Wilting Blossoms

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Chapter Six: Of Persuit and Rivalry
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Hinata bounded through the trees, her lungs aching. She had a smaller frame than any of the others and it took her more leaps to achieve the same speed. She hadn’t uttered a word of complaint though… it was obvious Naruto-kun wanted to keep up or even increase their blazing pace.

Naruto-kun. Traveling behind him in the formation had made the journey easier… just looking at him seemed to give her strength. It always had, back when they entered the Ninja Accademy when she was nine. He was just like her, in many ways. He was an outcast of the village, but she was an outcast inside her own family. He dealt with it by building an indomitable resolve and sticking with his one dream… to someday be the Hokage of Konoha. She dealt with it by… well… she didn’t really deal with it. The constant fears and doubt were stifling her progress. She really wished she could pass on her position as head child to Neji, or her sister Hanabi… but they had been born in an order and tradition wouldn’t let them change it. Hanabi’s children too would be marked with the restraining curse.

The restraining curse… she hated it. She hated Neji’s mocking deference to her. She wanted to gain his respect, for him to be friendly to her and train with her, but all she could ever get from him was the protocol of respect in a well hidden tone of seething rage. He hated people having control over him, like an inescapable fate, and she would always have that control. No matter what she did, he would always hate her. And the head family disliked her too… her father and mother desperately tried to drive her to an acceptable level of talent so she wouldn’t be such an embarrassment to them. But until recently… her heart just wasn’t in the training. Not until… he had really begun to inspire her.

Naruto had matured since they graduated. No longer was he just the loud, obnoxious prankster… he was impassioned and driven… and had a strong sense of responsibility. And there was even more, simmering underneath. She watched the object of her affection ahead of her, his body literally pouring over with the same red, evil chakra that had defeated her cousin. She was terribly worried about him. The forces that gave him those incredible reserves… they were demonic. Both she and Neji knew about it, but Neji had respected her wishes and kept most of his observations to himself. He didn’t need any more trouble. She needed to be stronger so that when the time came, she could help him defeat the evil inside him. She wanted to help him… but right now the only thing he wanted to see was Sakura.

She burned. Her unknowing rival… Haruno Sakura. It would be different if Sakura could see what was in front of her, and Naruto and her found happiness. She would cheer for their love then, though it would hurt. But Sakura insisted on pining over the same boy half the other girls in the village did, and ignored Naruto-kun in the process. Naruto-kun was too good for her. Hinata wanted him to notice her so badly, it hurt. But she… she had always been terrible at talking with new people. She barely talked with her teammates, Kiba and Shino, and though she loved and trusted her sensei, Kurenai, she couldn’t talk about Naruto with someone so much older than her.

The gap between her and Naruto in the line was growing wider again. Her brow furrowed in determination as she clamped down on her weakness, forcing herself to push on, barely managing to close the gap so she stayed in formation before her resolve failed and she couldn’t gain on him anymore. Which left her chasing Naruto as usual, without a chance in the world of catching him.