Chapter 5: Depth of Field

"So are you going to do it?" Ino asked Naruto as they sat inside the taxi.

This morning, when they'd been getting ready, he'd told her about his conversation with Sasuke and how he wasn't sure whether this competition was worth his time and whether this was something he wanted to do.

Now that he'd heard all about it, though, his interest was piqued. It would only take a few days out of the year, which he could easily schedule around the current work he was already contracted for. Plus, it would definitely be good exposure even if he never made the final cut.

Naruto suddenly thought of the woman with the turtleneck. No question that she was. That eager anticipation, that fire of enthusiasm running through her veins was so obvious, he knew Hinata Hyuuga was already booking her tickets for the next stage of the competition.

If she was going to do it, then he might meet her again—if he decided to do it.

And for some reason he couldn't understand, he very much wanted to see her again.

Naruto suddenly made a decision.

He looked at Ino and smiled. "Yes. I think I might."

"Oh!" she cried and hugged him. "I'm so glad! I can't wait to tell Sai. I know he's going to support you. We're both going to root for you to win everything."

"Thanks, Ino."

"Isn't it awesome, though? I think it's so exciting to do this!"

"Yeah, I'm actually very glad you got us through those doors."

She laughed, and Naruto responded with an absentminded pat on her arm as he gazed at her happy face, her green eyes shining with pride.

Your girl.

He still couldn't believe he'd blushed when Hinata Hyuuga had made that mistaken belief about the two of them. He didn't blame her because everyone did.

But the truth was, Ino wasn't his girl. She was Sai's—and the two were in a secret long-distance relationship that Ino wanted to constantly involve him in even though it wasn't any business of his.

Naruto inwardly sighed.

This relationship with Ino was purely platonic, sometimes useful, but completely irksome. He'd developed a friendship with her when he'd returned back to Japan after his stint abroad. She'd been rising in her modeling career, constantly in demand for magazine covers in addition to walking the runway. Because her modeling agency was one of his biggest clients, he'd often spent a lot of time working with her and her agency's other models.

Unbeknownst to the public, though, she'd been in a relationship with Sai, her high-school sweetheart, this entire time. But her manager, in charge of Ino's public image, didn't want anyone to know about that relationship.

Naruto didn't understand the thinking behind keeping their relationship secret. Privately, he thought that the image of Ino having a stable partner would do more to boost her career than playing this ambiguous is-she-or-is-she-not-taken game in public.

And his frustration with this whole thing was partly because everyone assumed that he, Naruto Uzumaki, was her rumored lover.

He hated it, but on some level, he could understand it. Because of his pedigree, he knew that the mystery of their relationship would only help Ino's career. It seemed more exciting to have her name linked to the son of Tokyo's governor instead of a relatively unknown banker named Sai.

Originally, he hadn't minded being so blatantly used for his name. He genuinely loved Ino like a younger sister, and he wanted her to succeed. Only a few people, mostly the Uchihas and his own family, knew the secret that they weren't in a relationship. He'd asked them to keep quiet about their friendship, and they'd all agreed, albeit reluctantly. She, meanwhile, often had to field some of Sai's angry calls and texts.

He'd met Sai before, and Naruto liked the steady influence he had on the slightly flighty Ino. Currently, Sai was in London working for one of the largest banks in the world. Recently, he'd been hinting more heavily to Ino that he would love for her to join him there.

But Ino loved her career, too, and had been waffling over the decision for years now—which was why she was constantly hounding Naruto for advice on what to do.

Each time, his answer had been the same. He always encouraged her to give it a try just once, to leave Japan and try her hand at living abroad.

And each time, Ino would ignore his advice and stubbornly stay put in Tokyo because this was where her career was based.

But then she would end up frustrated with herself, with the whole situation, crying over his shoulders and using his apartment like it was her second home. Because he lived in central Tokyo in Shibuya, his apartment was conveniently located where she worked. Anytime she missed the train after her long hours, she'd often stop and sleep on his couch instead of taking the more expensive option of riding a taxi back to her home.

Which was annoying as hell, but still, Naruto allowed it because he was grateful that his fake relationship with Ino prevented other women from approaching him. The couple times women had asked him out, he'd mumbled something vague about Ino, and they'd backed off, believing those unconfirmed rumors. He knew it was a cowardly thing to do, but it was still easier than having to deal with messy rejections against women whose feelings he could never reciprocate.

But for the first time, today, he suddenly didn't feel like he needed the cover of his fake relationship with Ino anymore. For some reason, he suddenly wanted it to be known that he was single, unattached, and available.

"Right. So Ino, since I'm going to be joining this competition, that means I'm going to be busy and won't be as available as before."

