Chapter Text
The rain soothed her.
Soft and finely drizzling, the rain glided down the windowpane, her pale eyes tracking the streams. The dulled sound refreshed her from the scorching blandness between classes. At least she wasn't the target of the hornet queen. A messy mop of blonde hair, the little bee took the hits, her arms raised under the flurry of blows.
Everyone kept their distance from this wretched spectacle, held by a mixture of dread and disinterest. The sin of the bystander; she was guilty of it herself. Nor was she indifferent to the brazen smile her classmate displayed under any circumstances, embers upon which the rage of the groupies crackled.
"Get that smirk off your face!"
"Answer when you're spoken to, you ugly yellow freak!"
"Nobody wants you here, got it? Look down and repent!"
The sound of a door scraping along its rails. A hint of pink curls appeared in the doorway, followed by a breathless voice.
"Let her go! The teacher's coming."
With a unanimous spit, the trio released the golden hair they were clutching, then hurried back to the lower seats of the amphitheater. Iruka arrived, attendance sheet tucked beneath one arm. His eyebrow arched when he spotted the solitary figure, her face covered in bruises.
"I missed a step, haha!"
Hinata barely blinked.
-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-
"Ouch! Careful, that burns!"
"You really are asking for it."
"Humph! Not true! They're the ones looking for me! I'm just making sure they find me!"
Hinata responded with an ointment spread less delicately than the rest, ignoring the resulting grimace. Her fingers trembled when they touched the gaunt cheek, but she pulled herself together, emotionless.
"It's stupid…"
"Huh? What's stupid?"
"Not you. It's… nothing. Just don't count on me doing this every day."
Hinata broke away from the blue gaze as she stowed the balm back into her med-kit, then folded it into her bag. From beneath the shade of the swing tree, her eyes swept the surroundings. Thankfully, no one seemed to care about them. Only the blonde's luminous smile stood out against the scenery.
"You say that, but you're always there when I need you… You're really the best, Hinata! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!"
Her gratitude overwhelmed her, far too brutally pure for the corseted confines of her own shyness. A quiet panic pricked at her. Hinata swallowed the thousand kind words ravaging her facade, then rose to her feet.
"Don't make a fuss. We're going to be late," she said softly.
She stifled a gasp when arms wrapped around her from behind, and a small voice came through beyond her fringe.
"Just a sec… I need to recharge."
Hinata found herself melting. That wasn't a good thing.
-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-
An oppressive tension echoed across the dojo's ancient floorboards. Bent over his canvases, Hiashi finished a kanji without turning around.
"Your shoulders are slumping, Hinata. Your posture lacks poise. You drag yourself around like a dead weight the clan has to resign itself to dragging along."
The words slid off her skin. Hinata remained kneeling, head bowed, a curtain of blue hair before her.
"You called for me, Father."
"Your teachers describe your grades as passable. Passable! That word alone is an insult to our bloodline. Second place would already be a failure for an heiress, so wallowing in the middle of the pack… Unacceptable. One more term like this, and you know what happens."
The words fell into the emptiness of her shell. Not a blink, nor a twitch. Hinata simply nodded, her gaze pale.
"I will apply myself as I should. I will not disappoint you further, Father."
-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-
On the way back, as the orange hues of twilight softened the thatched roofs of the village, Hinata let her gaze drift toward the river. Her sandals trudged along the slope. Her reflection returned a flawless image, impassive, a doll lacquered in makeup and breathtaking elegance. One misstep and the perfect imposture reflected would be swept away, not even a ripple to betray her absence.
"Whoa, you scared me! You walk like a cat! I didn't even hear you coming!"
Hinata's expression blurred. With a turn, she caught sight of the dead-last in her orange vest sprawled on the embankment, hands behind her head and a twig in her mouth.
"Sit down for a minute! The grass is super soft and the sun still warms it a bit."
A flash of bitterness shook Hinata. How easy it was when no expectations seemed to touch her. But her bright laugh washed away her spite like an epiphany.
