The thin line betwee love and hate

Chapter five

Facing your teammates

(I’m following the manga timeline, so I can say they are all 16 or 17)

Early in the morning on the streets of Konoha, Naruto is already out walking through them. His first stop, Sasuke’s apartment, after picking him up, he eats something on the Ramen Shop while waiting for Sakura.

“Man, I couldn’t sleep last night.” Yawns the blonde nin, “everything about Hinata-chan yesterday is still on my mind, I can’t let it go.”

“Why does it bother you, she never seemed to lie about anything asked, she didn’t even stuttered while asking.” Responded the Uchiha, knowing that this will be today’s topic between them, like it or not. “Yeah, but,” continued Naruto, “she is so different from the Hinata-chan that I know, too much to be exact. And the fact that she could fool us all these years…is sounds so impossible to believe.”

In that moment, Sakura approaches, waves at ‘Hello’ and sits beside them. “since I got out if home, there have been comments practically through all Konoha about Hinata quitting the Hyuuga clan.” “you can’t blame them, the Hyuuga clan is a high class family, and scandals like this are never well received.” Responded Sasuke.

“Yeah, but I didn’t knew what happened later after yesterday’s meeting.” In that moment the two men looked at her. “HUH?” “is being mentioned that it must be a huge scandal since there were Hyuuga squads all over Konoha looking for her, with orders to bring her back by force. And the problem is that she was never found, so the search continues today, now Neji leads the search.”

“Wait,” suddenly Naruto stood up from his stool, almost falling by the outburst. “Does the others know about the situation? Her teammates?” Sasuke and Sakura looks at him one checking Naruto for fever and the other checking if he has any head damage. It was true. Nobody knows if Kiba or Shino knows this, but by the way that Kurenai acted yesterday, it was an obvious no.

Team seven, with out no more conversation, headed towards the training grounds and find team 8.
Kiba and Shino were waiting on the training grounds for Kurenai and Hinata. “How strange,” mentioned Kiba, “Hinata and Kurenai were always the first ones to arrive, but today...”

“Maybe is a girl’s thing, you know. Not because they are ninjas they can’t have their feminine issues.” Responded Shino without interest, watching the flying bees around them, “What do you mean with that?” asked back Kiba, now looking with a questioning look at his dog Akamaru. “You know Kiba, for being so social and active you are quite dense.” “What was that suppose to mean!”

“Kiba, Shino sorry that I’m late!” screamed Kurenai who was running towards her students, distracting Kiba for a second. “Don’t worry sensei, we still have to wait for Hinata-chan yet.” Then, Kurenai looked down Maybe they don’t know about what happened on the Hyuuga mansion yesterday yet. though the woman, only to be wronged by Shino’s question. “Don’t you think Hinata-chan is not coming for the scandal on the Hyuuga mansion?” “Huh?” asked again Kiba.

“I heard yesterday that someone from the Hyuuga clan leaved the family, causing a huge commotion. They even send search groups to track the exiled, but with no success. Do you know something about it sensei?” asked Shino, not leaving his gaze from her.

“I have no other choice but tell you now before someone else does.” And when she was about to tell them, something caught Akamaru’s attention, making him bark in warning. When Kiba looked at the same direction, they saw a small and feminine figure walking through the woods, entering to the clearing where they were. “Hinata-chan!” exclaimed cheerfully Kiba to greet his friend, but when he saw that other three figures appeared with her, he stopped and looked serious. “Hinata-chan, what’s the meaning of this?”

Hinata looked at Kurenai, whose eyes showed something that can’t be described, a mixture of deception and pity, and decided to ignore it for now. “I was just training with my team, Inuzuka.” Then by that remark, Shino frowned and looked at the others closely. “I don’t what are you talking about Hinata, those are members of the ANBU squad. You’re not yet at their level…”

“..so it seems that Yuuhi hasn’t told you yet, right? ” mentioned the captain with annoyance on her tone. “No I was gong to tell them when you arrived. And don’t call me by my last name; call me Kurenai as your sensei.” Then Hinata take a better look at the sensei, noticing bags on her eyes. “Oh, and it seems that you couldn’t sleep well last night. Tell me, Lain’s story was that bad for you? You have been in battle more times than me and yet you couldn’t handle it? How weak.” Kurenai responded with a grunt, and Kiba took it as a warning. “Tell us what? What are you talking about? Hinata-chan, Kurenai-sensei I don’t like this…” gestured, only to be ignored when she only addressed to Kurenai. “Since you’ve been fooled all this time, I believe that I least I should tell you everything.”

“You mean that this didn’t started now! Since when you have been this strong?” asked impressed Kurenai, can something be possible? “Yuuhi, Inuzuka, Aburame. I’m going to tell you almost everything, but you have to promise that whatever I say it must stay between us and in this clearing.” The other three nods in agreement.

“Fine, it all started when I entered the academy for the first time…”
Flashback

(All in Hinata’s POV)

It was the day that the students entered for the first time at the age of six to the ninja academy. And most proud parents were there to see the official acts. Along all those parents, there was my father, Hiashi Hyuuga watching me as his older daughter and future heir of the Hyuuga clan. I stood on the back of the line, hiding from the gaze of others. I was avoiding to get anyone’s attention, but later I found out that didn’t happened.

Throught that first semester, it became a success at school. Nobody paid attention towards me, just like it happened at home. That was cool until one day, while training all alone close to the fallen ninja memorial, somebody noticed me training, using my byakugan, technique that was suppose to be used since age eight…and I was six.