She pouted, but then nodded and accepted his decision. "Yeah, I understand. You need to concentrate on winning this competition. Okay, you got it. I won't be coming over to your place as often as I normally would then."

"I hope so! You keep eating all my food!"

But then he laughed when she playfully smacked him on the chest. "Jerk!"

"Just kidding!"

She smiled but then brought out a mirror so she could check her makeup and hair. They were on their way to her agency for her next job. From there, he was going to take the subway on his way to his office.

"By the way, who was that woman you were talking to, Naruto? She's another photographer, right?"

He nodded. "Yes, she is. Her name's Hinata Hyuuga."

She tilted her head. "That name sounds familiar."

She reached for her phone and typed in the name in the Google search bar. Then she gasped. "Oh, my god! I remember now! She's the one who got mauled by that lion a few years ago!"

He looked over and when she showed her phone to him.

The article was dated three years ago, and the picture of a pretty young woman with lavender eyes and short dark hair stared at him.

She looked different from the woman he saw today and he realized that the photo the paper had used in the article was from her press badge, probably taken when she'd started in this business.

"She looks different here," Ino said as she enlarged the photo.

"Yeah, she does."

"This article says the lion had her neck in its throat and was about to crush her when a hunter got to them in time." She looked up at him and placed a hand on her throat. Ino shuddered. "God, I can't imagine it. Thank goodness she survived!"

She clicked on another link that took her to another article, this time showing Hinata Hyuuga at a press conference standing next to an older man with fierce features and balding gray hair. She was holding some kind of award, a slender crystal sculpture shaped like a tree. Naruto peered at the caption below the photo and saw that the older gentleman was Hiruzen Sarutobi, philanthropist and founder of Sarutobi Industries.

But their taxi was pulling up to the curb, causing Ino to slip her phone back into her bag. She then took out some cash from her wallet to pay the driver.

I'm going to have to do some research on my competition later, Naruto thought as he stepped out of the taxi. He needed to see what kind of photographer Hinata Hyuuga was.

"See you around?" Ino asked.

Naruto nodded, patted her on the arm one last time before he turned around and headed for the subway. His phone vibrated and he looked at the incoming text.

His tech lady was at his office waiting for him.

Hinata shifted through the crowd in the station as she shouldered her way past maybe the hundredth beige-coated passenger of the day. Right, she thought to herself. It was trench-coat season, which meant that everyone had broken out their spring attire, the reason why almost everyone seemed to be dressed similarly.

She shivered in her long-sleeved turtleneck, glad that she'd worn the extra layer underneath it to give her some extra protection from the cold.

But when she stepped out of the train, she had to wind her way past the army of black-suited job seekers who were also on their way home.

She walked through her neighborhood, these streets of Kamata, an area deemed dangerous by most Tokyoites. But that was all before the arrival of Haneda Airport. These days, her hometown had been transformed into a lively and bustling neighborhood. Part of Oda-ku, Kamata was a chaotic mess of narrow streets, tightly packed residential buildings, and vibrant shopping areas. The restaurants in the area also fed the blue-collar workers who often met after hours and shared boisterous laughter over nomihodai, the all-you-can-drink menu of cheap beer and cocktails.

Hinata walked through the covered market streets and debated whether to pick up a small omiyage for her sister. The throbbing ache in her shoulder, however, made her change her mind. She stepped up her pace and headed for home.

The ride up the elevator took Hinata to their modest apartment unit in a building so old, it was approaching another renovation for earthquake-proofing.

Hanabi's and her father's shoes were neatly lined up in the entrance way. She took off her shoes without bothering to arrange them.

"I'm home!" she called out.

Hanabi poked her head out from the kitchen. "Nee-chan! Okaeri!"

Hinata took off her jacket and hung it up in the closet. "No Neji yet?"

"Not yet, but he sent a text saying he'll be home not so late tonight. He said he might even make it in time for dinner."

"Nice! What about Tou-chan?"

"He's taking a nap. I ran the bath for everyone, so if you want to go in ahead, it's ready for you."

"Do you need help with dinner?"

"Already on it! I just need to get this salad mixed and for the rice to get done cooking."

"I'm sorry, Hanabi. I really need a bath right now, but I'll help with the salad later."

Hanabi laughed. "No worries, Nee-chan. Take your time. I got all my studying done early today so I had all the time in the world to get dinner done."

Hinata sat in the tub, happy to get away from dinner duties. She was so glad that Hanabi was so much better at these domestic things than she was. She didn't mind being constantly teased by her younger sister and Neji about her lack of cooking skills. These days, boiling hot water and pouring it into a cup of instant ramen was the best she could do, but at least it got her out of doing those chores.