“Come on, don't be such a princess! Your fancy little butt's not gonna break just 'cause it touches the ground, y'know?”
A shiver of embarrassment ran through her from head to toe. She pursed her lips, but her legs gave way on their own. Her bottom met the riverbank, and despite the damp chill, an inexplicable warmth prickled her cheeks.
"You really say whatever comes into your head…"
Really, Hinata? What kind of weak defense was that?
"Yep, that's my superpower! When I get a silly thought, poof, out it comes before I forget it!"
A sigh laced with dismay escaped her.
"And what do you do if that silly thought ends up hurting someone?"
"Well, it's not on purpose! Why go looking for problems where there aren't any?"
"Intent doesn't change the pain of the person on the receiving end."
The blonde studied her, half her face cast in shadow beneath the fading sunlight. Then Hinata barely had time to blink before she suddenly found herself knocked backward, lying flat and pinned beneath the other girl, with an enigmatic smile as her only horizon.
"You really think I could hurt you?"
The sheer absurdity of this improvised wrestling move knocked the wind right out of her sails. Naruko had literally tackled the debate to the ground.
"I mostly think you have a slight problem with the concept of personal space. Allow me to remind you of it."
Hinata tensed two fingers, thrusting them straight out in a surgical jab. A gasp, followed by a sudden shift to the side, Naruko clutched at her chest.
"Ow, ow, ow! My heart! I feel it coming loose! Help!"
Hinata simply smoothed her long raven hair in response.
"Cut the act. I didn't put any chakra into that strike."
"Bah! You say that while I'm writhing in half. For someone who claims to care about other people's feelings, you don't pull your punches!"
"I merely adapted to your level of subtlety," she retorted with a haughty laugh.
"Hahaha... No regrets if I fold now, seeing what's hiding behind that face."
A startled mortification set her entirely ablaze. With a sharp retort on the tip of her tongue, she knew feeding the beast would only prove it right. She stood up and walked away, tight-lipped and silent, before realizing the absurdity of it. The pinnacle of the Hyuga clan, afraid of some random orphan? Midway, she turned back and caught the attentive gaze that hadn't wavered an inch. A velvet wave of emotion swirled, rose, short-circuited what little remained of her lucidity, and-
"Don't follow me."
Damn you brain.
She had just blurted out the exact opposite of what she should have uttered.
The azure gaze sparkled all the more brightly above a teasing, crinkling smile.
"Don't count on me for that!"
-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-
An open-air siege had been declared, led by an adversary who knew nothing of the rules of war. Naruko clung to her footsteps with the stubborn innocence of a shipwrecked castaway. A theatrical wave right in the middle of a lecture, a burning hand sneaking in to lace its fingers through her freezing ones in the corridors, or an over-the-top compliment thrown out about her hairstyle during recess. No matter how much Hinata met it with the silence befitting her rank, nothing worked. Every raised chin, turned back, and disenchanted pout met an unbreakable assault that chipped away a bit more of her defenses with each passing day. It was exhausting to realize how consistently her body, usually so well-drilled in obedience, ended up watching for the next signal, ears perked like satellite dishes.
An indulgence, she told herself. Above all, not an excuse to crave for this attention that consumed her to the point of reducing everything else to ashes.
What she had spent years building, forging this image no one was supposed to breach, Naruko had shattered it all. Worse still, she was taking the full brunt of the other students' sideways glances and the open disapproval of tutors who advocated that she focus more on her education rather than pandering to the presence of the girl buzzing around her.
Hinata was suffocating. This had to stop immediately.
Stop this playacting, I'm not your friend! she flung right in her face at the back of the courtyard. A protestation as convincing as handcuffed hands being held out in a wild desire to be dragged along on a leash. A summons that Naruko took quite literally with a joyful embrace, laughter, and bright cheers. The world had changed color, and that color had taken on the hues of a fusing star.
Perhaps it wasn't so bad after all.
But just as they sat down with their lunch trays in the cafeteria, a comet shattered their oxygen bubble.
