Chapter 2: Her Encounter

Hinata knew she wasn't going to make any progress searching for him. She never did, except for that one time that was a fluke. Hinata quivered at the memory of encountering the Three Yaban in action, but if she could do it again, she would. She stepped back inside her small house and placed a kettle of hot water on the stove. 'Damn him! Why can't he live a normal life? Why does he have to do this? What if he doesn't come back this time? What if….' She felt something wet make its way down her cheek. This was unfair and cruel. She stopped to contemplate when he would be back: a week? A month? Half a year? A year?! There were times when he didn't come back for a year and this disturbed Hinata greatly. But she knew in her heart that he would be back and that his comrades would protect him. She smiled at the thought of Sasuke and Sakura; they were truly dependable ninjas. Hinata recalled her first time meeting them and laughed out loud to herself. She was genuinely thankful that the three of them had formed a partnership together at such a young age and protected each other in those dark times.

Back then, the days held nothing but hopelessness and despair. The Kages had gone mad with power and blood was shed everyday. It was taboo if anyone spoke ill of the Kages and villagers were decapitated because of it. Everyone was too frightened to function normally which led to a food shortage crisis, and the obstruction of our ability to learn. Ninjas were trained for the sole purpose of protecting the Kages and their reputation, punishing anyone who dare speak poorly of him. Hinata bit her lip as she thought of these harsh times, but soon her mind began to drift to a more pleasant time…. a time when she met the boy with whisker marks.

"Mommy! I'm going out to train!" Hinata ran her way to the door, quickly putting on her shoes. She was a mere eight years old, but the Kages have already acknowledged her power, and she was overjoyed about it. The Hyuga's were the finest class of ninja in the shinobi world and were heavily coveted by the Kages to be their protectors. They were treated like royalty and were given a large compound to train and use as their homes.

"Wait! Don't forget your lunch, Hinata!"

Hinata spun around and grabbed the bento box from her mothers extended hand. "Thanks!"

Hinata ran out the door, almost tripping on the porch mat. She darted out of the compound and followed the trail in the forest to the location where she personally liked to train. 'Ill show the Kages what I can do!' As she was running, she devised up her own resolve. 'Ill protect the Kages with my life!' 'Yes, yes that's a good resolve.' She thought proudly.

"Ooof!" Hinata's body came into contact with something hard. She fell to the ground, her eyes blurry from almost being knocked out.

"Hey, watch where you're going, will ya dattebayo!"

Her eyes adjusted to a small boy with dirty blonde hair dusting her shorts off. 'She must have ran into his back. How embarrassing.'

"I-I-I apologize! Are you alright?"

The boy turned around, his blue eyes coming into contact with her lavender, opaque ones. She noticed he had three lines one each cheek, giving him a whiskered look. 'Interesting!'

"I'm fine, are you okay?" The boy held out his hand to help Hinata up. She observed his figure as she clasped his hand and rose from the ground. He was fatigued and dirty; his body was gangly and his cheeks were sunken in. 'What happened to him?'

"Well, I'll just get going now…" Hinata watched as the boy made a dash for the forest.

"Wait!" She had questions to ask him!

The boy stopped and turned around, "What?" He looked wary, as if she was going to all of sudden attack him.

"Err, uh, y-you look hungry, here!" She closed her eyes and bowed her head, holding the bento box out in front of her.

"Huh?!.."

"Please, take it!" She tilted her head up to look at the boy. He had a dumbfounded look on his face, like no one has ever offered him anything before. His eyes flickered with desire, but he immediately put his head down and spoke with an iciness that startled Hinata.

"Don't give away things that someone special made for you." His lips turned into a sad smile, "Besides, they wouldn't want you to give that to me anyway."

Without another word, he left. Hinata sat at the compound thinking about the boy. 'What was he doing now?' She stared at her bento box, 'what did he mean by "they wouldn't want you to give that me anyway?"' He intrigued her and she wanted to know more. She woke up the next day with a mission, 'I'm going to talk to him again!' She grabbed her training gear and hastily put it on.

"Bye, mom!"