She sank into the bath and let the hot water relax her tense muscles, closed her eyes, and leaned her head back against the wall, rubbing at the spot that often pained her, the chords of the neck right above her left collarbone. On last inspection, the scars seemed fainter compared to how they'd looked in the beginning.

She must have slept in the bath because she suddenly heard Neji's and her father's faint voices coming from the dining room and it was confirmed when Hanabi abruptly knocked on the bathroom door.

"Nee-chan! You've been in there for forty minutes. We're about to eat!"

Hinata quickly toweled off, changed, and joined everyone for dinner.

"How'd the info session go today?" Neji immediately asked when she took her seat at the table.

"Good! And I don't think I'm bragging when I say I've got this competition in the bag."

"Nice!" Hanabi said as she passed everyone their chopsticks. When she was done, she checked her phone on the table after it had pinged with an alert.

Hiashi looked at Hanabi's bowed head and calmly said, "You know the rules, Hanabi. It's family time. No phones at the dinner table, please."

"One sec, Tou-chan," she responded. "I'm just going to send this text to Moegi and then I'm putting it away."

He nodded when she did as promised, then smiled at Hinata. "I'm glad it went well today, but aren't you jumping the gun a bit?"

Hinata paused from taking a sip of her miso soup and then laughed. "Yeah, maybe. I think there's one photographer who I can consider a real rival, though."

"Yeah?" Hanabi asked, accepting her cha-wan, the bowl of rice Neji had filled and passed to her.

"Naruto Uzumaki."

Hanabi's jaw dropped. "The governor's son? But he works mostly in fashion? What's he doing getting involved with this kind of stuff?"

Hinata shrugged in reply and then munched on the pickled daikon flavored with ume sauce.

"Holy shit!" Hanabi exclaimed when she thought of something. "I think he did the Balenciaga shoot for Vogue Japan just a couple months ago!"

She abruptly got up and went to the living room, where she grabbed a magazine and flipped through the pages. She squealed when she found what she was looking for and ran back to the dining room with the magazine open to the page.

"Yeah, see!" She pointed to the byline. Photos by Naruto Uzumaki.

"That's quite impressive," Hiashi said, but his tone was puzzled because he was unsure of what he was supposed to be impressed about as he gazed at the photos of strange, but expensive clothing on unrealistically tall, perfect women. Besides, he was hardly the person who knew about these artsy-fartsy things that his daughters were involved in. He was a simple man who worked as a supervisor at one of the local factories that produced electronic goods.

He looked at Neji, his only ally in this house ruled by the girls, who glanced back at him with the same glazed expression on his face. His eyes were rolling back with boredom as Hanabi droned on and on about the latest clothing trends as she described what the women were wearing.

"Neji!" Hinata laughed at the comical expression on her brother's face. Hanabi saw it, too, and reached over with a fist.

"I'm just kidding, Hanabi!" he said as he dodged a blow from her. "You know I find these things super boring."

Hinata pressed her lips together because she was of the same opinion. She would rather face a pack of vicious spotted hyenas under the heat of the desert sun than deal with a bunch of models on a runway.

Hanabi sighed, hating the fact that she grew up in a family of uncultured swines. But she laughed and shook her head at them. It wasn't their fault that they weren't interested in fashion. Besides, if she were being honest, her interest wasn't that deep, either, but she still tried to keep up with some of the latest styles.

"Anyway, tell us! What was he like?" she suddenly asked her older sister.

Nice.

It was the first thought that popped into her head, remembering the concern in his blue eyes when he'd try to help her earlier today. Hinata, though, withheld that information from her family.

"Tall and beautiful, just like his usual subjects," she answered truthfully as she took a swig of her beer, popped a kara-age into her mouth and said, "Wait, Hanabi, did you put yuzu in this chicken?"

Hanabi nodded impatiently. "Yes."

"It's heavenly! I love it!"

"Never mind that, tell me more about Naruto Uzumaki!"

Hinata chewed on her citrus-flavored chicken, but she continued speaking. "He seemed kind of distant, looked a bit uncomfortable to be at the info session, honestly. But what do you expect from someone who grew up with so much privilege? And he showed up with that model. What's her name? Ino something. There was that little bit of news about her a few weeks ago."

"Ino Yamanaka!"

"Is that her name?"

"Yes."

"Oh." Hinata shrugged and went back to her food, enjoying the fluffy rice that her sister cooked to perfection.

"But that's really cool, though, that he's joining this competition." Then Hanabi banged a hand on the table when she suddenly realized something. "Nee-chan! You might run into him again. I want to meet him—if you can ever pull that off."