Ino.
The queenpin of the corridors.
Yet Ino was no mere brute. Quite the contrary. She graced their table with her presence, flanked by her loyal courtesans. A quick manicure courtesy of a bubble-gum pink nail file, another smoothing a strand of hair with sycophantic zeal, while a third deployed a pocket mirror to emphasize the framework of her dominance with a penultimate glance.
"How adorable. Decidedly, the ugly yellow freak clings to everything. Worse than a wart. Watch your skin, Hinata. It would be a pity for your porcelain complexion to lose its luster from rubbing shoulders with the dregs."
The delinquent simply set down her bowl and scratched her ear.
"Hey, Hinata, do you hear that annoying buzzing? Must be one of those giant garbage flies hovering around the dumpsters. We'd better eat fast before she comes and ruins our meal."
The poor heiress felt her soul leave its mortal shell. Far from taking offense, Ino simply nodded.
A hand grabbed Naruko's skull and slammed her headfirst into her broth amidst fiery splutters of noodles and grease.
"You dare disrespect the mistress! Drink greedily, you sidewalk warthog! Compliments of the house!"
That set off the powder keg.
An uppercut sent the groupie flying through the air before she crashed into two overturned chairs further away. The rest unfolded in a blur, Hinata far too stunned to follow the chain of violence. A general melee she stepped away from purely out of self-preservation. Piercing screams, hair-pulling galore, and scratching claws in every direction, culminating in Naruko standing with her fist raised over Ino, who was just taking it, an additional invitation to cross the line.
"Come on! Just dare!" she said with a mocking smile when the fingers were pointing in their direction.
Hinata's mind spun out, incapable of regaining control of her limbs in the face of this tidal wave. She wanted to scream at her to stop, but everything dissolved beyond all reason. The furnace at its paroxysm, the hook landed, and Ino bounced off a chair leg, her skull bleeding.
Complete silence.
Then the clamor resumed at the sound of heavy footsteps as the proctors arrived in a rush at the crime scene. The delinquent standing alone, bruised fists bared, amid the collapsed students and general chaos. Ino curled up, imitated by her cronies, shedding a flood of crocodile tears. Demands for explanations, a cascade of witnesses describing the scene, everything stacked to pin the blame on a single person while the actresses were hauled off to the infirmary. Just as Hinata was about to cry out to give her version of the events, Naruko trumpeted with a raspy laugh.
"Alright, I confess everything! I have a record of mischief to break every term and I was falling behind! The cafeteria decor was turning my stomach and they just happened to have the bad luck of walking into my fist. I lost it, chief!"
Why? But that question drowned in a well of misery as Hinata watched her being dragged away by the furious monitors, isolated from the rest.
-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-
"You were lucky to get away blameless."
Hinata remained kneeling on the tatamis as footsteps paced around her.
"I thought you were above such pettiness. Our ancestors didn't fight their way to the top for their heiress to debase herself in second-rate schoolgirl squabbles. Allowing yourself to get dragged into their games is forgetting the place that is rightfully yours. Know this, Hinata: the academy might let this go, but the clan won’t. One more infraction like this, and I’ll make sure you remain cloistered within these walls until every weakness is purged out of you."
Not a muscle on her face twitched. The reprimand was merely one more formality to check off in the registry of family demands, familiar background noise.
"Your will is my command, Father," she uttered without an ounce of hesitation.
A shadow of contempt crossed Hiashi's clear gaze, fixed on the top of his daughter's head, before delivering the coup de grâce.
"Furthermore, I've caught wind of your little escapades, that you've been dragging your feet in very strange company, that yellow pest infecting everything with her antics. From this second on, any connection with that plague-carrier is strictly forbidden. Her wretchedness and vulgarity leave nothing around but ruins. Erase her from your daily life. Permanently."
An infinitesimal tremor shook her knuckles against the woven straw caused by the crushing weight of his words. Cut ties with the one who had taken a hit in her place, cross out the only splash of color in her grayscale world? The effort to smooth her voice cost her. Dearly.
