Haruka (春花)

Haruka had found out why that Shino boy seemed to dislike her and it wasn't because he hates her like everyone else. Apparently the boy has bugs living inside him and they, like all other animals, don't like her, and they won't settle down when he's near her. He corrected her about the disliked part. They don't dislike her or hate her, they're afraid of her. She can't imagine why.

Hinata knew exactly why they're afraid of her. She was awake when Haruka-chan went berserk. With a power like that animals are just naturally afraid of the small girl.

Aside from that not a lot had changed in the course of the last year at the academy. She hadn't really made any new friends. She tried with that pink haired girl but for some reason the other girl didn't seem to like her when other people were around, especially Hinata-chan. Haruka didn't want to be friends with someone who won't publicly admit they're her friend. So she moved on from the shy girl.

She had sort of made friends with the lazy boy and his friends, but it was more just they got along in class and would sometimes talk about random things. But they never tried to talk out of class and never really went farther than sort of knowing each other.

She had almost been friends with Kiba but when he brought her over to play one time all of the dogs in his clan compound freaked out and she was never invited again.

Sasuke was the only one actively trying to be her friend but he would always blush weirdly and he made Hinata-chan mad for some reason. She thought it was weird. She had also noticed something, Hinata-chan had made a lot of enemies. Hinata-chan really didn't like Sakura or Sasuke. Even though they had never been mean to her. Haruka didn't get it, the Uchiha even seems to want to be friends.

A few kids had dropped out to pursue civilian life, Haruka couldn't remember their names though. She was still weirded out by how bland most of the other kids are, so she didn't even try to be friends with them.

Much to her delight she had grown a bit in the last year, gaining a full two inches of height. She now stood at a proud 3'4. Well she was proud of it but she was still the shortest kid in class. Hinata-chan had grown more than her, before she was only an inch taller but now she stood at 3'7. Haruka is sure she'll catch up. She's gotta be bigger than Hinata-chan to protect her. Bodyguards are always super beefy and tall.

***

Something weird happened during her second year at the academy. For some reason Sasuke suddenly got way more popular and also seemed to stop blushing around her. Or making expressions other than anger really.

Hinata-chan had told her his whole family died in one night, but she doesn't get why he'd be more popular for that. She also doesn't get why suddenly a bunch of girls in class seemed to start disliking her. Something about "trying to take their Sasuke-kun" or whatever it is they go on about. She said she wasn't trying to take anybody but they cited her long hair as trying to get him to like her. She doesn't get it, she grew her hair out because she liked being able to play with it, and because Hinata-chan seemed to like it.

When she asked Hinata-chan about the long hair thing she finally explained that apparently Sasuke had liked her, and now that he's popular the other girls are mad at her. They all seem to think he likes long hair because she had long hair and he had a crush on her. She asked Hinata-chan if she should cut it short because she doesn't like Sasuke like that (boys are gross). Hinata-chan was against that so she didn't cut it.

Haruka didn't really like Sasuke's new fans but she still didn't really have a problem with the boy. It's not his fault his family died, and it's not his fault all these girls (and boys) seemed to think he's really cool for that. Now that she thinks about it, isn't that kind of weird? Why would these people think it's cool that his family is dead? Did they dislike his family as much as they dislike her? Maybe.

Ino and Sakura also started acting weird. The two became friends and then enemies. She didn't understand that, she could never bring herself to dislike her friends. The two girls had become friends after Ino stopped the bland kids from bullying Sakura for her large forehead (which really was only slightly bigger than average). Then Sasuke's family died and they didn't like each other anymore. Hinata-chan told her that they both liked him and started fighting over him until they weren't friends anymore. Haruka asked if that would happen to her and Hinata-chan if they both started liking the same boy. Haruka didn't really like boys but she said it while thinking about Ino and Sakura so a boy was the one in question. Hinata-chan had told her that won't ever happen. She doesn't see how but it's not like she wants to lose Hinata-chan's friendship so she didn't push it.

The second year also brought with it a new curriculum. The only real change was that instead of doing basic physical exercise they're now practicing Taijutsu, though they are still exercising. Today they start another new part of the curriculum. They were about to unlock their chakra. The class is currently gathered outside. Iruka-sensei was explaining chakra again, he's done that a lot in the past year and a half. She's pretty sure that's all the chakra theory class is, just different ways of explaining what chakra is.

