Eyes That May Not Cry: A Hinata Love Story
I was always the quiet one, the one that didn’t stand out in a crowd, the faceless one without a name, referred to as “that really quiet girl in the back”.
I always stayed in the back, in the corner, so I wouldn’t call attention to myself. I wore tan clothes, nothing out of the ordinary, and kept my eyes to the ground. That’s how it was, until I saw him. Naruto.
He was so brave, and I have always admired him even if it was from so far away. I watched him practice, so hard, even though everyone was against him. I always wished I could stand up for him, just say a something in his defense, but I always lost my nerve before I could say anything and so I just watched him suffer.
If only he saw me. If only I wasn’t just part of the scenery to him. If only he wouldn’t see right through me. Only seeing the shy, timid surface of me. If only he could give me some of his strength. If only he could make me feel as beautiful as he makes Sakura feel.
But as far as I know, he never will. And so I stay behind the trees, keeping to the shadows, quietly watching. Someday I hope that I might know enough to be as strong as him so I can one day gain some sort of pride in his eyes.
Today was the day. The day I would get to go on a mission with Naruto. He was joining my team for the day to try to find a special herb. We were going a long way, but with Naruto coming along I can only hope the journey was as long as they have said.
“Hey, wait up Hinata!”
I froze in my spot on the well-beaten dirt path as I heard his voice. He came up from behind me a moment later in his regular orange jumpsuit, his spiky blond hair shining in the bright morning sun.
“H-hello, N-naruto-kun.” I stammered, barely above a whisper.
“So where are Kiba and Shino?” Naruto asked, looking around with his beautiful sky-blue eyes.
“Oh, I was just going to meet them.” I replied softly and started to walk again.
“You know, Hinata, I was really glad when they put me on your team to help look for the herb. I really like hanging out with you. ” Naruto said, his arms behind his head.
I stopped again, wondering if I could have possibly heard him right. I could feel my face go a deep red. 'He likes hanging out with me?' I thought, unable to quite comprehend it.
“Hinata, did you know that when I’m around, your face goes red a lot?” Naruto said, looking at me and grinning his foolish grin.
My face heated even more and I looked down as if memorizing the swirls in the dust at my feet and then quickly started moving again, thankful when I heard Kiba’s voice.
“Hey, Hinata!” Kiba called out to me and even though Naruto was a bit behind me, out of Kiba’s view, as soon as he saw my still blushing face, he smirked.
“I can see Naruto can’t be far, and by from how red your face is, he must have talked to you, am I right?”
As soon as he said that, Naruto came running up.
“Hey, Hinata, why did you walk off so fast?” he asked, and Kiba’s smirk widened.
I looked up at Kiba, begging him silently to help. He nodded, still smirking.
“Hey, Naruto, come on, we better get a move on if we want to even make it a third of the way there by sundown.” Kiba said, and turned around starting towards the forest.
Shino was already way in front. He had started as soon as I had showed up. I rushed up behind Kiba, and Naruto followed behind me before catching up with Kiba and talking to him.
‘What could he have meant? Could he… could he?' I shook my head; there was no way my wish could actually be coming true.
Soon the sun started to set and we set up camp. I could not sleep with Naruto so close to me, in the same tent, so I slipped out, deciding to practice if I could not sleep.
I went to the nearest clearing beside a waterfall. The full moon was high over my head, its beautiful glow washed over me. I focused my chakra and started to practice, the pounding of the waterfall rang in my ears and focusing everything on my practice, I did not here the stealthy footsteps of three approaching strangers.
“Do you see her? She is very skilled, is she not?” A woman asked the two other men, her blood-colored hair pulled into a high pony tail, her metallic eyes watching Hinata from the shadows.
“That she is. The eldest daughter of the Hyuuga clan; she will make a great bargaining piece.” A rough-spoken man replied, looking greedily at Hinata as if she were a bag of gold instead of a person they were planning to abduct.
“But not skilled enough to stop us.” A skinny, weasel-like man added, his pointed nose and shiny eyes turned to Hinata along with the rest.
They proceeded, moving through the shadows, and then the largest man grabbed Hinata from behind. The other man pulled out a rope and moved towards the girl. The woman simply looked over it all, sneering as she saw the girl struggle against them. When the girl screamed, the woman calmly placed her hand over her mouth right before the man that had grabbed her hit her hard on the head. As Hinata fell to the ground, she mumbled something under her breath before sinking into darkness.
I thought I saw something in the shadows as I trained, but shrugged it off, concentrating even harder, then in a swift movement of black, I felt rough hands grab me from behind. I struggled, kicking at them, I started to make the hand signs when I realized in horror that I had used too much chakra already. I screamed for help, but then felt a hand cover my mouth, turning my scream into a muffled cry. Then I felt a hard blow to my head and everything started to go dark. Before the world was gone from my eyes I whispered one word in a quiet prayer.
