The whispers started not soon after.
"I heard her father abandoned her training in favor of her younger sister's. Poor Hinata-sama."
"If she cannot keep up, it's her own fault!"
"I heard Hanabi-sama is doing really good. Even though it hasn't even been two months, she's advancing at an amazing speed!"
"Yes. I heard next week she will graduate from the basics and begin her lessons on the Byakugan!"
"Wonder how much longer it will take her to start learning the gentle fist."
"Probably not much. How long did it take Hinata-sama to pass the basics?"
"Six months, if not more. As expected, it seems Hanabi-sama has a lot more talent than her older sister."
"Shhh, Hinata-sama's just there."
When they saw her walking past, they lowered their voices and turned their backs, concentrating in their duties, but it was too late. Hinata had heard everything.
She glanced at the ground and picked up her pace, quickly walking past them. It hasn't been long since the servants started to look at her with pity and to whisper behind her back when they thought she wasn't listening. The motive was clear: her father had not been paying as much attention to her as he used to. Her training had been relegated to second place to Hanabi's.
Hinata didn't mind, she knew her sister was starting to learn the basics to become a ninja, but then the whispers changed, praising the young girl for her fast learning and comparing it to that of her older sister's, and that's when innocent rumors became malicious in nature.
She tried not to pay attention to them, knowing that they weren't true. Not the part of her sister making great progress, as she was confident that was really the case, and Hinata was proud of Hanabi for that. It meant she would fulfill their father's expectations with more ease and not suffer like her. But the part of her father preferring to train Hanabi over her and that if it continued like that, he would soon only want to train her, leaving Hinata aside.
Her father would never do that. Hinata was sure of it. He might be strict and she might disappoint him a lot, but the two of them were his daughters. Not counting Hinata was the heiress. She was sure that, when Hanabi reached a good enough level, her father would train them equally, sharing his time with the two of them and not favoring one over the other.
Hinata was sure of it, and for that reason, while her father kept his attention on Hanabi, she needed to train more.
Shuriken throwing was coming along nicely. She was obviously not as talented as Sasuke, but she did feel she was improving. In the academy, weapon training happened three times a week, and while Hinata wasn't the worst of her classmates, she knew she was far from being the best.
She was almost always attentive to the lessons, when she wasn't distracted by Naruto or her own problems, that is. However, training time was limited and Iruka, though a good sensei, usually focused more on the louder students, like Naruto. So unless you specifically asked for help it was likely you were not going to get it.
Students normally only trained during academy, anyway. Unless you took action on your own to train on your free time or were from a clan, then advancing would be difficult. And the majority of students in the academy did not belong to any clan. Neither were they proactive enough to practice on their own. So, with only the academy's training they were obviously lacking in many ways, which was the reason Iruka was more often than not occupied giving help to everyone who asked, and she, being Hinata, did not want to interrupt and be a bother and take the opportunity to learn away from the students who did not belong to a clan.
Which could be the reason she was not as good as she should be.
But, well, Sasuke's pointers were useful, like they were supposed to be, being he was the member of a clan that specialized in shuriken throwing, and she really believed she was becoming better. Her hands were also getting better, and she thought it wouldn't be long before she could practice the gentle fist again.
All in all, she was confident, or as confident as she could be.
That night, when she went over to the training ground again, the shuriken she threw landed at the center of the target, surprising her. It was the first time ever she managed to do that on her own, and so she had to take a few seconds to collect herself and realize that yes, she managed to land a perfect strike.
She smiled to herself, clenching her hands in small fists.
She had to continue like this.