Hinata holds a secret bigger than anyone could imagine, one that could change everything. She is a magical girl. Gifted from her spirit-guide Kyubey with unimaginable power and given a single wish to be granted at her leisure, Hinata fights the witches that lurk beneath the human-eye and the ever-present darkness that threatens to tear apart her very existence.

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Chapter 1: New beginnings

"Hinata-san! Don't do it, it's too dangerous!"

"I have to Homura-chan, don't worry."

She ran through the crowd of 30 puppets, samurai-sword in hand and dark-indigo hair swaying behind her. Akemi feared for her friend's life, they'd never had to fight so many at once before and Hinata had already done most of the fighting, with her slashing through the occasional obstacle or just navigating them through the circus-like maze. Akemi watched in anguish as her best friend found the last key to unlock the third door. Hinata defeated the last of the puppets, unlocked the door and jumped up over thirty metres to get through, pulling Akemi with her.

They met the witch head-on. It was the largest one so far, almost the size of her village, with thousands of glittering ribbons that lashed out and tried to stab at her. Hinata scaled the building with her usual shinobi-like grace, her lavender kimono jacket trailing behind her and whipped back by the speed that she moved. Awkwardly stumbling behind her was Homura Akemi, her best friend who'd arrived in her dimensional plane at just the right moment to help her defeat the witch.

"Oh no, the genjutsu's taking effect!" Hinata immediately performed her kaiten and created a wind barrier to keep out the shimmering haze of a genjutsu attempting to manipulate her and Homura-chan. "I need you to get to the middle and shut down its inner-workings Homu-chan. Can I trust you to do so?"

"H-hai Hina-chan." The girl trembled with nerves and Hinata took hold of her shoulders, bringing her in for a reassuring hug. The girl wore a strange uniform of some sort, which she'd explained was from her school. Consisting of a blazer, white blouse and very short skirt with thigh-high dark stockings and heavy shoes. Her super-long hair sat on each side of her face in two large plaits and with the red-framed big glasses over her huge eyes, she looked cute in a nerdy way. She felt insignificant however, compared to Hinata Hyuuga, who was beautiful and brave and kind all at once.

Homura returned the hug to her friend and snaked her right hand around to her left wrist, releasing the mechanism that froze everything around them in a time interval that would give her the time to destroy the giant body they stood on. "I have to save Hina-chan, this isn't going to end like it did in the other dimension with Kaname-chan." She stumbled along the side of the mass that was the witch, keeping as far away from the empty space of the nether they stood in and hoping to Kami she didn't trip.

When she reached a small opening on the side of it she crawled in without a moment's hesitation, pulling out the last of the explosives she kept in the null-space behind her wrist-shield. With a flourish of her match that sparked the wick before it too froze in time, she nodded resolutely and crawled backwards out to the open air.

'Are you there Homura?'

That's right! The mental connection she kept with Hinata! Homura tuned into the link they had as she made her way back. 'I've planted the bombs inside, but we're going to be attacked as soon as I release my hold on time. I'm almost with you again.'

'Okay Homu-chan, I'll be ready.'

'Mmh.'

Homura reached Hinata and released the stop, allowing the chaos to continue. Hinata was thrown down mid-spin from her kaiten and looked around wildly. "How long?"

"Thirty seconds, let's go!" Hand in hand the two girls ran to the edge of the witch's body and took a leap of faith off the side. They landed on top of some of the floating debris, keeping their eyes open and carefully watching every swirling pattern, every colour that looked deceitfully innocent. There was too much to keep track of and so the girls found themselves falling endlessly, before the huge explosion behind them propelled them forward and showered them with ash and a background of black smoke.

They were falling what felt like forever and Hinata found herself confused. "Homu-chan, what…"

She gasped, looking around as the wind whipped her hair in all directions. She was all alone, with swirling colours and hazy images passing by in the blink of an eye. All she did was fall, further and further, deeper and deeper down into the nether. "Homura! Come back! I need you!" Her words were met with silence and the sound of rushing wind passing her ears. Her tears rose above her as she spread her limbs out, letting herself fall.

