Chapter 3: Dear Diary

Because of the order she was given and not wanting to go back to the academy with all the young children, Nia trained throughout her entire morning. Not much progress was entirely made though cause of her lack of drive and determination. She almost felt as if she had no reason. Her village wasn't anything meaningful to her, the people in it certainly weren't except for a small few, and Nia wasn't too fond of her teammates either.

She found them to be bossy, rude, and overall, insensitive. Samoi was fine, Omoi was alright but never would stop overly worrying about little things and wouldn't stop his sister from picking and getting into it with Nia, and Karui was plain out mean and a bully. Heck! The woman threatened to beat her up if she was to screw up badly on a mission.

The girl sighed as she began her way into the village town. She wasn't wearing her mission gear like everyone else did. They wore their gear even if they had a break out of their duties. It was a very strict rule in the Hidden Cloud to wear nothing else but your attire if you're a ninja. For the young ones, it was a rule to wear a specific uniform when attending the academy. Nia rebelled against the adults in charge and ditched the uniform upon nearing the age of ten. Multiple times the older generation would scold her for not doing what they wanted her to do but all Nia did was ignore them and kept wearing what she wanted.

Nia constantly heard the snickering of others as they made fun of her outward appearance while she meander throughout the village.

"Why doesn't she just put on her mission gear? The clothes she's wearing looks like her grandma knitted that for her." A kunoichi around Nia's age informed a young male next to her.

"Who cares? It doesn't matter what she wears, she'll always look hideous." The guy replied with no shame.

The girl giggled.

Nia felt the hurt run through her but she replaced this feeling with anger.

Whatever! They should just shut up and go away!

The teasing grew worse as peers and adults instantly recognized her face that they thought was below average. Her figure was decent but not "banging". She was a bit on the tall side standing around 165-168 cm or 5'5 to just barely 5'6 compared to the kunoichi her age. Karui and her were pretty much the same height with Nia hardly noticeably taller by maybe a centimeter or less. Her weight wasn't exactly in the great shape of a ninja but wasn't very overweight either. Though she tried, her figure wasn't on par with her other female teammates.

"Yo!" A tall built man with black shades approached the girl.

"I don't feel like talking right now, Bee."  Nia averted her eyes.

"Nonsense! There's always time for a little talkin." Killer Bee spoke as if he was rapping.

"..."

Bee noticed the sad look in Nia's eyes. He frowned then placed his hand on her shoulder, "Rough day, huh?"

Nia tensed, "It doesn't matter."

She then brushed Bee's hand off her and walked away with her head down. Bee watched her as she left.

Ignoring others isn't her strong suit, she should get a hobby...

Taking out his pencil and notepad, Bee scribbles out the words he just used. "Nah, that ain't rhyme, that was whack."

*****

"Oh, Naruto." A shy Hyuga girl watched her crush throwing rocks into a small lake in front of him from behind a tree.

She had heard the news of Sasuke's death and was saddened by it like the others, but not nearly on the same level as the Uchiha's former teammates clearly. She's seen the effect it took on Naruto, but didn't have enough courage to approach him and find the right words to comfort him. If there were any words that could anyway.

Naruto stared at his reflection in the water.

I can't get my mind off of it. No matter what I do, say, or think, I can't get Sasuke off my mind.

"Damn it!" Naruto said through gritted teeth.

I can't bring you back no matter what I do! There's just no-

A sound of a stick breaking caught the blonde's attention and drove him out of his thoughts.

"Who's there?!"

Hinata, who had made that sound incidentally, was panicking. She didn't mean to step on the stick. She just wanted a better look at the genin. When she saw Naruto looking around, the girl took a deep breath in then quickly said, "N-Naruto."

Picking the soft nervous voice up, Naruto jumped onto a branch then looked down at the long-haired girl.

"Hinata, that you down there?" He smiled, "What are you doing here? If you're looking for Kiba, he already headed home."

Hinata turned left and right but didn't see her love, though she heard his wonderful voice.

Where could he be?

"Above you."

Huh?

Hinata glances up and makes eye contact with Naruto.

"There y-you are, N-Naruto." She blushed in the face.

"Well yeah." The blonde responded as he dropped to the ground again.

It got quiet as Hinata stared down at the ground while nervously playing with her fingers. Naruto rubbed the back of his head as he saw Hinata doing the same gesture that he had thought was a bit strange.

"Hinata..."

"Yes Naruto?"

"Uh, you never answered my question. What are you doing here?"

Hinata thought of something quickly; She didn't want to tell Naruto that she was practically staring at him from a distance.

"Oh that... I was... I was um..."

Naruto blinked as he waited for Hinata to finish speaking.

"I was just looking for a spot to do some laundry." Hinata said with a smile.