Hinata squinted at her sister. She didn't particularly want to do that. Frankly, the less she ran into him, the better. "Yeah, don't hope too much, Hanabi. I really doubt that. I'm not sure he's even interested in doing this competition? He seems a little bit out of his element with this kind of thing. I mean, he'll be required to hobnob with regular people, commoners." She looked briefly at the magazine spread of beautiful models and then brought her gaze back to Hanabi. "I doubt he knows how to deal with ordinary folk since he grew up so rich."

"Not for the photography and the fashion stuff," Hanabi clarified. "I'd love to meet him and maybe get a chance to talk about his mother."

Hinata winced. How stupid of her to forget! Hanabi was in her final year of university and was gearing up to take the civil service exam at the end of the year. Right now, she was also searching for jobs in the local government. She was also debating whether to go into politics in the future.

For her sister, she would do whatever she could. "Okay, Hanabi, if I ever get the chance to talk to him, I'll see what I can do."

Because Hinata knew that connections mattered. She herself had benefited from help from others. The best way to assure Hanabi's success in the future was to try to establish connections with someone in the community who had a lot of influence and name recognition. And unfortunately, the Hyuugas being a regular working-class family, had none of that.

Her father was a plant supervisor, yes, but his influence only extended to their local neighborhood. Everyone knew Hiashi as the guy to ask for digital gadgets. In fact, Hinata owed her interest in photography to her father's job. Because he was able to get samples and prototypes from the factory, Hiashi had given her her first digital camera when she'd been in her teens. She'd learned to use the camera and taught herself to take pictures, fine-tuning the design elements that gave her her own unique style.

Neji, meanwhile, worked in construction. Granted, his role as an engineer had more to do with planning and drafting the structures than actually physically laboring to build them, it still didn't mean that Hanabi would be guaranteed the job of her dreams.

And Hinata's one trump card, her connections with the powerful Sarutobi family were currently in shambles because she'd been too pushy with Hiruzen's grandson.

A few months ago, she'd met with him, and Hinata still inwardly cringed to remember how she'd acted with him. Konohamaru was newly appointed as Chief Marketing Strategist of Sarutobi Industries, while his grandfather had announced his official retirement to his employees. However, he'd still stayed on unofficially as a consultant. Konohamaru had been suspicious of her relationship with her grandfather and had requested a meeting. Hinata, too, had wanted to meet Sarutobi's grandson because she was curious to meet the future CEO of the company.

Seeing the polished and handsome young man made Hinata realize that he was perfect for her younger sister. He was only a few years older than Hanabi.

But Hinata had blown it when, in her excitement, she'd put her foot in her mouth and lost all her sense of reason when she interrogated him.

"Are you single?" she suddenly blurted in the middle of the meeting.

He frowned at her, his blue eyes squinting with disapproval. "Excuse me?"

"Are you single?" she asked the question again.

Sensing she wasn't going to give up until she got her answer, he answered her very impertinent question. "I'm involved with someone already."

"How long?"

"We've been together for two months."

She shook her head. "You can forget about her because it won't last."

"The hell you say!"

She shrugged when realized her mistake. She mustn't make him angry and belatedly beamed at him with her best smile. "I'm just trying to be charming."

He snorted, obviously disagreeing with her.

"Your grandfather thinks I'm endearing."

"Well, I don't."

But Hinata ignored everything else and became laser-focused again. "Whatever! But I don't really care about your opinion about me."

His mouth remained open in shock at her gall.

She pressed on. "Indulge me, anyway."

He glanced at the door pointedly. "You probably should leave."

She ignored it. "Do you think I'm pretty?" she suddenly asked.

"I'm not going to answer that!"

"Because if you think I'm pretty, my younger sister's even prettier," she responded breathlessly because he was already standing up and was approaching her with a glare in his eyes, clearly intent to send her out the door. "She's the beauty in the family."

But before she could launch into a more glowing account of Hanabi's assets, he'd abruptly kicked her out, warning her to never contact any of his family again.

Hinata quickly shoveled more food into her mouth to hide her chagrin, almost choking with embarrassment because she was pretty sure she'd ruined her sister's future. She looked guiltily at Hanabi and vowed that she would find a way to help her sister out.

She would never reveal that conversation to her sister because it would only embarrass everyone. But hopefully, someday, Konohamaru Sarutobi would forgive her and eventually see the merit in meeting with her baby sister.

Oh, she really hoped she could make it up to Hanabi in the future.

Hinata looked at Neji with a fond gleam in her eyes. At least he was there, their adopted older brother. His steady influence on everyone, especially on herself, would at least help Hanabi in the future because he never allowed anyone to slack off and stray from the correct path.

