章 17: Chapter 32
I was in the kitchen, making tea. Hinata was looking at the shelves of notebooks in my living room. She must have opened one when I heard her ask, "What is this, Haru-san? I can't read any of this."
Since I could afford paper, I had written notes on what I could remember about Naruto's life. They were nothing more than random scribbles and abstract representations of who knew who in this world. It wouldn't have been intelligible even if you could read the English despite my handwriting, but it was enough to remind me of what I needed to know if I ever felt I forgot anything. "Maybe that's why Inoichi asked if I wrote stories? He must have seen me writing in my notebooks."
While the tea steeped, I went to see what Hinata had pulled out. "Oh, it's that one." Aloud, I told her, "Hyuga-san, do you want to bring that to the table? The tea is almost ready. And are you hungry? I haven't eaten yet tonight." After Inoichi's interrogation, I had come directly home, meaning I hadn't eaten anything since lunch.
"Um, I don't want to be a bother," she said quietly.
She sat down, her arms wrapped around my notebook. I set down a cup of tea in front of her. I only had the one traditional teacup, since before Hinata I never had visitors. My own tea was in a plain coffee mug that sat on the counter as I quickly prepared dinner.
Years of practice had honed my innate gift of cooking skill, which I figured came from my past life. Tonight, however, I simply pulled together side dishes from my fridge, boiled some water for miso soup, and fried some eggs and meat to go with rice from the cooker. It was essentially what I did to prepare lunch for myself and Naruto. It wasn't long before I had a decent meal laid out for myself and Hinata.
"How long were you waiting outside?" I asked.
"Ah, um, I wanted to talk to you after class..." she answered, trailing off into quiet mumbles.
I plucked the notebook from Hinata, who had been averting her gaze and was startled. I flipped through the pages of diagram and notes to find one specific page with the flowchart I needed to guide my explanation. With my left hand, I held it open on the table. With my right hand, I fed myself as I considered how to phrase what I would say.
"Aren't you going to say 'Itadakimasu'?" Hinata meekly admonished me for my lack of manners.
I shrugged and gave her a small smile. "I guess that is a thing, isn't it? Maybe my parents should have taught me better." Neither of us laughed. The blue haired girl started to feed herself silently.
"This is the story of the Paper Princess and her brothers," I told her, tracing my finger along scorchlines I had made long ago, simple circles and lines without labels. It was enough for me to remember the whole tale, however.
"Do you write stories, Haru-san?" Hinata asked, suddenly very interested in the paper under my finger.
"No. I just read a lot. Do you want to hear the story?"
Hinata gave a genuine smile as she said, "Yes, I would."
"Goddang. So pure, so innocent, so moe. Why is itty-bitty Hinata so kawaii?" I felt like my heart was going to burst. Instead of looking at Hinata, I focused on how I would tell the story of Akatsuki. With a long sigh, I started to tell her a fairytale.
"Far, far away, there is a land where it rains day and night. The reason why it would rain constantly is because the sky was weeping for the country that had been torn apart by wars and bloodshed. Because of the war, a little girl, with blue hair just like yours, lost her parents. Although she was all alone at first, she eventually made friends with two other orphans and they lived together, trying to survive amidst the war that ravaged their land.
"One day, a powerful ninja was passing through the area and gave the trio of orphans some of his food. In thanks, the girl folded for him a beautiful flower out of the food wrappers of the food the man had given them. Impressed, the ninja decided to help the orphans by teaching them ninjutsu.
"For a long time, the four of them lived together, like a small family. But eventually, when the orphans had learned enough to defend themselves, the powerful ninja had to move on to other lands. Thus, it was only the paper girl and her two brothers, one who had orange hair and one who had red hair.
"Together, they decided to stop the fighting in their country. The girl with the power over paper, the red haired boy with mystical eyes, and the orange haired boy with a dream of peace, they named themselves the Red Dawn to symbolize their wish to see the end of the bloodshed and war.
