Disclaimer: The characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto. I own nothing, not even myself. I belong to Nikki.
Hinata finished putting her camera and equipment in her bag and zipped the bag up. It was late into the evening and there wasn't anyone left in Hinata's part of the office. She quickly looked at her watch and knew she'd be late if she didn't start moving. Swinging her bag over her shoulder, she rushed through the corridor.
"I really need to keep better track of time," Hinata mumbled to herself as she rushed down the stairs. "Ino-chan and Sakura-chan are going to be annoyed if I'm late again."
Once a week Ino, Sakura and Hinata ate together at the restraunt Choji owned. Hinata had been late the past three weeks and she knew that once more would lead to a lecture about how Hinata works too much and too hard. A lecture about how she was letting herself go and she needed a boyfriend. Hinata knew they were right but she wasn't the type of person to focus on herself and to go on millions of dates.
Hinata looked around the dimly lit street as she walked to her car. She wasn't fond of the night at all. It brought darkness and criminals and danger whenever it came. Looking up at the sky, the luminous moon brought it's glow down to her. She gave it a small smile and thanked it for lighting the street up a little more.
Bringing her eyes back to what was on the ground, Hinata noticed a dark haired, pale man staring up at the moon. He seemed to be giving off his own glow and for a moment, Hinata forgot about the rest of the world around her.
'He's handsome,' Hinata thought. She felt her hands unzip her bag and produce her camera out of it. Turning on her camera, Hinata brought it up to her eyes and started taking pictures of the man. 'He looks like he's roughly Kiba's age.' Hinata had to stop herself from trying to photograph the man from another angle.
"I've got enough pictures," she muttered to herself. "I need to go or I'll be late."
Pocketing the camera, she started to walk down the street again when something grab her around the wrists. Hinata didn't know what was happening until she was pinned to the wall and someone was going through her bag. The moon and streetlights seemed to have disappeared, leaving Hinata to fight in the dark.
"W-w-what?!" Hinata managed to say.
"Shut it," an angry voice growled.
Hinata's voice was then lost. Her mouth glued itself shut and her body tensed. She knew the only valuable thing she had was her camera and without it… she didn't want to think of what would happen without it. She closed her eyes to try and stop herself from crying about what was happening, not realising that her subject for photography had just come over and punched the man.
"What the hell are you doing?!" the angry voice yelled.
Hinata opened her eyes when she felt his body heat disappear. She looked around and saw the moon and the street lamps lighting the area. There was a man running away and Hinata couldn't tell what he was running from until she noticed the man she'd just been photographing.
"Ah… t-thank y-y-you," Hinata said with a little bow. She noticed the stutter that she'd worked so hard to stop had returned to her.
"Hmm," was the only response. He wasn't looking at her so there was a chance he wasn't even listening.
"My n-name is H-Hyuuga Hinata," Hinata mumbled, feeling stupid. Why did her stutter have to come back? She appeared to be more normal without it.
"Uchiha Sasuke," the deep voice said.
"N-nice to meet y-you, Uchiha-san," Hinata said with a small smile.
"Hn," Sasuke said before walking away from her.
Hinata waited for a moment, still catching up with what had just happened. "Camera." She quickly felt the pocket she'd put her camera in and gave a sigh of relief when she felt it.
Her legs started moving again and her brain told her she still had to go to meet with Ino and Sakura. She had no desire to at that moment; her desire was to go home and hide under the covers of her bed.
"Hina-chan, you're late again!" Ino told the pale girl.
Hinata nodded, not trusting herself to speak. She was now fully aware of what happened, what could've happened and how stupid she was for not fighting the guy off by herself. It made her feel numb.
"You can't keep doing this! We worry about you every time you're late!" Ino went on. Barely focusing on what Ino was saying, Hinata only nodded every so often to make it appear she was listening.
Shikamaru had come over at some stage and was eating off Hinata's plate of uneaten food with a bored expression.
"Please, Hinata, just explain why you were late to us," Sakura said to her shy friend. "We love you and we're just concerned."
Hinata just nodded, still not paying any attention.
"Hinata, please," Sakura begged.
"She hasn't been listening," Shikamaru pointed out before taking another bite of Hinata's food.
"Shikamaru! Stop eating Hina-chan's food!" Ino demanded.
"Hinata?" Sakura said loudly while waving her hand in front of Hinata's lavender eyes. "Hinata? Are you sick?"
"She looks a bit pale…" Ino said with concern. "We should take her home." Grabbing Shikamaru's collar, she pulled him towards the exit of the restraunt.
Sakura helped Hinata stand up and helped her follow Ino and Shikamaru. Hinata seemed to be working on autopilot. Her brain had stopped working and the next thing she knew, she was waking up in her apartment to the sound of someone knocking at her door.
"C-coming!" Hinata called before mentally slamming her head against the wall for stuttering.
Hinata rolled out of bed with a thud and proceeded to crawl to the door (not being a morning person seemed to be a disadvantage at times like these.) Slowly pulling herself off all fours, she opened the door.
"Morning, Hina!" Kiba exclaimed with a giant smile.
"K-Kiba-kun?" Hinata said, groggily. "Why a-are… w-what are you… huh?"
