The lunch break in the academy was in full swing and as usual, Hinata sat alone at the back of the classroom. Before she met Ren, she was always sad to be alone and could only enviously look upon all the cliques in the room as they had fun with each other while eating their lunch.
Nowadays, though...
"Yo, bitch." Ino casually invited herself to the seat next to Hinata and bumped her shoulder to HInata's. She instantly noticed that Hinata's Byakugan was on so she teasingly added, "Not stalking the troublemaker today I hope?"
Hinata gave her a very unamused look. "What about you, bimbo? Not talking about Uchiha today? Are you feeling alright?" She quietly retorted back.
"I don't talk about him that much." Ino sniffed and tried to steal a bite from Hinata's lunch with her chopsticks, only for Hinata to parry them with her own and give her a warning glance.
"I think our teacher would disagree." She said.
Ino huffed as her next attempt to reach Hinata's bento box was rebuffed again. "You know that I only do that because I know it annoys the hell out of him. It's a payback for all the stupid things he is putting me through during training." She said with a tongue slightly poking out of her mouth due to her utmost concentration on her thieving attempts.
But Hinata had Byakugan and was still faster than Ino so the blonde was out of luck. Hinata valiantly managed to defend her lunchbox.
"And you know that I don't do any 'stalking' anymore." Hinata grumbled, causing Ino to exclaim in offended protest as she managed to slip her chopsticks through Ino's guard and take one onigiri from her bento box.
"Tsk. Bitch." Ino clicked her tongue and ceased her attempts at stealing Hinata's food. Instead, she leaned a bit away from her so her own lunch box would be safe.
Hinata gave Ino a very small smirk but it was gone almost as soon as it appeared. She was satisfied with her retaliation. She was no longer that weak girl who had no idea how to improve. Hinata didn't even know why it bothered her so much, but it did, and Ino knew it. That's why she brought up her past stalking activities.
Because it reminded Hinata of the times when she was weak, meek, and powerless. When her only source of confidence was watching the orange goof causing trouble and unashamedly shouting his aspirations for everybody to hear with enviable confidence.
She still thought it was admirable.
But now she also had a goal and will to better herself without having to rely on confidence boost from stalking Naruto. It... made her proud. She felt as if she had grown up a bit.
"Your target is incoming." Hinata closed her eyes and dismissed her Byakugan when she noticed a certain boy approaching them. She looked at him as he came near, and had to resist the urge to raise her eyebrow at him. This was unexpected.
Sasuke did not interact with others. Ever. For any reason.
Hinata wondered what he wanted.
Sasuke came to a stop in front of Ino and Hinata's desk, staring at them with a composed and cool expression... but Hinata could see his minuscule body tells. He was awkward and probably didn't know what to say.
She could have helped him by starting the conversation. But it was surprisingly fun, seeing him struggle with social interaction. It was usually her in that position. She was truly turning into a horrible person under her teacher's tutelage, wasn't she?
"What is that?" Sasuke spotted HInata's lunchbox and blinked, his entire expression now having a small trace of interest.
Hinata inwardly hummed. That was as good a topic to break the ice as any, she guessed.
"S- Sasuke-kun?" Ino finally snapped from her deep shock but still stared at him with wide eyes as if she had just seen something impossible happening.
"Spaghetti with tomato sauce." Hinata evenly replied. She didn't like how his expression shifted.
She remembered that this guy was a freak who had eaten tomatoes for lunch every day for the past few years. Her stalki-, ahem, observation activities gave her a great overview of knowledge about her classmates.
"Can I-" Sasuke confidently looked Hinata in the eyes as he started to speak.
"Of cou-" Ino instantly butted in, almost eagerly.
"No." But Hinata deadpanned. Not just no. But hell no.
Ren didn't cook often for her. She noticed he didn't like cooking all that much. Usually, he just let her use his kitchen to make herself a lunch box for the next day. The Hyuga clan imposed a strict diet on her but her food intake was not enough for her body now that she had the gravity seals forcing it to grow stronger.
If she deviated from the diet, her father would get mad. It was the diet made by their ancestors throughout the generations to ensure the best growth of Hyuga shinobi... or some bullshit like that.
She inwardly giggled. She started to even sound like her teacher.
She also couldn't tell her father why she needed more food. Revealing that Ren put a seal, even a beneficial one, on her would probably make her father lock her in a room before forbidding her to meet her teacher ever again.
Fortunately, Ren offered her an easy solution. But it was still rare to get food made by him and Hinata cherished it. She was so not sharing. Not even with Ino and she actually liked the blonde bimbo.