Hinata opened her eyes and met the blank white ceiling of her bedroom, sighing. It was the same dream she'd been having for weeks now, about the girl who could stop time that she'd found herself trying her best to protect. It was only for a moment that she was allowed to ponder on what such dreams meant, before a knock sounded on her door. "Hinata-sama, it's time for your morning training session with Neji-san." Ko's voice penetrated the door and reached her ears. "Okay Ko-san, I'll be out soon."

The time had just passed on 7 in the morning in the Hyuuga compound, as Hiashi Hyuuga, head of the Hyuuga clan, meditated in his late-wife's garden under the shade of her favourite cherry-blossom tree.

He reflected on his life so far, and the accomplishments he had achieved, as well as the failures. In all honesty, his achievements had been very little. The wealth and prosperity that the Hyuuga currently experienced was a result of the hard work of his father and grandfather, rather than himself. He had managed to maintain peace and order within the clan and became an influential member of society, renowned for his feats of strength and skill as a shinobi. It was only because of him that the Hyuuga were so well-known, and their dojutsu, the byakugan, with its accompanying jyuuken-based taijutsu was something no shinobi ever wanted to face. But while he had these feats under his belt, he still hadn't lived a fulfilling life.

There were many, more important, failures and struggles to be accounted for in the life of Hiashi Hyuuga. Most of those failures were lives, of his brother Hizashi, who'd been sacrificed only a year ago after the almost-kidnapping incident. Of his nephew Neji, who'd very recently been branded with the caged-bird seal under the elder's rule and no doubt held nothing but hatred towards the reason for his father's passing, Hiashi himself. Of his wife Hitomi, who'd died due to illness during her pregnancy with Hanabi. And of his daughter Hinata, who he'd failed to protect that night. If only he'd thought things through, and handled the situation better. But no, in a blind rage Hiashi killed the Kumo-nin who dared to take his precious person in one strike, and as a result lost more than he gained.

To think that all of this could happen in the space of a year, and with only a month since Hitomi's passing, Hiashi remained strong and resolute, looking out at the world with cold, grey eyes as hard as steel. Inside he was a wreck, but he contained his emotions for the sake of his clan. For the sake of his sanity. And for the sake of his daughters, and estranged nephew Neji, all of whom needed a strong hand to guide them out of this misery.

A six year-old Hinata struggled to regain her footing, her tiny frame shaking as she pulled the navy-blue training uniform weighed down with her sweat off of her body.

"Again Hinata-sama."

She finally managed to stand back up and turned to face her opponent Neji, who watched her with a bored expression, arms folded and eyes blank and unnerving, as usual. Several meters behind him, their instructor and also her minder Ko, watched the scene of their usual daily sparring occur with a mindful eye. Hinata threw herself forward and raised a fist to strike out at her seven-year old cousin, completely missing as he tilted his head to the side and turned his body, allowing her to topple over again. "Your form was very bad that time Hinata-sama. One more time, attempt to strike him with your chakra, not just your physical strength."

'Or what little physical strength you have, you are a six year-old girl after all…' Ko refrained from saying these last words as they were unnecessary and would show disrespect to the main-branch family he'd been sworn to serve. He watched the young heiress make one last swipe at her older cousin before falling back down, this time for good. "Pathetic. I want to stop these training sessions, they serve no benefit to me." Neji's words were directed to Ko, who only frowned at him. "As her older cousin and branch-family member, it is your duty to protect and watch over our future leader."

