Chapter 9

The sun begin to rise on the horizon and shines on the village hidden in the leaves. The sunlight shines in the room of a certain Hyuga, causing her to wake. Hinata sits up and yawns, rubbing her eyes, she gets out of bed and opens the curtains, bringing more of the sunlight into her room.

It's been almost a week since we came back to the village Hinata turns to her drawer and picks up a frame with the photo of her and the rest of the team. She stared at the images of her teammates and sensei and sighs They fought so hard on the last mission while I did nothing. She thought back to how Sasuke and Naruto worked together during the first battle with Zabuza and their teamwork with Haku and how Kakashi fought against Zabuza.

Hinata's hands were shaking at the memories of her uselessness I...I did nothing, her thought turn to the image of Sasuke laying in her arms in a temporary state of death, I know he is ok now but...m-maybe if I had helped...that wouldn't have happened. That was most unbearable thing she has encountered in her whole life, to have her teammate, her friend, the person who had cheered her up and put a smile on her face dead. She notice drops of water landing on the photo and touched her face, it felt wet

Hinata was crying and she didn't realize it. She wiped away the tears away and looked at the photo again with a determine look on her face. "I will get strong" she said putting down the frame. I never want us to go through that again, I will improve and protect those who are dear to me. She went and showered, dress herself, leaving her sweat on the bed and left her room.

She went Into the kitchen and started making breakfast for her father, Hiashi, and sister, Hanabi, like she does most mornings. Hinata looked at the time and knew that by the time they would come for breakfast, the food would still be nice and hot. So she place the plates of food on the table and covered them with plastic, place the chopsticks on the side and left the kitchen.

For a while, Hinata was training herself, practicing her strikes and chakra control. She was so focused on her training, she almost didn't know she was being watched. Hinata turned and saw her father staring at her with this blank expression on his face.

"O-Oh good morning, father" Hinata said as she bowed

Hiashi didn't greet her instead continues to stare blankly at his daughter, which made her uncomfortable. Finally, he spoke "Have you prepared breakfast like you should?"

Hinata straighten up and nods "Y-Yes father, I-I even wrapped it in plastic so it would stay w-warm"

Hiashi nods "Good" he said before turning his back to leave "I want you out of this area by the time I come back. I plan to train Hanabi in this area today"

Hinata looked at her father's back then at the ground, clutching her hands on her sides "F-Father, may I p-please join y-you and Hanabi o-or at least observe?" She asked timidly

Hiashi didn't turn to look at her "My focus will entirely be on Hanabi not on you and having you there will cause your sister to lose focus, my answer is no"

Hinata's hands trembled in keeping her emotions hidden but kept pushing keeping her voice from cracking "E-Even so, I am s-still your daughter, s-shouldn't be f-focusing on both of us?"

Hiashi was a bit surprised that Hinata just talk back to him, normally she would just accept his decision and leave in it at that. His shock went quickly as it came and turned enough to look back at his daughter "I don't have the time nor the patience to train someone who is a lost cause" with that said, he walked away.

After her father left, Hinata stood in the same spot, looking at the ground, disheartened. She knew it was pointless to convince her father that she could be more than what he thinks but she wanted to try I...should have never asked

Not wanting to be in the way, Hinata decided to the training area where she and the others did their survival exercise. She went back to her room, prepared her ninja pouch, put on her white hooded sweat and left.

As soon as Hinata got there, she began her own training. First began with her accuracy, she place a target on the wooded pole Naruto was tied to during their exercise and began throwing shuriken and kunai knifes at it.

After spending some time practicing her accuracy, Hinata stopped and looked at her worked. When she first started a few of them streaked the wooded pole but as time she got most of them on the target. I improved in my accuracy but..it was not enough she thought to herself. She may have hit the target but she didn't hit the midpoint of it.

Hinata took down the target and put away the ninja weapons she was practicing with. She continues her training by striking the wooden poles repeatedly with her palms to improve both her taijutsu and ninjutsu.

As she kept hitting the pole, her thoughts went back on her last mission, as she remembered how useless she was on the mission, she began to tear up and the amount of force she was putting into her attacks lessened I couldn't do anything...Her thoughts went to the battle on the bridge I only stood there and watched, I..did nothing to help. When her thoughts finally went to what happened earlier today, her attacks just stopped and she began to sob hard with her tears running down her face. She leaned against the pole and slide down on it, sitting on the ground, hugging her knees to her chest and continued to cry "A-Am I really a lost cause?" She asked herself

"No, you're not" a voice said

Hinata looks up and her eyes widen as she saw it was Sasuke standing a few feet away from her with his hands in his pocket, a bag around his wrist, looking at her with a concern expression on his face "S-Sasuke? W-What are you doing here?" She asked as she wiped her tears away

"I could ask you the same question" he said as he sat against the another pole.