"I will see to it that it is done."
-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-
Hinata would have liked to say she didn't care, but the news struck her like a gong.
Grounded for a week.
She had to squeeze her eyes shut against the urge to scream.
The whole universe seemed relentless toward Naruko, and Hinata struggled to see the end of it. But if the universe thought that would stop her, it was in for a rude awakening. Of course, she would behave herself impeccably for the day. Only for the day. But in the evening, the window of opportunity was one hour, the time she usually took to walk back to her clan's enclave. A time when her father couldn't possibly suspect her disobedience.
Unlike previous days, once the gates opened, Hinata set off at a run. Where? She didn't know. The bitter realization that she knew nothing about Naruko's life gnawed at her during her frantic search. No customary graffiti on the walls either. But Hinata didn't care; everyone in the village avoided her like the plague, so asking where she had been spotted was an easy task. Unsurprisingly, her quest led her to the village's impoverished district, a cluster of housing projects rising like a compact monolith. Things got trickier because this was an unregulated area where the law of the fittest ruled, and where nobody gave a damn about anyone else.
And so, the first evening ended, and Hinata had to turn back.
She tried again the next morning. Maybe she'd have better luck this time. But once more, she strayed down the wrong path. Annoyed, she headed to city hall in the evening. She explained to the clerk behind the counter that a classmate who was ill needed her homework brought to her, and rather easily obtained the exact address of the young girl's home from the municipal registry. Map in hand, she decided she would go there the following day.
Sunny day. Perfect.
She ripped off the map she had hidden beneath a stone two hundred meters from her home and wasted no time. Fifth floor, south district, building DZ. At the corner of a corridor, she found her amid a crowd, or rather, surrounded by a gang of stocky thugs smoking joints, pipes in hand.
"Look at that, a real little lost doll, without a big brother to look after her," hissed a tall, sinister-looking fellow.
He approached with a lecherous gleam in his eye while another chuckled fatly behind him.
"Can't go hanging around these parts at this hour, it draws the bad crowd! But don't worry, we're friendly like that. Come on with us, we've got some very lucrative side gigs for girls as flexible as you."
Hinata's blood ran cold. She would have leaped from the shadow of the wall to silence them if Naruko's brazen laugh hadn't nailed her to the spot.
"Lucrative side gigs? Perfect timing! I've been looking to make some easy pocket money."
A chorus of drunken whistles greeted her provocation, followed by lustful looks.
"Oh, she's got spunk, even better! That bodes well for sleepless nights. Come taste the high life, cutie pie! You're gonna learn real quick how we treat queens around here."
A furious buzzing filled Hinata's ears, the world reduced to that insolent mug she dreamed of both slapping and protecting. Did this idiot really have no idea what awaited her? Or was it simply that the suspension had hurt her more than expected? Was she seeking degradation to that extent? Hinata's questions were swept away when she saw Naruko docilely let herself be led away by one of the criminals.
Hinata turned back. She slipped into an adjacent corridor and caught up with the two figures, still trailing them through the crowd of junkies floating around patched-up flea markets, her own small frame muffled in a cloak.
Hinata's knuckles whitened as she watched Naruko brush her hand over the scoundrel's shoulder, an alluring smile followed by a deliberate gesture. After a lecherous laugh, the duo turned into a dark alley. Hinata rubbed at her cheeks to steady herself and snapped her gaze back ahead. Did Naruko even suspect she was there? Was this a way to ambush the scum out of sight?
Regardless, Hinata resumed her pursuit, and her turn rounded into a corridor ending with blood splattered across her face. A hand with nails long as claws tightened around a still-palpitating heart, which imploded a second later into a reddish spray. In the wake of the collapsing body emerged a face bearing an ecstatic smile, darkened whiskers on her cheeks, and above all, the shimmering ocean twisted into entirely different nature of crimson. Standing before her was no longer the sun of her life, but a dense abyss that seemed to swallow all light.