"Oh." Naruto chuckled, "I thought that you were here to give me a lecture about what's been happening lately. Thank goodness you're not."

Hinata's heart sunk as she heard his words.

"Why... would you think that?"

Naruto stopped chuckling then got a bit serious, "Everyone's been trying to tell me to get Sasuke's' death off my mind, but when they say things like that, it makes it that much difficult for me to do that, y'know?"

Oh Naruto.

"Ay Naruto!" Naruto's master interrupted the small talk Hinata was having with her crush.

"Pervy Sage?" Naruto puts a hand over his forehead and squints his eyes to get better view of the sannin standing atop of a hill behind Hinata.

"Jiraiya-sensei is here?" Hinata turned around and sees the man himself.

"What are you doing here?" Naruto yelled.

"Well, I came here to tell you that you and I are going on a small trip!" Jiraiya answered while looking incredibly excited.

Naruto didn't look too psyched as the grown man did when he watched him jumping on each foot like some little kid finding out he was getting candy from his parents.

This can't be good...

"Hurry now, you don't want to miss out on this!" Jiraiya continued to hop.

"This isn't another one of your Pervy "research" trips, is it?" Naruto asked.

"Why yes it is!" Jiraiya snickers while thinking of all the beautiful women he hoped to catch a glimpse of.

"In that case, no thank y-"

"I'll teach you a whole new jutsu if you go along, Naruto."

"What?! Really?!" The young man became eager.

Jiraiya nodded. He then noticed the quiet girl next to his pupil.

"Hey, who's your friend?"

"Hm?" Naruto calms himself from Jiraiya's offer. He looks at Hinata, "You mean Hinata?"

"Oh brother, you have no idea how to introduce people, do you?" Jiraiya face palmed and shook his head.

"Excuse Naruto, Sir. My name is Hinata Hyuga. It's nice to finally meet you." Hinata politely introduced herself with a small bow afterwards.

"Ah, so you must know me if you're saying finally."Jiraiya grinned like an idiot, "Do all the women in the village know my name? Maybe every women in all five great nations perhaps."

Again the sage becomes carried away in his fantasies.

"Yeah right." Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Um, Naruto?" Hinata spoke up.

Naruto looked at her. Hinata's blush returned to her face as she smiled sweetly, "Do your best, okay?"

Naruto nodded and smirked then balled his hand into a fist of determination, "Of course! This training will be a piece of cake."

"Yeah."

Just before Naruto prepared to head home and pack up a few things for his trip with Jiraiya, he thought of his female teammate that still wouldn't leave her home to do anything.

"Hinata, can you do me a favor?"

"Anything. What is it, Naruto?"

"Sakura's still won't bring herself out of her house cause of Sasuke. I can't find the right words to say to her in order to get her to breathe some fresh air without feeling a bit hypocritical. I need you and the others to find a way to comfort her while I'm with Pervy Sage. Do you think you can handle that for me?"

Hinata hesitated but eventually agreed to it, "I'll try my best."

"Great!" Naruto grinned, "You're the best, Hinata."

Butterflies erupted in the Hyuga's stomach upon hearing Naruto's kind words, "T-T-Thank you, Naruto."

With that, the ninja jumped up to the top of the hill with his master but not before saying, "When I get back, I'll show you what I've learned, Hinata."

This excited the girl.

"Sounds good." She responded as she interlocked her fingers near her chest while psyched about spending more time with her beloved soon after he returns to the village.

"Later." The blonde waves.

"Bye, Naruto. Train hard."

*****

Slamming the door behind her, Nia climbed onto her bed and pulled the covers over her head very aggressively. Something as simple as walking through town couldn't be accomplished without many snickering and making fun of her behind her back. Her mind was in turmoil and her confidence was shattered to bits.

Misumi, who was already in the room, frowned as she once again witnessed the heartbreak in her sister's expression just before she got into bed.

'Not again' She spoke in her mind, 'Why does this gotta happen every day? Can't Nia learn to just ignore everyone?'

A knock sounded at the door just before it opened. There stood the father of Misumi and Nia: Jin Umino.

Unlike his brother who was tall and quite built, Jin was rather a shorter man who stood about 5'9 and had a large frame. He had short dark brown hair with a few greys here and there, dark brown eyes that were somewhat small like Nia's, a goatee with a trimmed beard that also had grey hair in a few spots, and a tan complexion like Misumi's.

"Don't be slamming the doors every time you get home! How many times do I have to tell you this before you listen?" Jin scolds his second oldest daughter after hearing the noise she made.

"I don't care. Leave me alone!" Nia talked back.

This angered her father, "Don't talk back to me. You'll show me some respect."

'Whatever' Nia thought.

"Can you please just leave me alone, Dad? I don't feel like being bothered right now."