Not that she would tell that to her face anytime soon.
"Oi." Ino reproachfully rebuked Hinata's rude reply and gently poked her in the ribs. "One bite won't-"
Just then, Iruka's voice interrupted Ino's speech, "Kids! Gather up! The spars will start shortly!"
Hinata felt relieved. She wasn't in a mood to argue with Ino about this. She closed her lunch box and almost let out a chuckle when Sasuke's face slightly fell, his eyes following the box as she put it back into her bag.
"If you want to try them that much, just go to a restaurant. They have them almost anywhere nowadays." Hinata told the Uchiha to prevent any idea about stealing it. That seemed to slightly cheer the boy up.
How he didn't know the dish, she had no idea. It was sold everywhere. Then again, she heard he was highly anti-social, a bit like her in that regard. And he supposedly only went to the grocery store, academy, and spent the rest of his time in his clan compound, probably training. "Plus, the restaurants will make them much better than... nevermind."
Yes. Ren was no master chef. Even she could make better spaghetti. But she wasn't going to admit that out loud. Especially not in front of Ino. The blonde would definitely blab and Hinata actually wanted to eat Ren's food again in the future. Even if it wasn't up to par with a dish from a restaurant.
The kids quickly gathered around the arena in the training yard and the spars started. Hinata stood next to Ino, a bit to the side of the main group of gathered kids as they watched the matches. So far, mostly just civilian-borns fought. Their performance was laughable and Hinata idly wondered how many of them would live past their twentieth birthday.
Catching herself thinking that, her mood soured. Thankfully, Ino was silent. Throwing her a glance, Hinata noticed an uncomfortable look on the blonde's face as she watched the pathetic catfight in the match between two civilian-born kunoichi in training.
Hinata understood. Just a few weeks ago, Ino was not much better than them. Watching how... unskilled they were was probably a bit conflicting for Ino who was in their place and thought herself good enough.
Now she knew differently. Hinata went through similar conflicting feelings. It probably didn't help Ino that one of the kunoichi was Sakura and she got knocked on her ass with a straight slap to her left cheek.
Hinata wanted to facepalm and sigh at the sky. It was not even a punch. Just a slap. And this girl wanted to be a kunoichi?
Worse yet, Ren actually off-handedly told her that the pinkette had great potential when they discussed her classmates. Hinata just didn't see it.
Heh. At least she no longer disliked the pinkette because Naruto had eyes only for her. Now she dislikes her because, 'she would probably not have as much talent as Sakura in the medical field but she should still do well enough', as Ren once muttered when he thought she wasn't watching.
Hinata almost regretted reading his lips. But it was almost an instinctual skill for a Hyuga. It made her double down on her efforts at learning from the medical texts he procured for her. She was so not going to be beaten by Sakura out of all people.
Sasuke came to the stage and their instructor was about to ask who wanted to challenge him. As the top student, others could freely challenge him but only Naruto and Kiba bothered to do it regularly. Well, mostly Naruto.
His enthusiasm was always so endearing. But his fighting skills made Hinata always inwardly wince nowadays. She even tried to talk to Iruka about it but the man just helplessly shrugged, saying he tried his best but Naruto... Well, it is what it is.
The one useful thing her clan actually imparted to her was that it didn't matter how much one trained if that training was not done in an effective manner.
At least, Naruto did start to improve since Ren gave him the notebook with helpful tips they made together. She didn't include the 'learn this if you want to beat Uchiha Sasuke' clause in the notebook for nothing. After her detailed observations, she knew what made the orange blonde tick.
Iruka might not know how to motivate Naruto to learn something as mind-numbingly boring as proper taijutsu katas but Hinata had a much better grasp on Naruto's personality and how to make him do what she wanted.
Hinata's thoughts were interrupted when Sasuke, who was on the stage, suddenly loudly exclaimed but still in a composed tone, "I want to fight the Hyuga." He looked at Iruka who gave Hinata a 'what can you do' look before beckoning her to come into the ring with a small apologetic smile.
"Hey, bastard! What has she done to you!?" Naruto, of course, instantly angrily shouted at Sasuke, flailing his fist around. "Why don't you fight me instead!"
Sasuke just snorted, and his eyes did not move away from Hinata no matter how loud Naruto got.
"Oh, look at that. How cute. Your crush is defending you." Ino very quietly whispered to Hinata.
"Ouff." Ino suddenly leaned forward as Hinata gave her a chakra poke right under her ribs, hitting only muscle and no organs. At best it would bruise slightly but it would also hurt for the remainder of the day. All the medical knowledge was not for naught. And Byakugan just made using it that much more convenient.
