Heartbroken? Open to all but heroscomeback)

[twinlionfists]

Naruto-kun had been in Michi no Sato for a few days now, and while after their first talk they'd shared many more, it still felt awkward and painful to be around him.

No matter that he'd said, and she understood, that he needed time to adjust to being away from the fighting and other things that had occurred back home, her heart was still heavy.

She didn't know how to talk to anyone about it. Would it be proper? Who would understand? Could she do it?

Lost in thought, she sat down in the dojo of Mikoto-san's house with the intent to meditate and clear her head, but it wasn't really working after an hour.

Comments

[twinlionfists]

Really, why couldn't her own sister have been this cute? Why hadn't Hinata herself realised how unhappy the Sasuke-kun of her time had been before now? No, she'd noticed him, but always as the polar opposite of Naruto, seemingly his complement.

But this child, holding her hand with such trust, happiness and innocence was a stranger to her, but a stranger that lifted her spirits with almost no effort. Even being around Neji-nii-san had become painful once more, ruining the rapport they'd worked so hard to build up.

As they walked through the village, Hinata made a point of cataloging all of the important sights she'd missed during her previous trips. Before she knew it, they were in front of Ino-san's shop.

[one_without_wings]

"Yaaaay~ We're here!" he started running once the shop was in sight. "Come on, neesan!" as if somehow the shop would just vanish if he did not hurry...

"Ino-neesan!" he cried out as they reached the door. He'd have to either let go of the drawing or his neesan's hand to open the door, and he wanted to do neither.

[twinlionfists]

She smiled yet again at the child's exuberance. It was nearly contagious, almost like being with Naruto-kun sometimes. "Ino-san," she called out, trying the knob but finding the door locked. "Ino-san," she said louder, despite the blush rising to her cheeks. "Are you home?"

[one_without_wings]

"Oh, lemee try.." he took in a deep breath and "..oh yeah, plug your ears." he warned, waited two seconds..and then:

"Ino-neeeeeeeesan!
See? This is how you call someone.

[twinlionfists]

When he'd inhaled like that and warned her, Hinata stepped back a bit and covered her ears. However, she still wasn't quite ready for the bellow that came out of the tiny body.

[perfectcosmos]

And out popped a sleepy Yamanaka, who blinked down from her window before closing it again and hurrying to open the door for them, still in her pajamas. "Sorry, had an emergency with one of the Udon shop's kids' last night. Come on in."

[one_without_wings]

"Look, look Ino-neesan! Look who I brought!" and in zoomed an overly happy Sasuke, pulling Hinata in the shop. "We have a present too!" he held up the drawing with a big wide smile.

[twinlionfists]

"Ah, Ino-san, I'm so sorry to awaken you," Hinata said with a large blush. "Sasuke-kun said that you were...here, and I wished to see you."

[perfectcosmos]

"Well, I have to say this is a much happier day than last time someone woke me up with a Hinata." She gave the boy a smile, then leaned down to take the picture with solemn care, trying to identify what it was of.

Though, she did glance to Hinata. "I'm happy to see you too."

[one_without_wings]

The picture? It was tons of flowers -actually about eight- drawn in purple and green crayons. "Hinata-neesan and i drew you a picture! She said you liked purple, and flowers, so I took out my crayons! See, I drew this flower, and Hinata-neesan drew the stem and leaves, and then she drew this flower..." he explained how they kept switching in such a way."

"And then we came here~"

[twinlionfists]

"Ah, yes, I'm glad to see you as well, Ino-san," Hinata replied quietly as she watched her friend and the little boy interact. She really wished that it was easier for her to relax, but she kept getting the feeling from others in this village that they were watching her to see if she was going to do something improper or out of character. "I-I would like to speak to you about...something."

[perfectcosmos]

Ino crouched down and hugged the boy, murmuring into his ear. "I managed to get fresh tomatoes off the caravan, but I hadn't gotten to you yet, they're in a basket on the counter."

With a kiss on top of his head, she stood and released the boy, knowing he'd go for it and looking to Hinata.

[one_without_wings]

The boy gave a happy hug back, and his eyes grew wide at the mention of the tasty veggiefruit -they were fruit but most said vegetable so he gave up even trying- and ran upstairs as soon as he felt he could move again. "Thanks Ino-neesan!"
...he'd figured they had those grownups things to talk about that he,d know nothing about anyways, they knew better than to bore him with that!

[twinlionfists]

Hinata watched the little boy run off with a tiny smile before her face went blank. "Ino-san, I don't mean to be quite so...um...blunt, but I keep getting the feeling from everyone that they are waiting for me to do something wrong." She blushed and looked down at her toes. "Did something happen with another version of me?"

[perfectcosmos]

"Eh? Not that I've heard. I mean, the last you that was here I think only Neji and I even had any idea about and that wasn't... really a circumstance that would cause that at all." She shook her head a little. "Is there anyone specific you're thinking of?"

[twinlionfists]

"Ah, yes, I went to...um...pay my respects to the Hokage here. Neji-nii-san told me about him. And Tenten-san came up and she was rather...demonstrative...and physically possessive, I believe." She frowned. "Tenten-san and I have almost always gotten along well, so I was rather surprised."

[one_without_wings]

Meanwhile, Sasuke was upstairs, getting a stool so he could reach those tomatoes on the counter. He gave them light pokes, frowned at the colors... and picked up the reddest, biggest one!

...and promptly bit into it.
Life was a series of small joys~

[perfectcosmos]

"AH! I wouldn't worry about that. There was a rather public jealousy blowup over Itachi a bit back and she's been kinda possessive of him since. She'll settle down. In fact, I bet if you catch her alone you'll be just fine. It's not you."

[twinlionfists]

Despite what Ino-san was saying, Hinata felt a little ill-at-ease. Public blowup? Over Itachi-sama? That didn't sound like anything she would normally do. And she really didn't want to associate with that either.

While Michi no Sato seemed to be peaceful and fairly quiet, it still seemed to be just one grain of gunpowder shy of a powder keg. "Is it too late to go back to bed and stay there?" she muttered under her breath, uncharacteristically.

[perfectcosmos]

"You're fine, really. Tenten's just settling into having the man I think." She shook her head. "He doesn't really talk to a lot of people and after that whole mess... I heard about it from the villagers. Itachi got overly familiar with some Uchiha Tenten didn't know, she got angry, then Sasuke was seen later after the fight on his own... I never asked about it, but I try not to get too friendly with Itachi until they all get settled in with each other better, you know? You probably just got some backlash from that."

[twinlionfists]

All of what Ino-san was saying was so... It was too much. Hinata blushed and looked down at her shoes again. "Yes, I was...lucky that Naruto-kun happened to come by at that time."

[perfectcosmos]

"But you see? Nothing to do with you at all! Just her seeing you as a pretty girl alone with one of her guys, that's all. Sasuke's horribly unfriendly so she doesn't really do it over him, but Itachi tries."

[twinlionfists]

That sort of made sense to Hinata, since she'd dealt with being jealous of Sakura-san. "Yes, um, Itachi-sama seems very polite and wise."

She wanted to speak to the other girl about something else, but she was unsure how to approach it. "Um....uh..."

[perfectcosmos]

She noticed the hesitance and waved her on. "Go ahead."

[twinlionfists]

"How do you...I mean...how can you cope...with Sasuke-kun?" she asked softly, making sure that her voice didn't carry up to the little boy that she'd come to visit Ino-san with.