a/n hello! It's another story from me!! w00t! hope you enjoy it enoguh to come back and look for chapter one :) I relaly need to get those hyperlinks up for banners. that way you'll all know what the characters look like. and I'm sure you all care so much but...still.

and for anyone who reads my other stories: I am working on chapter thirteen of Butterfly Prophecy. Now time to read!

summary: I never got to experience love as a child. For some reason unknown to me, the village I lived in despised me. And because of that, I suffered. It hurt. A lot. I reache dout to others, but they recoiled. And because I grew up with this, if someone excluding my siblings reached out to me, I recoiled as well. Even after I left the village. But on my journey, I met someone who could change me and allow me to love not only myself, but others as well, even if it was a tough lesson, and he was a tough teacher.

I've Got No Strings

Prologue

It was one thing for the townspeople to say it; it was another thing completely for my own father to. Unlike a good portion of the villagers, he said it right to my face. And for some reason, it stung all the more.

For many years now, almost everyone in the village referred to me as 'trash' or 'garbage'--even the kindest of people eventually did. I never knew why. When I was younger, though, I always thought of it as funny and would giggle. To me it was some sort of inside joke that I was just happy to be a part of.

As I grew a little older, and much more knowledgeable, I realized being called 'trash' and 'garbage' wasn't a joke, but an insult. I didn't stick for myself, thought, not once. It never even crossed my mind that I should. However, I grew determined to prove each and every one of them wrong. I was going to graduate the Ninja Academy as a Genin in the top 3 of my class. Not only that, but, while still a Genin, I was going to become as powerful as a Chuunin--at least--and fight for my village.

My older brother was embarrassed by my determination and disappeared whenever we were approached, walking down the street together. Every time I told the mean village kids about my 'ridiculous plan' they'd all laugh at me. One boy and a few of his friends cronies would even go so far as to spit on me.

My older sister would scold them all with harsh words, and sometimes a red-hot hand of fury would find its way across each of their faces.

She paid for that severely.

Not too much changed over the years. Except, when I was ten--soon to be eleven--two important people to me changed their opinions about me. Or they just finally were expressing their true feelings, for better or for worse.

The first was my uncle, the only remaining member of my deceased mother's family. He had always seemed a little distant with me, but I thought nothing of it. Well, that is before the day I overheard a conversation he was having with my father. That in itself wasn't so odd, but the words he used hurt me, pierced me.

I remember that day so very well; the images are still fresh on my mind. I can recite every word spoken, feel the exact way I felt back then, tell you how every person said what they said or how they looked.

And I will.

He came visiting us, as he often times did. I opened the door and, as always when I was the one to get it, he walked right on by without so much as a glance and headed for my fathers study where they always had their weekly 'private conversations'.

But I forgot he was there and went to the study to ask my father a question. Upon hearing the voices, I stopped, and would have turned back, but I couldn't I just couldn't.

"Yasou! Listen to what I have to say!" Uncle screamed

"If it's about the villagers' growing hostility towards my daughter, I don't want to hear it. I honestly don't understand why they feel the way they do towards her," Father said coolly

"Yasou--don't be ridiculous! Of course you know what it is! And I agree with them all."

Well kindly tell me what it is they think, since obviously I don't know," Daddy replied through gritted teeth.

"It's because she's a pushover, a good-for-nothing girl who has empty dreams. She'd never be a good ninja, Yasou. She'd never be successful at ANYTHING, actually."

"Hiroshi, that isn't true. You know it. She is a great person with determination that will take her far. She has great potential of power..."

"Oh don't make me laugh! You got that from Satoko!" And then Uncle did laugh. "That girl will go far, I tell you! She can scare people off with just her strong-headedness."

"Yes, she is rather out-spoken. And sometimes she expresses her feelings just a bit too loudly." I could tell by the tone of his voice that he was thinking about the time she slapped the village kids.

"Ah, yes. And obviously, she's skilled at lying which can get her far as a ninja..."

"What are you talking about?"

"She got you to believe all the crap about Hina's potential, didn't she?" Uncle Hiroshi said a bit smugly; I felt my heart seize and I clutched at the door frame. I had suspected it was me they were speaking about but, what he said confirmed it.

"Hiroshi--"

"Come on, Yasou! Tell me you don't agree with me, tell me that you don't feel the same was most of the villagers and I do."

"Hiroshi, I'm warning you--"

"You can't even bring yourself to deny it completely," Uncle sneered.

"I swear to you that I don't feel anything for my daughter but love, confidence and--"

"Stop it, Yasou. Stop lying and trying to be like her mother. Lying to a young girl--or just a girl like her--can cause the child to become corrupt. You wouldn't like that, would you?" Uncle said in a deathly whisper.