"That's not nice, Ino-chan." Hinata 'shyly' said. After all, people were looking at them.
The fact that using a gentle fist on Ino like that was out of character for her momentarily went over her head.
"I liked you better when you were shy." Ino wheezily said, easily powering through the pain. It wasn't that bad. They had worse during their training.
Hinata snorted and started moving into the ring. When she was standing opposite the Uchiha, he seriously spoke as they made the Seal of Confrontation, "Fight me properly. Without holding back."
She resisted the urge to take off her jacket. Taking it off constituted getting serious nowadays. Her mind just made that link along the lines of her training. It was just a pity she didn't want her clan to know how good she had become under Ren's training. Her jacket stayed on. She felt a bit bad due to Sasuke's request, though.
"Um... I don't like fighting, Sasuke-kun." Hinata said in an apologetic tone, sounding meek. She even ducked her head a bit, mostly out of habit.
Hearing her, Sasuke cringed. "Don't do that." He bit out, put off. "It's creepy."
Hinata was about to ask him what he meant but Iruka intervened and started the match with a loud, "Begin!"
Sasuke sprang forth and jumped into the air, attempting to kick Hinata in the chest with a spinning high kick for an opener and Hinata barely dodged by rolling under Sasuke while activating her Byakugan.
She was much slower than the Uchiha with the gravity seals on her. She needed the superior visual prowess to put up at least some fight.
Their positions were now reversed as Sasuke landed on the ground and Hinata stood up. But Sasuke was already performing his next attack, trying to deliver a punch to Hinata's head. She saw it coming, however.
She blocked the punch with a small wince and her right fist was already midway to Sasuke's abdomen when he grabbed her wrist, stopping it in place.
Hinata did not hesitate as the Uchiha expected. She just changed her block into a hold as her left hand clamped around Sasuke's wrist and she jumped up, her knee already on its way toward his chin.
Sasuke's eyes widened and his superior speed came to his rescue as he released Hinata's wrist and forcefully turned his body to the right, dodging her knee as it almost grazed his chin.
Sweat rolling down his temple, Sasuke smirked in anticipation. He had her. She was in midair and unable to defend against his counterattack!
And indeed. His foot crashed into Hinata's side, sending her through the air before she landed sliding her feet on the ground, holding her side. Sasuke's eyes glinted in excitement. She could keep up with him and he didn't even remember when last he had fun fighting a classmate.
He was about to continue the spar when Iruka suddenly yelled, "Winner, Sasuke Uchiha!"
Looking like a deer in headlights, Sasuke stopped in his tracks, his head whipping toward Iruka who only gestured at Hinata's feet. She was out of the ring.
Sasuke's eye twitched as he gave Hinata a small angry glare. She was exactly an inch outside of the ring. He didn't believe even for a second that it was coincidental. She clearly could have stopped her body while still within the ring.
Hinata didn't look him in the eyes and just did the Seal of Reconciliation after the spar before returning to Ino's side as Sasuke intently watched her, much to the wailing despair of many fangirls in the audience.
The class continued but no other notable fight happened. Naruto was paired with a civilian-born boy and manhandled him in seconds despite the fight resembling a brawling match in a tavern rather than a proper ninja fight. Ino's opponent was also a civilian-born kunoichi. It was an easy win for the blonde who smugly looked at Hinata after her victory. And Shikamaru gave up the very first second his fight with Shino happened.
It was nothing out of the ordinary.
Hinata was packing her bag because the spars were the last class in the academy for today, when Sasuke approached her again, "Why?" He asked, not specifying his question but Hinata understood.
She glanced at him and quietly whispered, "Clan matters."
That made him purse his lips in displeasure, but eventually, he nodded, accepting the answer, "... Fine."
He opened his mouth to continue but Naruto jumped into his face, "Oi! Duck-ass! Stop bullying Hibaba!"
Hinata visibly winced at that and Sasuke gave Naruto a look that clearly questioned if the blonde wasn't an idiot. Sometimes, Hinata hated Ren's sense of humor. This was totally his fault.
"Fight me! I am going to beat your ass! Believe it!" Naruto continued, not noticing Sasuke's nor Hinata's expressions.
"Here we go again." Sasuke sighed and barely audibly mumbled under his nose, making Hinata giggle. Without even realizing it, Sasuke's lips twitched into a small smile.
Later, when he realized it, he could only stare in bewilderment at the wall. He didn't know when was the last time he genuinely smiled.