Neji had been orphaned by the car crash that killed his parents. Since they were his only family, Hiashi had legally adopted Neji, his younger twin's son, without any hesitation, and the sisters had treated him as an older brother since then.

Neji had originally wanted to express his gratitude to his adopted family by attempting to get a job in the medical field so that he could earn enough money to help support the family. But Hiashi had put a stop to that, encouraging Neji to put aside his feelings of obligation to instead pursue what he'd always wanted to do, which was to go into engineering and building bridges.

The family had splurged on a celebratory dinner when Neji had gotten his current job at his dream company. Hinata had taken the photo that commemorated that event. It was proudly displayed on the shelf next to the butsudan, the small Japanese altar in honor of Neji's parents.

Hinata glanced at it before she brought her attention back to her sister, who was talking with Neji about the hanami picnic she had with her friends Moegi and Udon yesterday.

"The cherry blossoms at Yoyogi park were so beautiful! Too bad it got really windy, though, and the petals kept blowing all over our lunch." She grinned at him. "I found a couple of those petals in my bag this morning before I went to school."

Hinata frowned. "Hanabi, you've barely touched your food."

Hanabi looked down at her plate and realized her chicken and rice were cooling. "Oh, right." She took a bite before turning to her older sister, bringing it back to their earlier conversation about the contest.

"Which festivals will the competition focus on again?"

Hinata kept chewing, but she relayed the information. "Tenjin, Gion, Nebuta, Awa-Odori, and the Nagasaki Lantern Festival in the fall." She nodded her thanks at her father when he poured more beer into her glass. "Photos can be anything, they said. We have complete freedom in choosing whatever we want to capture to showcase our styles and our skills."

"Ooh, that's really broad!" Hanabi exclaimed. "But I love that it involves a lot of traveling. First there's Osaka and Kyoto. Then up north to Aomori. Plus, the two trips to Shikoku and then Kyushu." She munched on her food then reached for the salad so she could grab some more. "Isn't that awesome, Nee-chan? It'll be like before, when you were out doing wildlife photography."

A brief, but awkward silence followed the reference to Hinata's former life—the one before her accident, when she'd been jet-setting around the world taking photos. Neji and Hiashi paused in between bites, both quicker than Hanabi to realize it. But she looked stricken when she realized what she'd thoughtlessly blurted out.

Hinata, though, ignored it and waved the issue away with a nonchalant flicker of her hands. "Pretty much!" She reached over and grabbed some more food. "I'm actually excited to travel again, but I need to book my tickets and hotel soon. The Tenjin Festival in Osaka is in a month. I hope there are still some available rooms."

"If you and Kiba can't work it out, let me know," Neji jumped in quickly. "I'll see if I can get a discount through my company account."

Hinata beamed at him. "Thanks, Neji!"

Relieved that her sister had brushed away her blunder, Hanabi offered, "If you're going to be away shooting these festivals, do you need me to help out at the studio?"

"Yes, please, Hanabi. Kiba has all the details and you can check with him about the schedule. After the info session, I called him and we went over how to divide the work that has to be done."

Neji frowned. "Hanabi, if you're going to do that, make sure you watch yourself around Jiraiya."

Hanabi smiled. "You know he's perfectly harmless! I can probably kick his ass if he tries anything."

They all laughed.

Hinata beamed at all of them, loving the support they continually gave her. "You guys know I enjoy working with my customers at the studio, but man, it feels good to be doing something else on top of all that. I'm so excited to be working on this project."

Her family looked at her, happy to see the old Hinata returning, the one blazing with fire and eagerness again.

"I mean, not to be overconfident, but it's festivals, which means action shots." She lifted her beer glass in the air and raised an eyebrow knowingly. "And who do you know kicks so much ass at taking photos of moving things?"

They smiled back at her.

Neji nodded, his voice filled with expectation. "Good luck, Hinata. I really hope you win this."

"Whatever happens, Hinata. We'll be proud of you," Hiashi said.

Hanabi suddenly raised a hand in the air and yelled, "Hyuuga Huddle!"

It was their quirky little family habit to signal that whoever was speaking was making an important announcement. Every Hyuuga on sight had to hear out what was being said without interruptions. It didn't matter who was doing it, where everyone was, and what the situation was, everyone had to stop and really listen to the speaker.

Everyone at the table placed their chopsticks on the table, looked at Hanabi, and gave her their full attention.

She grinned at all of them. "I just want to say that Nee-chan, you're going to win this for sure!"

Hinata laughed. "Cheers to that!"

Everyone picked up their respective glasses and toasted her, hoping for her success.