A/N: Enjoy! A NejiHina spree!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Otherwise NejiHina would be the main couple.

“Hinata?”

Hinata closed her eyes. This was what she had always wanted! She now had a date with Naruto… so why did she feel so sad? In an effort to get herself in the mood, she forced a smile, but it only stayed on her face for a few moments before returning to a frown. The girl could barely stop the tears that were about to tumble down her face.

“Hinata, are you done?” asked TenTen.

A tear spilled onto her face. “S-Soon,” she whispered, knowing full well that TenTen could not hear her.

Sometimes, she wished that Neji wasn’t dating TenTen.

“Hinata?”

“Just give me a s-second,”Hinata replied, now a little louder, as she struggled to erase the traces of the tears that were now flowing down her face. All her life, she had waited for them to notice her; her first crush and her cousin. The first was so much like Neji when he was younger, and she supposed that was why she chose him- to have someone love her the way Neji had when she was young.

She hated the truth, and the truth was that Naruto was a pale comparison.

She didn’t want this, she had only wanted a way for Neji to somehow appear in Naruto and make her feel young again, with the cares of the world-particularly the Hyuuga’s problems- to disappear. She just wanted… she just wanted to be happy. Was that too much to ask for?

No. She was happy. She was fortunate. She had everything she needed and the memory of a pure, shining love.

“S-Sorry, Tenten,” Hinata whispered as she opened the door a crack. “Why don’t you and Neji nii-san g-go ahead?”

Hinata could smell the scent of autumn. She could almost visualise the leaves falling slowly onto the ground.

“Hinata…”

“I’m just nervous,” she lied.

“If you’re sure…”

She smiled and nodded. She didn’t understand herself. How could she fool everyone into thinking that she was happy?

She was never happy. She would never be.

She was always destined to remain in Neji’s shadow, in Hanabi’s shadow. After all, she was useless.

Only a puppet to the Hyuuga. She promised herself that if nothing else, someday, she would change the fate of the Hyuuga. The Branch house would never have to suffer again. And Neji. She would remove the seal from his forehead. he would smile again. He would probably marry TenTen and have many children with her too. When she became Head...

It brought a smile to her lips.

“TenTen? Where is Hinata-sama?”

“She said that she was nervous about her date and asked us to go ahead. Neji, let’s do that,” TenTen murmured.

“Fine.”

TenTen couldn’t shake off the feeling that Neji was not happy with her, although she could not explain why. She hadn’t done anything wrong, had she?

No, she couldn’t have done something wrong. She must have been hallucinating. This date was her chance to show Neji that there was more to life than the Hyuuga fate. Of course, she knew that he had only agreed to this because he wanted to protect his cousin, but…

He had to see that he liked her too.

A/N: Is this the start or the end? Should I continue? I’ll leave you to decide. Frankly, if you think it sucks because of the pairing, I can’t be bothered, really.