“Naruto.”
When I woke up, I looked around, wondering where I was. I was surrounded by darkness, with the only light shining right into my eyes. I tried to move my head away, but discovered that I was restrained. My eyes widened in horror and I attempted to move my body only to find it was tied down. Then an evil cackle was heard from the shadows and the three kidnappers came through the darkness that seemed to follow them.
“Hello, eldest of the Hyuuga main branch, and welcome to The Village Hidden in Clouds. Here you are the guest of honor.” The woman with bloody hair proclaimed proudly, sweeping her arms around the shadows where I could see nothing.
“W-why am I here?” I stuttered, fearing the worst.
“I am surprised that you haven’t guessed that by now.” The woman sneered, mock surprise in her icy voice.
“See, you have something we want, the way of the Byakugan, and you are going to tell us how it works or we will have to obtain the knowledge ourselves using very painful methods.” The woman stretched out the word painful.
I winced, closing my eyes as I heard their footsteps leave, a heavy door slam shut, and a lock click. I hoped that I could figure out how to get out before my best friends and my love got themselves in danger.
I tried the ropes only to find them digging into my skin. I wanted to cry at the hopelessness of the situation. The darkness surrounding me, whispering secrets of the night, of murders and blood.
And then Naruto came into my head. I saw him being so brave in the face of danger and I swallowed my tears. He would never cry, even if he was tied to a steel table, surrounded by darkness and shadows, even with three cloud ninjas swearing to come back and use painful methods to get information, even in all of this he would not give up.
“And neither will I,” I said without stuttering and tried the ropes again, thinking hard.
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I woke up in the tent, rubbing my eyes groggily wondering why I had woken up in the
first place. It looked like it was still dark, maybe around midnight. I looked around, feeling as though something was missing. Then I saw it, Hinata was gone.
“You guys! Wake up! Wake up! Hinata’s gone!” I shouted, shaking Kiba and Shino, roughly waking them up.
“Shut up, you loud-mouth ninja! What about Hinata? What time is it?” Kiba asked, sleepy and annoyed. Shino sat up, glaring from under his dark glasses.
“She’s gone! She’s not in here! Quick, come on! We’ve got to find her! She could be in trouble!” I shouted still, struggling as I put on my clothes, ready to tear out of the tent.
“Stop Naruto! Take a deep breath. Now, you say Hinata’s gone, right? She could be practicing; she does that sometimes,” Kiba said, getting ready to go back to sleep, obviously not very worried at all.
“Come on Kiba, let’s just check, please? If we find her practicing then we can all go back to bed and I will leave you alone, okay? Just come on.” I whined having got my clothes on, reaching towards the tent flap.
Kiba sighed, “Fine Naruto. Let’s go, Akamaru, so we can prove to Naruto that Hinata is fine.”
Akamaru lifted his head, seeming to sigh as well, then got up with Kiba, lifting his muzzle into the air. Catching Hinata’s scent he barked and ran out of the tent followed closely by me, with Kiba behind, and Shino walking behind us all.
Akamaru whimpered as he sniffed the place where the cloud villagers had taken her.
“What is it Akamaru?” Kiba asked, worry spread like a disease across his features as he heard his dog’s whimpers.
“Naruto, maybe you were right,” Kiba said turning to me. As soon as I heard that, I felt the blood drain from my face and only stood there dumbfounded until I looked at Kiba.
“We have to find her,” I said, my voice shaking. Kiba looked at me a mixture of jealousy and pity in his face, then he looked to the ground and then back at me. “We will Naruto.”
Shino nodded in agreement and we all stood for a moment of silence.
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I found myself now a bit less hopeless and even let a small smile escape onto my lips as I saw the sun rise and scare the muttering shadows away. I finally had regained some of my strength, at least enough to start to loosen the ropes. I thought I had almost got them when I heard the door unlock. I stopped immediately with my struggling and watched in fear as the door knob slowly turned and in came the weasel-like man. He looked at me greedily, his hands like claws.
“Well heiress of the Hyuuga clan, you do not know how lucky you are that we have decided to postpone our discovering the way of the Byakugan. But not for long. We are just waiting to see if your father may want his precious daughter back. We have sent him news of your capture and he will be sending us back his answer soon. Until then heiress.” The man said in a rasping voice, his long, pointed nose seeming to sniff just like a rat before he left, sneering an almost toothless sneer.
I wanted to cry again, knowing that father would not care and would not send help. But I held back the tears again. Even more determined now to get free, I started to work on the ropes again.
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“Kiba are you sure this is right? I mean, look at those mountains! How are we going to make it up there?” I asked, gazing up at the mountain disappearing up into the clouds.
