Build Me a Castle (And I'll Tear It Down)

Fandom: Naruto

Summary: ''Her name is Karin, an Uzumaki, and well, Hinata's never been able to resist those.'' Hinata tears down walls and finds happiness in the sea.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

The Hyuga, for all they may see with their all-seeing eyes, are blind. Hinata doesn't desire gold or precious stones, she wants warm arms around her and something that feels real in a world full of lies and deception.

The compound is a chain, a castle build to hold her down, to contain her, and it prevents her from flying free, weighing her wings down until she's chained to the ground and can't rise, no matter how much she tries.

She loves Naruto. He showed her the way to the gate, showed her that the world could be so much more than captivity just by breathing. By smiling.

But Naruto, for all his smiles, rarely shows his pain.

He can't give her what she wants and she won't ask him to. She loves him, but she has learned to love herself more. He needs someone who's broken in a different way than she is, someone who tangles into his shadows and light both.

She is not that person and that hurts, like a knife in her chest twisted once more for the good measure. But that's the world, you see. Because birds fly free, but still they follow the seasons. The axis doesn't stop turning and Hinata doesn't stop peering over the compound wall and climbing, clambering down. If she can't fly, she'll have to learn to use her legs, and how they might carry her.

Every step she takes is accompanied by another piece of glass digging into her skin, tearing it up and making her bleed.

Cry me a river, a river of blood, and you'll see, it leads to more wounds.

Just not Hinata's own.

Her lips tremble, and her crimson hair spikes up at the sides like the edges of a jagged wound, but she's covered in scars that mark her a survivor. Her name is Karin, an Uzumaki, and well, Hinata's never been able to resist those.

Her smiles are the morning dew, small, blooming and watering the flowers of life. She's the sea, calm and healing, yet she sinks ships just as easily. Karin is growth and destruction in one and Hinata...

The world has always been a big, scary place and braving it is the only way to live. Hinata will have to ride the waves if she wants to learn how to swim.

She inhales, exhales, takes Karin's hand and presses her lips softly, sweetly, against hers.

It's letting go of the wall, plunging into the nothingness, into the freedom of the unknown, and it's scary, this uncertainty

Karin doesn't react at all and Hinata's heart falls.

With a lump in her throat, she pulls back, biting her lip. The ground is dusty, as are their shoes. She scuffs the earth with her toes. ''I'm sor-''

Karin lifts her chin. ''Don't be.''

It sounds grumpy, but there's a tone that sings of a whole world hidden beneath the surface, thousand gallons below, and Karin leans forward and kisses Hinata first this time to let her in.

Hinata is shy and small, but it's made her brave and quick and loved. The sea is her home now, and under she will go, but she won't drown. She can swim, and as long as there's someone out there who believes in her, if only herself, then she can do this. She can breathe underwater, and love and live with her lips pressed against Karin's.

Her father might disapprove, but in the end, he loves her. She tore his castle down, and he too, will have to live with it.

Hinata has the world to see and nobody is going to take it from her.

Author's note

Ever since I read Lay me down in the sands of time by blackkat, I've been shipping HinaKarin hard! I've wanted to write something for them for quite some time now, so when Metronomeihear (here on ffnet too) gave me the title prompt Build Me A Castle (And I'll Tear It Down) I took my chance!

I hope you enjoyed it!