"This weakling, our future leader? I'd sooner prefer they reinstated Hanabi as heiress, she doesn't cry as much at least." The older boy shot him a cold glare for saying such disrespectful things, but just when he was charging his fist, ready to knock some sense into the boy a tiny protest of "No!" could be heard from the ground. "Ko-san, don't hurt Neji. Please, it's my fault that he said such things, for being weak. I deserve to suffer." Neji merely snorted and stalked back into the house to get ready for breakfast and classes at the academy. Hinata picked herself up from the ground when he left and turned towards the corridor where her bedroom was, Ko trailing behind her.

"Hinata-sama, as the future head of our clan you must command respect within your disciples. You shouldn't allow yourself to be treaded on by the likes of your cousin, even if you wish him to be more like an older brother towards you." Hinata simply nodded meekly, too tired to fight the older boy's words. She bowed to him and closed her door to shower and change while Ko waited outside. Then, when she was ready, he accompanied her to the dining hall where a small breakfast of rice and seaweed, her father and the usual glaring Neji waited amongst the elders and other branch-members who looked at her just as coldly.

"Neji was telling us of your daughter's shortcomings this morning in training Hiashi. You need to take a more active role in strengthening her." Mobaku, one of the elders, started. Hinata kept her head down, letting the bangs fall over her eyes so no-one could see the tears welling up at their harsh words. "I do not expect a lot from her at such a young age. She needs time to grow." was Hiashi's reply, only to be met with a disapproving hiss from another of the more outspoken elders, Gozu. "She doesn't have the time Hiashi, we have been facing a crisis for months now! We need to show the true strength of the Hyuuga, and a leader and future-leader who exemplifies that strength so everyone will know that we cannot be taken lightly. What we need is…"

Hiashi activated his byakugan faster than Gozu could blink, and that action alone was more threatening than anything he could have done otherwise. The veins bulged around his eyes and his killing-intent filled the room, making Hinata duck her head and cower in freight while the elders sucked in their breaths. "Do not tell me what we need! I am the head of the clan and I know what's best for it. Now…" his eyes turned towards his fearful daughter, who struggled not to cry but was quickly failing, then towards his nephew, whose eyes were also wide in fear but still cold. He deactivated his dojutsu and calmed himself down enough that the tension left the room, but it was only to be replaced with awkwardness and silence. "… Regarding my daughter. Hinata, if I hear that you are not improving in your training against Neji, and with Ko, I will be forced to train you myself, using my own methods. Know this, you have been let off lightly training with Ko, I would never take things so easily."

The words made her freeze in her seat, eyes widening in horror at the thought of taking her father away from his important work as clan-head. Hinata knew her father was a busy man, having to attend council-meetings almost every day to discuss the future of the clan and the village. When he wasn't making allies he was fighting and training, against five other opponents at a time at the very minimum. He was so strong that even the Hokage feared her father, and exclaimed many times how glad he was to have Hiashi as an ally rather than an enemy.

But her father was only this strong because he'd pushed himself so hard. Hinata feared what that same kind of treatment would do to her, for she was not strong enough.

She never would be.

"Ko, I don't want to train with father."

The two were walking to the academy, Neji having ran ahead of them and arrived in the building long ago while Hinata maintained a slow pace and Ko kept his place to the right and one step behind her. "I don't want you to train with your father. What he said at breakfast was true, about not taking you as easily as I have. You need to start training seriously Hinata, otherwise I fear for your future." Hinata felt her eyes tear up once again, saddened at the prospect of working even harder, even though she'd been training five hours a day so far with very little improvement. These thoughts were interrupted momentarily by a shove to the side as someone pushed their way past her followed by the shouting of young boys.

"Oi! Get back here Uzumaki!"

"Suck it Agari!"

Hinata felt the familiar redness creep up her cheeks and kept her head down. No doubt by accident, but her crush had just pushed his way past her and shoved her down in the process, running from the kids she'd come to consider her bullies if Agari was part of the group. "Move it Hyuuga!" She crawled to the side and Ko ran over to help her up while giving all of the kid's death-stares. "Savages, the lot of them!" Hinata straightened herself up and finally let a single tear spill out, her emotions in too much of a disarray for her to keep a hold on them. "I'm going into class now Ko-san, goodbye!" Ko tried to stop her but she rushed off into the academy-building without another word.