“Yep, this is where her scent leads us, all the way to the top, too.” Kiba said grimacing. I groaned, then remembered Hinata’s face and how she was counting on us. I sighed, looking up at the mountain again.
“Only for you Hinata.” I whispered and we started our long climb.
I wondered what Naruto was doing as I almost freed myself of the ropes. I wondered if he was worried, if he was searching for me, if he was doing anything at all. I felt tears again and wanted to hit myself as I wondered why this brought tears. So what if he wasn’t searching? It would keep him out of danger if he wasn’t. If he was, well, I doubted that he would go to that much trouble for a girl who only blushed and stuttered whenever he was near.
Then I felt the ropes fall away and I smiled, moving my arms and legs from their sleeping state, and then breaking the restrains keeping my head in place. I slid off the table, almost collapsing from my weak, wobbling legs. I gripped the table, trying to steady myself, looking around the room and wondering what would happen if the kidnapping cloud ninjas caught me. I shuddered and was looking around for a way to escape, when I heard the lock click and the door swing open.
I turned my head to see the cloud ninjas themselves. I gasped and trembled as they came in, a look of anger in their eyes. The strongest man once again grabbed me. I struggled hard this time as he tried to put me back on the table. The woman had a series of sharp knives and scalpels. My violet-colored eyes widened as I saw them, and I screamed, kicking the man hard between the legs and sending him to his knees. The other man made a grab for me, but I dodged him, sending a sicking blow to his stomach and he too fell to the ground.
I was almost to the door when the woman grabbed my arm, long nails digging into my flesh, causing blood to trickle down my pale skin. She spun me around so that I faced her, making me look into her unfeeling, cold, metallic eyes.
“If you ever do that again I will personally torture you until you die as slowly and painfully as I can mange.” Her voice an icy, murderous whisper. I glared at her, only to feel a swift stinging pain that sent me to the ground. I watched from the rough, concrete floor as she dragged the men out the door, slamming it shut with a glare.
I closed my eyes, feeling my cheek bruised from the woman’s slap, and the pain of my bleeding arm. I desperately wanted to let the tears flow from my eyes, but I blinked them back, shakily went to the barred window of my steel and concrete room and gazed over at what was now the sunset. I shivered as the cold, snowy wind blew into my face and I wondered what was going to happen to me and if I would be able to stop it.
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We were almost there. We could see a small village ahead. high in the clouds, snow covering everything. Akamaru was nestled deep in Kiba’s coat. Shino, lucky to have his glasses, tried to keep as much of his face covered by his high coat as possible. I kept walking into the ice and snow face on, determined to find Hinata.
We couldn’t see or hear much with the blowing cold slush and snow into our face, the wind’s lonesome call constantly echoing in our ears. We saw no one in the village and it seemed deserted, but as we passed houses, we discovered people inside huddled away from the cold. I could see the sun start to set, its blood-red coloring washing over the white, pure snow as if it were freshly spilled blood.
Finally, I saw a large, looming grey building that seemed to tower over the small houses that cringed in its shadows. High above, I saw a lonely barred window, but nothing else as the wind picked up again. I pointed to the building and the others nodded as we set course for it.
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As I looked out the window, I felt my heart skip a beat and then start pounding against my chest as I saw a familiar blond spiked head of hair against the blinding snow. I wanted to call out to him, but knew my voice would only be lost in the wind and might only draw the attention of my captors. But even knowing that he was coming made it seem as though the snow was melting, the birds chirping, and the grey clouds disappearing to release the warmth of the sun.
I shook my head, "He could be killed by those cloud ninjas just to save me! I can’t let that happen! I must get out of here before he puts himself in even more danger."
I tore myself from the window and slumped again the wall holding my head and wishing I had never left the tent, that I had just gone to sleep. And yet that was the past and this was the present and I needed to get out before Naruto got himself killed.
I looked around seeing, the shadows grow as the sun set. I felt simply helpless and let myself sink deeper into the darkness of despair.
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We reached the building as darkness settled and the temperature dropping even more. I shivered in my orange jumpsuit and saw that like everyone else’s clothing, it had a thin sheet of ice on it. I looked up at the building, more of a castle then anything else, and saw heavy wooden doors. Without thinking, I rushed in through the doors and started running up the spiraling stone stairs, knowing that Hinata was up there.
“Hinata! Hinata where are you?” I called out, running as fast as I could, ice falling behind me.
“Naruto, what are you doing? Stop!” Kiba yelled after me and took off with Shino running behind him.
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“Naruto- kun? Naruto-kun! I’m here!” I called in joy, jumping up as I heard his loud echoing voice thundering through the darkness and shattering the murmuring shadows. “Kiba? Shino? Please I’m in here!” I yelled again through the door of my prison.