"The things people have been saying to her is what will corrupt her, if anything. The things they have all been saying is--"

"--the truth, Yasou," Uncle Hiroshi cut him off again. "It's always good to be honest, even if it hurts. Because living a life filled with a false sense of security and love, and then finding out it was all just an illusion--that can ruin a person worse than the nasty truth ever could."

"Under certain circumstances, yes, I would have to say I agree."

"And wouldn't this fall under that category? Once she finds out that her dear old father has been deceiving her all this time..."

"You're the one who has been lying to her, Hiroshi."

Uncle snorted. "What? No. I've never shown any interest in the girl--real or fake."

"But you've never told her what you just told me, have you?"

"No, but I believe it was implied that I didn't like her. Otherwise, don't you think she'd ask why I didn't treat her the same as Satoko and Haruki?"

"Hiroshi, she's just a child. No matter how smart she might be, she might not necessarily catch that. I never did."

"That's because you don't pay attention to your children, Yasou. That was always Daija's job. She was a much better parent. And it isn't only the children you don't pay attention to. There are so many things. You seem to only care about training and jobs. You haven't tried to change since-"

"Enough, Hiroshi. We aren't talking about that," Daddy whispered in a pained way; Uncle said nothing more for a minute.

"I'll tell her, if that's what it takes to get you to admit how you feel. I promise I will tell her I think she is scum, I'll tell her I think she's worthless, and that she's a waste of oxygen. I'll tell her that I think she should give up, drop out of the ninjas school and pursue a simpler trade, or think about it for when she's older. I'll tell her I don't think she's smart enough to--"

"Hiroshi--stop it, right now," my dad growled in a threatening way.

"Can I tell you my suggestion? It's what I really came here to say..."

"What is it? Make it quick!" Dad snapped.

"I think we should reunite her with her mother. It would make many villagers happy, I'm sure, to get such a nuisance out of their hair. Daija would be happy to see her youngest child, I'm sure, and Hina no doubt would be pleased to see the only one who ever truly cared for her..."

"What?! No!!"

"Why didn't you cut me off before I was finished? You're considering it, aren't you?" Uncle said in a devilish way.

"My daughter will not be murdered," Father said shakily; I thought it was out of anger and hurt, but--looking back on it now--I'm not too sure anymore.

"Why not?"

"Hiroshi--get out," Father hissed.

"Not until you--"

But Dad cut him off by pounding his fist down on his desk; the sounds of glass dropping to the ground and shattering filled the air, breaking the silence. "Get out right now."

"Yasou--"

"One...Two..."

"I'm going, I'm going."

Using all the energy I could muster, since most of it had gone to keeping myself from breaking down and crying, I got away from the door and began to ran. But I tripped over my feet and fell flat on my face. And even though I was a light-weight, the hall-table shook and down came the vase of my mother's. The shards fell on my, scraping the bare skin. I ignored the searing pain and tried to get to my feet, but I didn't make it in time. Uncle Hiroshi stepped out of the room and immediately spotted me; he smirked.

"Well, well, well. Looky here, Yasou. Looks like I don't need to tell my niece how I feel. Turns out she was spying on us..."

I looked up at him with the type of fear a 5-year-old would give their parent when they were caught stealing cookies, only intensified.

"Hiroshi--leave right now, or else."

Uncle, knowing how powerful my father was, decided to leave without a fight. Casting a look at me, he grumbled something, and closed the door behind him.

"Daddy," I whimpered, a moment or so later, sitting up but not lifting myself off the ground. "What did I do wrong? Why does everyone hate me?"

"Oh, Hina," Daddy whispered, kneeling down beside me and pulling me close so I could snuggle my face against him. But it didn't stop the white-hot tears from pouring out of my eyes like the waterfall that hid our village.

"What did I do, Daddy?"

"Nothing, sweetheart. You never did anything..."

The pain I felt then was unreal. To this day, I still feel like I'm dying when I think about it...

Anyway! Not too much later, another, happier opinion was changed: My brother, Haruki, decided he was no longer ashamed of me. He stood by my side and stuck up for me. Of course, he couldn't compare to what Satoko did but, he was still getting used to it.

My siblings became my friends, my only friends. I was with them whenever I could be, but that didn't always work out too well since they had already graduated the Academy, and I was still attending it.

Now that brings us up to the present, so let me continue my story, and stop talking about the past.

It was one thing for the townspeople to say it; it was another thing completely for my own father to. Unlike a good portion of the villagers, he said it right to my face. And for some reason, it stung all the more.