"Your lunch, Hinata!"

"Not hungry! I'll eat it when I get back." If that boy wasn't going to eat then she sure as hell wasn't going to eat in front of him. She made her way out of the compound faster than usual and took the trail in the woods where she met the boy. She made it to the spot she ran into him and looked around. 'He's not here.' She sat on a log and decided to wait. After an hour went by she got bored and decided to practice her Gentle Step Twin Lion Fists. She clouded both her fists in chakra and changed its shape to create two lion heads. Before she had a chance to generate the size she wanted, it dispersed and sent her flying backwards. "Ugh!"

"That was amazing!"

Hinata jumped to her feet as the blonde haired kid came out of the bushes. 'It's him!'

The boy had a curious gleam in his eye and pointed at Hinata's hands.

"How did you do that, dattebayo?"

"I-I-Its unique to my clan, I don't think its something you would be able to do."

The boy put his hands on the back of his head and started sulking, "Awwww man."

"I'm sure you're quite strong in your own way!" She said trying to make him feel better. The boy replaced his sulky face with that of a wide grin.

"You're right, I'm super strong! I know lots of techniques!" The boy said with a matter of fact tone. "In fact, I'm as strong as a Kage, dattebayo!"

Hinata giggled, this boy was confident alright. She suddenly thought of a brilliant idea, "D-Do you want to train with me?"

The boy was stunned by her words. He simply stared at her and pondered. "Well, I suppose so…"

Hinata had sweat dripping down her forehead. They had been training for six hours together with no breaks. Suddenly her stomach growled.

"Hey, lets take a break. I know you're hungry." The boy said as he fell to the ground to rest. "You're strong!"

"Thank you! Y-You are too!"

Hinata went to grab her lunch when she remembered she didn't bring it. "Err, I'm not hungry! What about you? What are you going to eat?" She genuinely wanted to know where he was getting his food source if any.

"I'll be fine." He snapped. "Don't worry about me. But you need to get home and eat. We are done for today." Just as he was turning to leave Hinata grabbed his shoulder. She was blushing at her sudden boldness, but she wanted to confirm something.

"T-T-Tomorrow, will I see you tomorrow?"

The boy gave a cheeky smirk, "Sure!" He continued to walk down the path, but Hinata stopped him again.

"What is your name?"

The boy didn't stop walking, but held up a hand and waved, "Uzumaki, Naruto! And yours!?"

"Hyuga, Hinata!" She shouted as his figure disappeared.

Hinata woke up the next morning feeling excited and refreshed. She caught her mom in the kitchen making her lunch. "Mom, I'll make my own lunch today." Her mother stared at her in confusion and sighed.

"Sure, honey. But don't overexert yourself today, you looked exhausted yesterday when you came back."

Hinata had already run up the stairs by the time her mother had finished her speech. 'I need to hurry!' She had her training gear on and down the stairs by the time her mother walked out of the kitchen. Hinata didn't want her mother to know that she was making two lunches. She briskly packed up her two-bento boxes and made her way out of the compound and onto the trail.

"Yo, Hinata."

"N-Naruto!"

They trained for another six hours, but time went too fast in Hinata's opinion. She was fond of Naruto and had great deal of fun with him. While lost in her thoughts, her stomach growled.

"Did you bring a lunch today?" Naruto said as he collapsed to the ground again. Hinata blushed.

"Well, I actually made you a lunch too…"

She snuck a glance at Naruto on the ground and was taken-aback by what she saw. His eyes were glazed over and he was biting his lips to hold back his snivels. He turned his head so that she couldn't see his face, but his body was trembling.

"I'm sorry! D-Did I do something wrong?"

Naruto finally composed himself and turned to look at Hinata, his cobalt eyes showing a profound respect towards her. "You can do nothing wrong." He whispered. "Thank you, Hinata!"

They continued to train everyday together and became best friends. Months had gone by and they carried on their daily training ritual. Hinata was naïve to believe it would last. She got a cruel taste of reality when he did not show up one day, or the next, or the next. Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months and on one not so very special day four years later, she saw him again.

"Yo, Hinata."