kurenai, the person that would inevitably become her Jounin teacher. Hinata still remembered that day, before she had hardened her heart, when she heard that her father was abandoning her because of her lack of talent. Lack of talent, Hinata snickered to herself, finding it ironic. If he could only see her now!

But he couldn't. That would ruin the surprise for when it came, for when she needed to use her jutsu against him. And so, Hinata set off, in search of Kurenai.

After she had exited the forest, she had went straight to the Hokage, but to her fortune, she had spotted Kurenai when walking to the Hokage tower. Hinata had walked straight up to her, taking in her surprised expression. " Would you mind sparring with me?" Hinata asked, keeping her tone polite, and blank. Like usual. She was never rude, but her blankness usually got on peoples' nerves. Kurenai, however, seemed surprised at her rather 'sudden' proclamation.

Then to Hinata's displeasure, Kurenai declined. "I'm sorry." she said, blinking owlishly. "But maybe... when you're older, Hinata-chan." Hinata wanted to tell Kurenai to not use such a nick name as she pleased, but bit her tongue. She wouldn't have to deal with the woman very much in the future, anyway.

"Thank you for considering my proposal. Well, I shall look forward to the time when I'm older, Kurenai-san." Hinata avoided using honorific titles, but she felt she needed to, this time. "Well, I'll be on my way, then." She finished politely, and then immediately disappeared from the area, using her increased speed from training. She had, at one point, worn weights, after all. They were actually quite effective for strengthening muscles and such. She still sometimes wore them.

For the next couple of months, Hinata spent all her energy on creating a sword. Three dreadful months later, she had finally mastered the technique. She had created a beautiful toxic sword, one that was light weight, and a beautiful lilac colour. Like her poisoned water and kunai.

After she had created the sword, she had found the ultimate answer to her Taijutsu training. She could train against herself! But to do that, she needed to learn how to do Kage Bunshin. Oh well... on the other hand, she was graduating soon. Since her ninjutsu was all learnt, she now had a year to prepare herself with the taijutsu of it all.

All the training put aside, she almost never went home any more. She only went home to sleep. Only Hanabi noticed, and when she did, she would beg Hinata to play with her. Hinata rarely did, finding the need to train growing heavier and heavier as the days passed, and the day to her Chuunin exams neared. Despite rarely playing with her sister, when she did, she had prohibited playing hide and seek. Hanabi had whined and begged, but Hinata's decision stood firm. Who knows what other catastrophes would happen if she continued playing the game.

Her school life was a different story. She made herself to be neck to neck with Sasuke, not wanting to go above the Uchiha 'genius' unless somewhat noticed. She was noticed anyway, but not enough to get her moved up a class, which was good. She had no time for that, especially when she was learning how to create a shadow clone.

What baffled Hinata, was not her grades. It was the children. Before, Hinata was invisible; unnoticed. Now, Hinata was always swarmed with people around her, and jealous glares, which she all ignored. She couldn't concentrate on these people; these people who did not yet know the truth of the world, thinking that everything was all fun and games. It wasn't. Being a shinobi meant being a killer, and Hinata bet that only three or four people in the class understood what being a killer meant. It meant death. Destruction. Pain. Suffering.

What baffled Hinata even more, though, was something else. It was the fact that when she was invisible, she had always worn open expressions, always showed emotions, always behaved like a normal child. When she was an open box, no one bothered to see. It was as if she was invisible. Now, though, she had closed her box. Closed her heart. Now that her box was closed, everyone gathered around to see what was in it.

When she felt pain, when she felt suffering, when she showed that, nobody cared enough to see. Nobody cared about her. When she didn't show it, though, everyone wanted to see; everything wanted to see what was hidden.

Sometimes, Hinata wondered if children ever noticed how sadistic they truly were. They probably didn't understand how much they hurt others. They probably didn't care. Children were self centred, only caring about themselves. Hinata wondered if she was ever like that.

In the end, she really didn't care.

Being invisible, with its own pains, was a luxury. An important part of being shinobi. Something that Naruto was not. Hinata only then realised how little she'd been thinking about Naruto...

As she fingered her locket, yet again.

Sorry, no ItachiXHinata action! Are you sad? I'm sad. Well, anyway, the next chapter will be better. This chapter was crucial, however, to explain the story and how Hinata came to be and stuff. Do you like Hinata's technique? Poisoned water? It's awesome! If only she had learnt that and not the gentle fist! I might actually make her use that later in the story... but, uh, that's kind of like using the needles, isn't it? Whatever. Meh. Thanks to Airyo-chan, like always, and

Review, Review, Review!

Sincerely,

Aurora-chan!