The one who saw me was no other but the third. He looked a little impressed by his discovery

“Are you the heiress of the Hyuuga clan? Hinata Hyuuuga, if I’m correct?” asked the old wise leader. “Yes, sir.” I answered, this time no stuttering or showing shyness. “I see, I bet that your father must be vry proud of your talents…”

“…he doesn’t know, Hokage-sama.” I responded to him being sincere, I knew that as Hokage, he can understand me. “Then we should go together to him to show him…” then he remained quiet, maybe because he saw my face showing deception, or because he believed that I don’t wanted to tell the clan about this. “Hinata-chan, why you don’t want them to know? You have a great talent and maybe even a genius among them…”

“Sorry Hokage-sama, but I saw how the genius are treated, at least in this village. I’ve seen how the clan exploits Neji to the max, not thinking about his feelings or desires. And I don’t want that, I want to live my own, not bothered by anyone, with nobody expecting me to be better since I’m one of the best. That’s why…Hokage-sama…please…” I begged, he knew what I was begin for, to live an anonymous life like a normal person and be happy for that.

That is when he gave me a condition, I can have my normal life at the academy and with my life on the village, but he wanted me to improve and being trained at the level that my talent allowed me to be. Then he assigned to a sensei, another former talented one.

After classes, I lied at my father that there were extra classes for extra credits, those extras hours I spent them training with my sensei, already at that age I was making B and C missions along with him. There were missions for two people, to help the secrecy. The Hokage and my sensei helped me on the tasks made to undercover this.

By the time that I was in middle academy terms, I took the chounin exam, held by the Hokage himself. As expected I passed, that was a little before my sensei leave Konoha. By the time that we graduated from the academy, that day he was really giving me my title of jounin.

I keep training with the Hokage, and I was allowed to read some scrolls, until the Hokage told me about classify me on the data of the nins of Konoha as a genius, along with my cousin Neji and Uchiha Sasuke.

“You, along with Sasuke and Neji, are this generations geniuses. Who knows, maybe a new breed of Legendary Sennin is born…” “Please, burn my profile.” That was my answer to his news, he looked at me worried because I didn’t feel prepared to show this to the world. “Hinata, you can’t keep hiding your true self forever, think all these years lying and hiding from your family and others. You now have a team and you must…” he answered me with the same speech everytime we trained, and that was daily. “I know Hokage-sama, is just…everyday I develop something new…I don’t want to bother others, or make them feel afraid for this…is not normal for a girl to be like this and you know that!”

He looked at me and understood, I wasn’t a threat for the village and he knew it. “When you feel prepared Hinata, the first ones to know this have to be your family and your teammates…” “I prefer to tell them, I don’t care for the clan. In fact, I’ll leave them as soon as is possible.”

That day, the topic about telling someone other than him about my true talents was left there. The day before the chounin exams, he ascended me as ANBU soldier. I told him that I was going to loose the match on the moment that I see it necessary…that was the moment that I fought Neji on the matches…

End of flashback
“So that means that you could defeat Neji and didn’t do it, but why to him?” asked Kiba, he hadn’t loose any word of her story and was completely fascinated. “I knew that if I end up defeating him with my true self, everyone will be suspicious about me and my father would want me to keep being the heir. I did the same thing that I do when I am around you…fake shyness and weakness.”

“So in other words, you created another personality, completely opposite to the real Hinata…just to not get the other’s attention.” Concluded Shino, Hinata nodded. “but why now Hinata? You could live forever in that mask that no one seemed to doubt about.”

“Is simple Shino,” responded his teammate, “four days ago, I went to a double mission; one as an ANBU captain, and the other was personal. And while I was on the ANBU mission, I fought Orochimaru and killed him with ease. And this happened while Uzumaki and the others were there; I even matched Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Sasuke.” Team eight gasped by the news, even Kurenai didn’t know about the Uchiha thing…

“I knew that Neji was going to tell Hiashi about it, and with that he was going to be less reckless to let me quit the clan…so I had no other choice to threat him…but it seemed that I hurt too much his pride because he kept all night looking for me.”

“But why did you do that? Why after Orochimaru?” asked Kiba, “Don’t you see it Inuzuka, Orochimaru killed the only one who understood me! I even saw it when he made his sacrifice technique, and I didn’t do anything because he asked me to not get discovered by Orochimaru…that he…even told me…that he preferred that Orochimaru take the Uchiha boy than me.”

“You did it for revenge, for nothing else.” Stated Kiba, now his eyes softened to her, “and because I promised him to tell this to my family and my teammates, I decided for my teammates…you deserve to know the truth.”

“Yes, I understand.” Responded Shino, “but what about the you now being a captain?”

Hinata breather slightly, “after the new Hokage was chosen she read the Third’s diary, he may burned my files, but he copied all of them in his diaries. Tsunade then knew about me and decided to ascend me to captain, with the same conditions. She never saw me in action and neither were listed on the data my abilities that made me a genius, but she believed in the Third’s judgment and leave it like that. Maybe now she’ll start to know what are those abilities.”

“You know what?” asked Kiba, patting Akamaru on his head, “now I’m curious to know what you can really do. Mind to show me in a friendly match?”

“Inuzuka,” hinata gestured, “there are things that high ranked nins like ANBU can’t do, so…”

“HINATA-CHAN!” screamed a loud blonde ninja, from the bushes, entering along with his teammates and sensei.