"They gained many followers who shared the dream of the orange haired boy and he became the leader of the Red Dawn. Eventually, the evil ruler of the country began to see the Red Dawn as a threat and set a trap for them, telling them that he wanted their help to bring peace to the country. Instead, he killed the orange haired boy and many of his followers and kidnapped the girl who used paper ninjutsu.
"Enraged, the red haired boy set out to kill the evil ruler to avenge his brother and save his sister. To do so, he summoned a great and terrible power with his eyes and he defeated the evil ruler and became the new ruler of the land. However, the terrible power he had awoken left him greatly weakened and before the evil ruler died, he laid a curse upon the red haired boy that left him unable to walk or run.
"So as the red haired boy ruled the land, the girl of paper would help him, making wings of paper to travel the land and speak in his place. The boy used the power of his eyes to stop the rain and became revered as a god. The people would call the girl an angel of god, because of her paper wings. And for a while there was hope in the land of eternal rain. But it was not to last.
"An evil advisor appeared to help the red haired boy rule the country. But in reality, the evil advisor only wanted to take advantage of the power of the boy's eyes. The evil advisor told him that in order to truly bring peace, he must gain even more power to instill enough fear to stay any who would start war.
"In his quest for power, the red haired boy with the mystical eyes sought to steal the power of the ninja villages but together they defeated him. On his deathbed, he realized his mistake and asked everyone to forgive him as he used the power of his eyes to undo the harm he had caused.
"The blue haired girl who wielded paper was distraught that both her brothers had died and vowed revenge on the evil advisor. They fought each other and just when the girl thought she had won, the evil advisor revealed that he too, had mystical eyes and sacrificed one of his eyes to escape certain death.
"At this point, for the first time in the history of the land of rain, the skies cleared and the rain stopped. The girl declared that she would continue the dream of peace that her brothers had passed onto her. But...the evil advisor fled into the darkness before she could defeat him. And for the rest of her life, she ruled over the land, trying to bring peace that maybe, one day, the sun would shine again."
When I looked up from my notes, Hinata had a fascinated look on her face. I guess she had been impressed by the story. I suppose it was nicer than the original. I couldn't bear to tell her that Konan was supposed to die at the end. "Maybe it could have a happy ending after all?" I wondered, knowing only half the story had actually happened by now.
"That was beautiful! But it was so sad too. I'm glad there is a happy ending though!" she said cheerfully before continuing to eat her forgotten meal. I noted that my own rice had gotten cold during the story too as I started to dig in. As I was plucking food from the side dishes with my chopsticks, Hinata stopped eating to talk, "Haru-san, I've never met anyone like you before."
I raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, Hyuga-san?"
She looked down, which happened to be into her half-finished rice bowl. "You act so differently all the time. During Academy, you're always so polite and you smile all the time. But when you fought with me and Naruto, it's like the only time when you truly seem to be enjoying yourself. Even right now, you're being so nice to me but you seem so sad. It's not on your face but it's in your eyes. I don't understand it."
"One day, I might have to do a lot of terrible things. Things that you can't be a part of." "I'm your rival. I'm someone you have to defeat in order to get stronger. And I don't mind helping you. You have so much potential to be an amazing ninja, an amazing person. But as your rival, I have to walk a separate path," I tried to explain.
"That sounds more like you are talking about yourself and Naruto!" the girl complained. "Haru, are...are we friends?" Hinata asked me, looking directly into my eyes.
"I think of you as a friend, Hyuga-san."
"Then...you can call me Hinata. I...I don't mind," she told me, blushing.
"It's getting late. I'll take you home, Hyuga-san," I said blankly, rising out of my chair.
"Okay, Haru-san," she said dejectedly enough to make me feel a small pang of guilt. She put down her chopsticks and followed my cue to stand up to leave.
I accompanied her to the Hyuga compound. We walked quietly the entire way there, not really having anything left to say.
"Good night, Hyuga-san," I called with a wave as I left her alone at the gate.
She seemed to hesitate but if she eventually said anything, I was already too far away to hear.
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