"What happened? Did you fail a mission or something?" Jin asked.

"No." Nia muttered.

"Then what?"

"I don't wanna talk about it. I just wanna be alone."

"Fine." Jin sighed, "If you wanna talk later, then you can. Love you."

Nia didn't say anything as her father closed the door.

In the hall, Nia's nineteen-year-old and seventeen-year-old two older brothers, Mimino and Masou listened to the small argument while her 23-year-old older sister walked out her room across from Nia's and asked what was the yelling about.

Inside her room, Nia struggled to keep from crying. Her stress was giving her a headache and she couldn't find a way to relieve herself from her sensitive nature.

Why do I always have to be treated like an outcast just cause of my appearance?! It's not fair! If I was just a bit more natural looking then I wouldn't be bullied all the time! Argh!

"Misumi, do you know when the Raikage is leaving to the Hidden Stone Village?" Nia tried not to growl as she came up with an idea.

"Wasn't it this morning?" Misumi responded.

Nia clenched her bed sheet.

Good. If the Raikage is gone a few days then maybe I'll be able to leave this stupid village and search for the guy I always wanted to meet and learn from. Jiraiya-sensei.

Wiping her tears, Nia threw her blanket off and grabbed a book off a shelf by her door. Actually, it was a diary. The thing she kept since she was a preteen. Recently, she bought a new one since she ran out of pages to write about her thoughts and feelings in her old one. That one was pure white with a pink silk around it with a rose the same color attached to it on the front. Her newer one was pink with a grey silk around it with a white rose attached to it. There was a grey keyhole on the side of it. Nia made sure her sister wasn't looking when she grabbed her key from in between two heavy books.

Unlocking it then grabbing a pencil, Nia wrote:

June 20th, 10:20 AM

Dear Diary,
I just found out that the Raikage left earlier than I suspected. For a while, I've been planning to leave this village and head out to the Hidden Leaf to find the great Jiraiya-sensei. This is the chance for me to do that! I've always wanted to properly learn ninjutsu and for sure become a better writer. Now I can accomplish that! Oh I can't wait! This is gonna be awesome, you know!

Closing her diary, Nia then begins to search for her mission bag and stuffs in some clothes and gear in there. Misumi noticed this and asked what her sister was doing.

"Just remembered that I have another mission today." She sorta lied. Nia considered what she was going to do to be one, but it was in no means assigned to her by the Raikage, "It begins in the afternoon or nighttime actually."

"How long is it supposed to last?" Misumi questioned.

"At least two weeks. If not, more then."

Misumi raised an eyebrow.

Two weeks or more? That's a long time...

Nia's bag was filling up quickly. She made sure she had everything she needed.

Kunai, shuriken, paper bombs, book, clothes, mission coat, headband, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, hairbrush, comb, rubber band... Um...

The brown-skinned girl felt as though she was missing something. She looked around her room.

What is it? What am I missing?

"You're leaving your diary here for once?" Misumi asked.

"Oh yeah!" Nia realized her diaries weren't in her bag. She stuffed both in there with a pen and pencil with an eraser then slid the bag over her shoulders.

"Misumi, Mom and Dad already know about this trip so don't worry about me while I'm gone, okay?"

"Uh yeah." The brown-haired girl nodded while not bothering to look at her sister as she would rather stare at the polish she was putting on her toe nails, "See you later then."

"Bye." Nia walked out her room and down the stairs to the dining room.

Her family members were minding their own business and Nia went to the small kitchen and opened the drawers to find a mask to conceal her face when she leaves the village gates. She rummaged through everything and eventually found what she was looking for.

"All right!"

Taking interest in their sibling walking towards the door, the three oldest question her about where she was going. Nia told them she had a last minute mission and wouldn't be back for a while before rushing out the door. No one stopped her as she left.

Placing the mask on her so that the villagers wouldn't tease her and bring back her insecurities, Nia leaped onto the roofs of buildings and ran across them in order to get to a exit in her village. The mask was white and had two wide painted red stripes on each side of it.

Nia thought to herself as she ran forward with her arms behind her.

Once I get the proper training from Jiraiya-sensei, I'll show everyone that I'm more than just my appearance! They'll focus on my other attributes and won't reject me from gaining the respect everyone should have. I hate them! I did nothing to them and yet they act like I did! Argh! I'll never feel the need to protect this damn village ever in this lifetime. Never!

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A/N- This chapter was interesting to write somewhat. Nia sorta feels like a villain to me in this one. Oh well, I'm just happy about writing about that NaruHina stuff in the middle lol. Felt nice :) I may write another chapter of this before I update my other book. Hope you guys enjoyed reading this hehe. Please comment your thoughts and vote. I REALLY do appreciate your support guys. It always puts a smile on my face. Thx for reading.