Hinata was about to speak again when she caught a sweet scent in the air Oh that smells so good..it smells like cinnamon. As she inhaled the scent, her stomach growled loud enough for Sasuke to hear. Hinata quickly turned her back to him, her face red with embarrassment "S-Sorry!"

It's already way passed lunch, she must have missed it Sasuke thought as he search through the bag and pulls out a smaller bag "Here, Hinata"

Hinata timidly turns and sees Sasuke handing her the small bag "H-Huh?"

"You missed lunch right? So here eat this"

"O-Oh I c-couldn't! I-it's yours, p-please don't w-worry about me"

Sasuke narrowed his eyes a bit and put it the bag in her hand "Look it's ok, think of it as a thank you for giving me those crackers and water during our tree climbing training"

Hinata looked at the bag and back at Sasuke "Y-You sure?"

Sasuke nods "Besides I think you'll enjoy it way more than I would have. I just wanted to see if I would like it or not"

Hinata looked confused for a moment but she felt the bag in her hands was a bit warm and that cinnamon smell was coming from it. Is that...? She eagerly opens the bag and sees there was a freshly baked cinnamon bum with icing in it. "Thank you so much, Sasuke!" She said, then began to eat.

It's a good thing I brought that, she looks happy now Sasuke thought as he watched Hinata happily enjoy her treat.

As she was enjoying her bun, Hinata decided to start a conversation "S-So what are you doing here, S-Sasuke?"

"To be honest, I didn't plan on coming here today" He said

Hinata stopped eating and looked at him "Really?" She saw him nod "T-Then why are you here?" Then she saw this gloomy, annoyed look on Sasuke's face with the some aura coming off him. The last time I saw him like this was when it had something to do with Sakura

"I'm hiding from Sakura" he answered

I knew it.. Hinata thought as a sweat dropped from her "W-What happened?"

Sasuke put his hands behind his head, leaning against the pole " I woke up early this morning to run some errands, around noon I was half way through with them when I saw Sakura coming my way. I knew she would either ask to hang out, go on a date, or try to change my mind on her switching teams with you, so I turned the other way hoping she wouldn't see me"

"And i-it didn't work, right?"

Sasuke sighed "Yeah, to make a long story short, she saw me and have been chasing me since then, I finally lost her just a few minutes ago. So I decide to come here and wait until she gave up" Then he turn his sight on Hinata "I didn't expect to find you here crying"

Hinata looked at her half-eaten bun, blushing embarrassed at Sasuke saw her like that "I-I'm sorry you saw that"

Sasuke shook his head "Don't be sorry, like you said we're human, we need to let out our feelings. So what happened Hinata?"

Hinata eyes were covered by her bangs as she shook her head, refusing to tell him what's wrong.

Sasuke saw this and straighten himself, he reached out and held Hinata's hands in his. Hinata's eyes widen and her face felt warm as she felt his hand in hers and looked at Sasuke

"Hinata remember you told me that if I needed to vent, I could alway come to you?"

She nods and her cheeks felt warmer

Gripping her hand a bit in his, Sasuke smiles "Well the same goes for you, if you need to vent Hinata, you can alway come to me"

Hinata was in tears, she was so happy that she had someone to turn to when she was feeling upset. Wiping her tears, she smiled "T-Thank you, S-Sasuke. Thank you s-so much"

Sasuke nodded "So you still want to keep what happened to yourself?"

Hinata felt conflicted, she wanted to tell Sasuke what happened but she knew that would cause trouble. I want to, I really do but I don't want trouble. She looked at him, deciding to tell him the second thing she was crying about "I-I was thinking about o-our last mission, a-about how useless I-I was through e-everything" she said as she teared up again

Sasuke give her a surprised look "What made you think you were useless? Hinata you had a job to do and you did it"

"Sasuke, w-what exactly did I-I do? Throughout the e-entire mission, all the b-battles that we fought, I wasn't a-apart of them."

"Hinata.."

"With the demon b-brothers, it was all y-you and sensei, our first b-battle with Zabuza as well a-as our last battle w-with him and Haku, it was all you, Naruto and s-sensei. I didn't f-fight, all I did w-was stand there and watched as m-my team w-was fighting f-for their l-lives!" Hinata said loudly as tears began to fall again

Sasuke stared at Hinata as she cried and felt guilty for pushing her to say what was wrong but was glad he did because he got his answer but he strongly disagreed with it. You're not useless Hinata "You are important to this team, Hinata" You're important to me

Hinata looked up at him with tearful eyes "B-But I.."

