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Hinata had never really considered herself to be a religious person. She bowed to shrines and made wishes at the appropriate festivals, but it never went deeper than that. She was far too busy trying to earn respect, trying to keep her balance, trying to keep from looking like an idiot to everyone (everyone meaning Naruto) that her brain was too busy to contemplate spirits or gods. She left that sort of thing to people who weren’t future clan leaders.
So when three women wearing strange kimono and glowing a little around the edges showed up as she was bleeding out while on a solo mission, her first instinct was to do a quick kai to break the genjutsu she was obviously under. When that didn’t work, her second instinct was to send a wave of shuriken at them. Instead of the screams and blood she hoped for (and the wave of defensive jutsu she was prepared for), the women merely shimmered a little and the shuriken harmlessly hit the trees behind them.
“Who are you?” Hinata shrilled at them. “What do you want? Are you from Cloud?” She pressed a trembling hand to her side and hoped that if they were there to finish her off, they’d at least have the decency to do it quickly. She’d never really considered before how much taking a kunai in the side would hurt.
The woman with a pair of eyeglasses hanging from her neck looked at Hinata serenely. “‘All the blood of the body is under the control of the heart and flows in a continuous circle and never stops.’ Unknown author. Ancient China.”
Hinata blinked, momentarily distracted from the pain. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“She means that you need help or you’re going to die,” the red headed woman said impatiently.
Hinata glanced down at the growing pool of blood at her side. “I think that’s obvious. Are you goddesses? Are you here to help me?”
The oldest of the three woman chuckled. It was a warm laugh, not mocking. “Yes, we’re here to help, in our way. Don’t worry, you’re going to survive this. We’re more concerned about your spirit than your body.”
“Well, I’m not,” Hinata whimpered.
Clicking her tongue, the red haired goddess-spirit-woman-whatever moved towards Hinata. She paid absolutely no attention to Hinata’s gasp of alarm and knelt down, holding the sleeve of her pure white kimono firmly against the kunoichi’s side. “Calm down, help is coming. Somebody who is ridiculously enthusiastic is on his way. He’s wearing an unpardonable amount of green and making such a racket that I’m sure they can hear him on Ariel.”
“Gai-sensei is coming? Oh, no! He’ll see what a mess I’ve made of my first solo mission,” Hinata said with a pained squeak. She was sure she would be bright red with shame if all her blood wasn’t currently leaking out of her side.
The red haired witch made another rude noise with her mouth. “Why would you care what he thought? He thinks leg warmers are a wise fashion choice. My goodness, are you afraid of everything?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact,” Hinata replied, stung by the pain into honesty. To be fair, she was pretty sure this was all a hallucination from blood loss and she was going to die, so what did it matter? “I’m always failing, so I’m always afraid. What good am I, anyway? I’m a horrible ninja, somebody always has to end up saving me. I barely passed my second chunin exam. I can’t lead my clan. I can’t help my sister or...or my friends…” She thought of Naruto leaving the village to train with a sage, rather than relying on his fellow Leaf shinobi for help. “I’m useless. I can’t even deliver a message to another village on a C-rank mission without getting wounded.”
“‘A warrior is worthless unless he rises above others and stands strong in the midst of a storm.’ Yamamoto Tsunetomo. Japanese,” the bespectacled witch stated, as if it all argument should end there. She folded her hands neatly and smiled at Hinata.
The older witch knelt down at Hinata’s other side and took her hand. “Hinata, I know you won’t believe this, but we’ve been watching you for a while. You may not feel like it, but you have a light within you. It is so pure that it shines for all that take the trouble to notice. The thing is, we’ve noticed that your light...it’s dimming. It has been ever since that boy left. Why do you think that is?”
Hinata hung her head. “Naruto...you say I have a light, but you’ve obviously never seen him. He has a fire that warms everyone he sees.” She laughed a little. “He makes friends of everyone. He fights for everyone, even me. He makes me strong.” Hinata looked up into those wise, warm eyes and shrugged. “And now he’s gone and I’m just...lost.”