For Hinata, being the shy and quiet type meant sitting in the very back and keeping to herself. The class was very clearly divided into little cliques. She didn't know much of the class because she didn't ever talk to anyone, but there were a few characters who'd distinguished themselves in her eyes due to them being the future heads of their own clans. There was the Nara boy, who did nothing but stare out the window, and the Akimichi who sat next to him and ate endless packs of potato chips. They were located to the far left of her, closest to the windows. The Yamanaka girl had sat next to her on their first day of school last year and talked her ear off, but she was a social person and tended to move around the classroom. Currently she sat next to the Haruno, who was the top-kunoichi in the class and sat at the front row in the middle. They were both ogling at another young boy with dark hair, the Uchiha, who sat with some people she didn't know and kept his head down in a book, pretending not to notice that the majority of the girls in the class were looking at him with lovey-dovey eyes.

The door slammed open and the Inuzuka ran in followed by his cute little white puppy named Akamaru. He jumped over the desktops and made for the middle row, right next to the stoic Aburame. Thanks to their parents being good friends (however unlikely such an alliance was) they were good friends as well. Hinata felt she could have sat next to them too, because Hiashi held a good rapport with Shibi Aburame, but Tsume Inuzuka, Kiba's mother, thought he was stuck-up and so she didn't want to approach Kiba in case his feelings were the same way towards herself.

"Alright class, settle down!" Their instructor, Iruka Umino, had finally arrived and made the class of 27 quieten so he could begin teaching them. 26 actually, for there was still one person yet to arrive.

"Wait up sensei!"

The door slammed open one more time and Iruka-sensei sighed, rubbing the side of his face. "Always have to make an entrance… take a seat Naruto."

"You got it Iruka-sensei!" The blonde boy jumped over the front desk, right next to a fuming Haruno-san who bopped him over the head. "You're late! Idiot…"

"Nice to see you too Sakura-chan!"

"Hmph." While the blonde boy with blue eyes gave her a goofy smile she simply ignored him. Hinata sighed, saddened by the thought of her crush being mistreated, and maybe a little jealous.

"So today in class we'll be learning about the different chakra-paths in the human body, we start off with the biggest tenketsu-points located in the shoulder joints and…" the droning voice of Iruka-sensei lulled a third of the class to sleep while another third listened and wrote notes and the last third did various other things. Naruto fidgeted in his seat, feeling that uncomfortable sensation of someone watching him. Kiba was passed out with Akamaru chewing at his hooded jacket and Shino, Sakura and Sasuke all listened intently to the lecture, they were the three smartest in the class for a reason after all.

Shikamaru and Choji hadn't changed any of their habits from the moment they'd arrived and sat down, staring out the window and eating away, and Ino went from dozing off to staring at her nails and wishing she could paint them.

Hinata sat in the back and daydreamed, about Naruto, about being stronger and finally earning her cousin and father's respect, about cinnamon buns and random things in general.

'I wish I could make these dreams a reality…'

A movement caught her eye and she turned towards it, finding the strangest sight she'd ever seen. Floating across the ceiling, was a creature that looked like a cross between a white cat and a floppy eared bunny, with pink eyes, a fluffy white tail and long bangs on each side of its face with golden rings around each bang that stayed in place without even touching the bangs.

Her eyes widened in surprise. This creature… she'd seen it in her dreams but… it just couldn't possibly be real. Especially since the cat-bunny was jumping from student's desks and nobody was reacting, it was almost like no-one could see it, though Akamaru let out an instinctive growl feeling the faint presence of said animal.

"Kyubey-san? Am I hallucinating?"

"Fraid not kiddo. I've come to make you an offer you couldn't possibly refuse!"

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