Kiba looked confused at Hinata's confusion. "We're having lunch together, 'member?"
One, two, three blinks, a head tilt to the side and a sudden look of panic. "W-what time is it?" She turned back into her apartment and searched for anything that would tell her what hour it was. "Twelve? I-it's almost t-twelve? Oh no."
Kiba followed Hinata into her apartment and continued to follow her until she shut her bedroom door in his face. He took to sitting down on the lounge, next to Hinata's camera bag. Knowing it took women ages to get changed, Kiba decided to look at some of the photos Hinata had taken. 'Maybe she had to take some more photos of hot models,' Kiba thought with excitement and curiosity. He went through the camera bag until he found it in one of the bag pockets. Flicking it on, he went through the pictures but they were all just pictures of a street at night.
"Oi, Hina," Kiba called out. "Why'd you take these pictures of a street?"
"W-wait a moment, K-Kiba-kun," Hinata called back. She opened the bedroom door wearing a complete change of clothes. "What did y-you say?"
Kiba offered the camera to Hinata and she reluctantly took it, not knowing why Kiba had it or why he wanted her to look at it. She'd deleted all the pictures off of it, hadn't she?
"The pictures are just of a street," Kiba pointed out. "You don't normally take pictures like that."
Hinata looked through the pictures, unsure of why she took the pictures. "I c-can't remember… I don't… I r-really don't… know." She decided not to delete the pictures in case she remembered why she took them later.
"Hinata, it's Sakura. I'm hoping you're feeling better than you were last night. Please call me back as soon as you can."
BEEP
Hinata frowned. She didn't talk to anyone last night or go out, did she?
"It's me. Call me if you're feeling better and if you're not, call me anyway."
BEEP
Ino as well?
"Damn, this is troublesome."
"Hurry up, Shikamaru!"
"Call Ino, Hinata. She's driving me insane."
"What was that?!"
BEEP
Hinata's frown deepened. Ino must've been worried if Shikamaru called. Picking up the phone, Hinata tried to remember what happened the previous night.
"Naruto! Leave me alone while I'm at work!" Sakura's voice angrily came.
"S-Sakura-chan? It's n-not N-Naruto-kun," Hinata took a deep breath and prepared herself for questioning. "It's H-Hinata."
"Huh? Why… Hinata! Are you feeling better? You were so strange at the restraunt! What was wrong?"
"I… I… well, I don't… can't remember," Hinata whispered into the receiver.
"Hinata, speak up."
"I-I'm so-sorry, S-Sakura-chan," Hinata said hastily. "I'll t-talk to you l-later."
"Huh? I'll drop by later, then."
"Sure. B-bye." Hinata hung up the phone and cursed herself for forgetting what happened the previous night and for letting her friends worry. Her conversation with Ino was similar to the one with Sakura apart from the part where Ino started shouting at Chouji for starting to eat without her. While yelling, Ino must've shoved the phone at Shikamaru because that was the next voice she heard.
"How troublesome," Shikamaru groaned.
"Shi-Shikamaru-kun? Hello."
"Hinata, you're better."
"Y-yes. Truth be t-told, I c-can't… don't r-remember l-last night."
A pause.
"Retrace your steps."
"Huh? Umm… why?"
"You remember things when you retrace your steps."
"Shikamaru, t-that doesn't s-seem like something you'd-"
"Can't I try something different?"
"Y-yeah, I g-guess. I'll g-go try th-that."
"Hinata?"
"Yes?"
"Try to stop stuttering."
The line went dead. Hinata paused for a moment to consider Shikamaru's idea and then stood, grabbed her jacket and bag, and rushed out of her apartment. A second later she rushed back in and grabbed her camera. She stared at it, wondering why she thought it'd be an idea to bring it, and then turned it on again. Switching the mode so she could view pictures, she tried to recall where that street was.
"Near work?" She mumbled. Pressing next, Hinata almost felt her jaw drop, when in the next picture a man appeared, staring at her. A cold sweat covered her body and she felt the camera trembling in her fingers. She looked at all the pictures and each one was the same, the man was staring at her. "T-t-t-this c-ca-can't be…"
Turning off the camera, Hinata decided she was delusional and just needed sleep or some time off work… or a little vacation in the mental institution down the way.
Author's Note: This is my first ever Naruto fan fiction. I'd written fan fiction years back but most of it was very poorly written. Right now, I'm writing again to try to improve my punctuation, vocabulary and ability to keep people in character.
I question putting in the honorifics. I have Hinata using them with everyone, Ino using them in a nickname for Hinata and no one else using them. I think, because this story is set when they're in their twenties and they've been together (sort of) since they were twelve, I don't need them all using honorifics because they'd be close? I'm not sure if I'll end up editing out the honorifics but the story is set in Japan.
This is the first chapter! I can't believe I actually finished the whole chapter, it's a rarity. I had to stop myself from a few things that I was tempted to do and I had to add things that I thought would slow down the story. (I'm always disappointed when I read stories that go very fast.) I really wanted Naruto to appear in Hinata's apartment or for Hinata to actually go down to the place where she saw Sasuke but, alas, I couldn't do it. I really don't want my story to go too quickly or to be random.
…
I really want a brick wall.