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I heard the faint voice of Hinata. “Hinata! I’ll be there soon!” I yelled back, relief sweeping over me as I ran up the final flight of stairs only to find at the landing three strangers.
A woman with blood-red hair pulled back tightly in a high ponytail, her metallic eyes glaring, cruelly laughed at us. On each of her sides was a man, one was roughly dressed, with a greedy look in his eyes, and the other was a ferret of a man, with a long pointed nose, shiny eyes, and claw-like hands.
“Are you the bastards that kidnapped Hinata?” I shouted in fury, wanting to kill them where they stood.
“Maybe. What business is it of yours?” the woman replied, sneering at my rage.
“Where is she?” I demanded.
“What, do you except me to tell you? Just like that? Oh no, you will never see her again,” the woman hissed and brought out a kunai.
I brought out my own kunai and lunged at her, the men laughing as the woman dodged easily. I saw from the corner of my eye that Kiba and Shino arrive from the stairs and begin to fight the men. I turned around as the woman running past me, slashing my arm open. I let out of cry of pain as the blood rushed out of the wound and onto the stone tiles.
I saw only the red of my anger engulfing me.
“Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!” I shouted and created five shadow clones. We surrounded her and she looked at them nervously before kicking one of the clones, making it pop into a cloud of smoke. The four other clones and I charged at her, the clones kicking her, then punched her into the air where I delivered the final blow that sent her unconscious body to the stone tiles.
The clones disappeared and breathing heavily, I looked over at Kiba and Shino as they beat the last of the other men. I grabbed a key from the fallen woman and ran to each of the doors of the long hallway, trying each one, yelling out Hinata’s name again and again.
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I heard the fight, hearing Naruto cry out in pain. I cringed, dreading to know what was happening. Finally, I heard him call out a jutsu and in a few moments I heard a loud thump as something hit the floor. I could only hope it wasn’t Naruto’s dead body. But then, as if through a miracle, I heard him call out my name, heard him run down the hallway.
“Naruto! I’m in here!” I called out, hearing his footsteps draw near. And then, finally, the lock clicked for the last time and I stepped away from the door as it swung open to reveal the one of whom I been thinking throughout the whole awful experience.
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I heard her calling, and threw open the door. I found her in a dark, cold room, the only light coming from a single bare bulb hanging above a steel table from which broken ropes dangled. I saw her standing in the doorway. I looked at her and then could only pull her tight against me.
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I saw him look at me as he entered the room, and then felt his strong arms pulling me close to him. At first I could hardly believe that he was hugging me, but I was too exhausted from being in such a dark and dismal prison that I just nestled against his chest. I could feel his warmth sinking into me and as I stayed in his tight embrace, I finally let out all the tears I had for so long held back.
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I looked down at her as she started to cry. I held her even closer, feeling her tears pour out and dampen the top of my jumpsuit. I wished we could stay like this forever. I looked down at Hinata and wondered ‘Am I in love with her?’ I thought of the past days and decided that it didn’t matter; just having her in my arms filled me with joy.
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I finally stopped crying and looked up at him and smiled, only to find him looking back down at me. I looked into his cyan eyes and blushed, but didn’t look away. ‘Does he know how much I love him?’ I thought staring into his eyes, hoping we would never part.
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I felt her lift her head from my chest and I looked down at her seeing her smile and blush. I smiled back, wondering how I could have missed how cute she looked when she blushed. ‘I do love her,’ I thought, and leaned down, gently pressing my lips against hers, kissing her softly.
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I saw him lean down and then I felt his lips against mine. My mind became clear of all thought, and I closed my eyes, blushing, kissing him back. I felt as though we were in the clouds, with music all around. I felt as though I were going to faint into those clouds, fall into that music.
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I opened my eyes and broke the kiss after what seemed like could have lasted forever and a day. I looked down at her, saw her blushing even more. “Hinata, I love you.” I whispered to her.
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“N-Naruto-kun, I- I love you too,” I said softly, looking up at him.
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Finally they parted from each other, meeting Kiba and Shino in the hall. Together, they went back to the leaf village. They told everyone of Hinata’s capture, leaving out only the last part, leaving everyone puzzled that Naruto and Hinata came back as a couple. Some were heart broken to find Hinata taken, such as a certain dog-boy, but knew that they loved each other very much. Others thought they were just the cutest couple and bugged them where ever they went, and others still could have cared less. Rumors spread, but they alone know the truth of the mission that began as a search for a simple herb, becoming a mission of finding true love.
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Chapter notes: This is my first fanfiction story so please R&R. I would love some criticism even flames would be interesting. Also please tell me if I should put this story into chapters because right now it is just in a whole so just tell me and I will.
Disclaimer: I do not on Naruto or any of its character. If I did I wouldn't be writing fanfiction I would just make shows. Anyway yeah...