“You may feel lost, but you don’t have to be,” said the witch, squeezing Hinata’s hand. “Just because there is a fire in a shadowed room doesn’t mean a candle isn’t needed just as much. You shine too, Hinata, and you must continue to. In your own way, you defeat the darkness every bit as much as Naruto does. You are a warrior, and you are needed.”
Feeling dizzy, Hinata whimpered, “But how do I fight darkness when I’m so afraid?”
“There’s no magic cure for fear, Hinata,” the red haired witch cut in.
“‘No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.’ The Buddha. Nepal,” the second witch intoned.
“All that to say,” the third witch said, “you must first stand up. You admire Naruto for his determination, for never giving up. You can’t give up either. You must defeat your fear every single day. Fight, Hinata. Shine like you were born to do. It will be enough. If you show love, the darkness will end.”
Hinata felt herself fading. “Show love…” she repeated muzzily.
Right before everything faded to black, Hinata heard a soft voice saying, “‘Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone gives you courage.’ Lao Tzu. Chinese. Have courage, Hinata.”
…………………………
The next time she woke, Hinata discovered that Kiba, Akamaru and Shino were sitting by her bed in what was obviously a hospital room, waiting for her.
“Hinata! Are you okay?” Kiba asked nervously when she opened her eyes.
“Thirsty…” Hinata rasped, looking at her teammates pleadingly.
In his enthusiasm, Kiba sloshed water all over the floor as he poured a glass for Hinata. Akamaru slurped it up eagerly as Shino said, “You’re going to be all right, Hinata. It looks like you were attacked by a missing-nin outside the village, but they were long gone by the time Gai-sensei got there.”
Kiba snorted. “He said he heard, and I quote, ‘the glorious sound of battle and immediately came to offer his aid to a beloved comrade,’ and found you passed out.” He patted Hinata’s hand. “You lost a lot of blood and your chakra was low, but the medi-nin says you can probably go home tonight.”
Hinata hummed and found herself chewing on her sleeve absently. She remembered words about courage, love, darkness and light. After a minute, she sighed, knowing what she had to do. “Shino, tell me the truth. Do you think I could be a better shinobi?”
While Kiba sputtered, Shino sat in deep thought for a moment. “Yes, I do,” he finally said solemnly. “Of course, we could all be better shinobi, but you’re stronger than you let yourself be. You stand in your own way. You have skills that you could be developing, like your clan’s jutsus.”
Nodding firmly, Hinata said, “That’s what I thought. I’ve been pretty sad lately. I know you both have noticed.” Shino and Kiba exchanged knowing looks. “But that doesn’t mean that I get to stop fighting, stop trying to be better than I am. I can’t let fear hold me back. I need to train more. Will you both help me?” “
Of course!” Kiba crowed.
Shino nodded and actually smiled at Hinata. “It would be my pleasure.”
A few weeks later, Hinata was at the training ground, working hard on her taijutsu. Rock Lee had promised to start training with her and she wanted to be ready for him. Her hands were bloody and her whole body ached, but it felt good to feel herself getting stronger, to know that she had a better chance of standing by her friends when the time came. Maybe, one day, she could even be a light for Naruto.
“You’re shifting your weight too much. Bend your knees to fix your center of gravity.” Hinata turned around and saw Neji watching her solemnly, his arms crossed over his chest.
“Oh, thank you, Neji-nee-san,” Hinata said. She was proud that she didn’t flush from embarrassment over the correction. She turned around and went back to pummeling her post, bending her knees more. He was right, that did help.
She was surprised when she didn’t hear him leaving, but she kept working in spite of the back of her neck prickling from the weight of his eyes. “You’ve been different lately,” he said, his voice pitched just high enough for her to hear over the wood creaking from her blows. “More focused. What’s changed?”
Hinata stopped and wiped her forearm across her sweaty brow. “I made some new friends a while ago,” she said with a secret smile. “They made me realize that I was being...passive, I guess. Being a shinobi will never come naturally to me, but it’s my path. If I need to work harder than anybody else to be strong, I will. I don’t want to be afraid anymore.”
Neji considered her. After a long pause, he said, “Would you like to train with me on the Mystical Palm Technique? If we work together, we’ll both get better.”
“Yes,” Hinata said without hesitation, without stuttering. “Then we’ll both be warriors.”