"No buts" Sasuke said shaking his head "You are important and you have skills that benefit the team."

Hinata looked at the ground, tears still falling but less than before "You're j-just saying that"

"I wouldn't waste my time saying something that isn't true"

"But how a-am I.."

"For starters, during the survival exercise, you were the only one who didn't fall into Kakashi's traps and you knew exactly what he wanted from us."

"T-That was just practice, n-not real life"

"Which shows that me and the loser were not ready for situations like that but you were. After all you were the only one Kakashi praised"

"I-I guess so"

"Also you're very observant Hinata, right away you can see if something is not right or out of place. Like when you saw through Naruto's transformation of me, and during mission to the Land of Waves, you noticed right away the puddle and the rabbit. That kind of observation is very luck to have, you have the sharpest eyes on this team"

Hinata blushed at the praise Sasuke gave her and was starting to feel a little better about herself as he pointed out all her good points.

"You also are skilled in chakra control, you were the first one to finish the tree climbing technique and in only a day while it took days for me and Naruto" Sasuke continued

"I-I guess I w-was lucky"

"That's not luck, it's skill. You were the one who treated our injuries after the battle on the bridge, you have medical skills too. You can be a great medical ninja"

"T-That's a good point, I-I could try that some day"

Sasuke wiped the remaining tears on hinata's face with one hand while he was still holding hinata's hand with the other one "Hinata you are a skilled ninja, you are not useless and you are in no way lost cause, anyone who thinks that or says that are freakin blind. You are a great ninja in the making, if you want to get stronger then I'll help you. We'll train together and improve our skills both individually and as a team"

Hinata smiled brightly with a bright blush on her face, feeling much better about herself and having the motivation to keep going "Y-Yes, I-I would be very h-happy to train together with you!"

"We still have some time before dinner, want to start training together now?" Sasuke asked as he let go of Hinata's hands much to his and Hinata's dismay.

"B-But your e-errands?"

Sasuke puts his bag on the side of the pole and gets up, making distance between them "They can wait until tomorrow" He said getting ready and smirked at her "Well?"

Hinata smiles again as she stands up and gets into her fighting stance "P-Please don't hold back!"

Sasuke and Hinata sent the rest of the afternoon training together. As the sun was setting, both them were on the ground, scratched up, covered in dirt, and panting. Sasuke looked at Hinata as he was catching his breath She quick on her feet, being able to counter and dodge most of my moves and keep up with me, she's as skilled as I am. He get up and walked to Hinata, holding his hand to help her up "That was good Hinata, you really kept me on my toes"

Hinata blushes, taking his hand and stands up, wiping the sweat on her forehead "T-Thank you but y-you were so fast, I c-could barely keep u-up"

"No you did just fine"

"T-Thanks"

Sasuke went and grabs his bag "It's getting late, we should get back"

"R-Right" Hinata said

As usual, they decided to walk home together but moving a bit quicker since Sasuke thought Sakura could still be looking for him. They soon reached Hinata's home and were standing outside the gate.

"Well this is your stop, Hinata" Sasuke said

"Y-Yeah" Hinata said

They both stood there in silence, looking anywhere but each other, after a few moments Sasuke spoke "Well I guess I'll see you later, Hinata" he said as began to leave

"S-Sasuke wait!"

Just as Sasuke turned to look at Hinata, she launched herself at him, hugging him tightly, hiding her face in his shoulder so he wouldn't see her blush. Sasuke was lucky Hinata couldn't see his face because he was blushing up to his ears. He couldn't believe that Hinata was hugging him like this, he was happy but also nervous I hope she doesn't notice my heart racing. "H-Hinata?"

"Thank you" she whispered

"Huh?"

"You cheered me up and helped me with my training, you were there when I needed someone, thank you Sasuke thank you"

Sasuke looked down at her with a smile on his face, hugging her back "Your welcome"

They stayed like that for a minute before letting go "Bye Hinata"

Still blushing, Hinata smiled "Y-Y-Yes, see y-you later" She said then as she went through the gate.

As Hiashi was walking hall, he spots Hinata "Hinata, where have you been?"

"I-I'm sorry father, I-I was so caught up in t-training, I lost track of t-time" she said

Hiashi took a good look at her and saw her clothes were dirty, she had scratches on her hands and face but she was blushing and smiling She's been training but I've never seen her come home with that look at her face, she looks so happy "Well make sure it doesn't happen again"

"Yes father" Hinata said as she walked to her room.

Hiashi looked back at his daughter "You must have had a good day"

As she entered her room, she looked back at her father "Y-Yes my day was very good" she said thinking about Sasuke, He truly made my day