Finally he gets to something new. "Now, I'm going to teach you how to find and harness your chakra." Haruka isn't the only who perked up upon hearing that. The entire class is suddenly paying attention, well almost the entire class, a few of the clan heirs aren't. Those being Shikamaru, who is to busy sleeping, Hinata-chan who already knows how to use her chakra, and Sasuke who Haruka guesses is in the same boat as Hinata-chan.

"First I want everyone to sit down in the lotus position. Then close your eyes." Haruka does so before gasping. The voice that helped her save Hinata-chan told her to do the same thing back then. Is Iruka-sensei the voice in her head? No that doesn't make any sense, the voice in her head was female. At least she thinks it was, she can't really remember it too clearly. "Now I want you to clear your mind. Once you've done so, look inside yourself for a ball, it might be big or small but just look for a ball." Okay so maybe his instructions are not exactly the same, the voice wanted her to focus on nature and Hinata-chan and on being still.

She does as Iruka-sensei instructed and looks for a ball. After what feels like hours she finds it. The ball is bigger than her, like maybe the size of the Hokage tower or something. The ball is blue and seems to be made of some weird energy, chakra given what she's doing. She wonders if this is what chakra looks like to Hinata-chan when she uses her eyes.

Looking around she notices it's mostly dark in this place. Well dark doesn't really cover it, it's pitch black save for the ball. Looking down she sees something strange, another light, not blue like her chakra. Turning around she sees another ball. Though this one is much larger than hers and it seems to be shifting between being yellow, red, and white. Right now it's mostly yellow and red. It kind of looks like the three colors are pushing against each other. The red seems to almost turn towards her. And then weird black rings and commas appear in it. It sort of looks like an eye, albeit a weird one. The eye-like thing turns and looks right at her fully. She gasps and backs away. Bumping into her blue chakra ball. Before she can think of the sensation her eyes snap open as she sees Hinata-chan looking at her with concern.

"Hinata-chan what's going on?"

"You suddenly started pulsing chakra. We were worried you'd exhaust yourself…" Hinata trails off as she realizes the smaller girl is shaking, she'd only seen her this terrified once. It had been Haruka-chan's seventh birthday. It was also the first time the villagers actively tried to hunt down the redhead. The girl managed to run into the compound bleeding and with a broken arm and ribs. Seeing her so afraid again Hinata does the only thing she can. She hugs the shaking girl and whispers over and over again. "It will be okay Haru-chan."

The rest of the class is silently staring before Iruka distracts them, he might not like the girl but he doesn't hate her, and seeing the little girl so terrified is enough to make him want to defend her. He became a ninja so children wouldn't have to be terrified like that anymore. "Alright, she's just a little overloaded from using too much chakra. Now I believe the rest of you still haven't accessed it yet. And Shikamaru, woke up!" The class goes back to meditating while the Nara groans.

What was that thing she saw? Why does she have two chakra sources? Or is it technically four? Does each color show a different source, or do the balls mean different sources. Is this why people think she's a demon? Because of the abnormal chakra source? Is she actually a demon, and that's just her demon side or something? Her thoughts are interrupted by Hinata-chan speaking. 

"Iruka-sensei, since this is the last class today, can we leave early? Ko-san is already waiting for us." She said with her Byakugan active. 

Iruka with a bit of hesitance nodded and said, "I wouldn't normally allow it, but you've both completed the work. Just don't expect this to be a regular occurrence."

"Thank you Sensei," Haruka shakily stands on her feet, with Hinata-chan's help. "Now come on Haru-chan let's get you home." Hinata-chan then whispers in her ear. "And if you want you can tell me what happened." Haruka nods and they start to walk towards Ko. He is surprised to see them early and is about to scold them for apparently skipping class, there are no other kids leaving early so he knows class didn't get dismissed already, only to stop upon seeing the state the redhead is in. He saw her on her seventh birthday so he knows all too well how she acts when she is terrified. It almost looks like she's more terrified now than she was back then. The man remains silent while Hinata leads them to Haruka's apartment. Ko waits outside, knowing it's better to let the girls be alone. Though he activates his Byakugan every five seconds to check on them.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Several moments pass in silence, "That's okay, I won't—" Haruka interrupts her.

"N-No if I can talk to anyone it's you." Hinata realizes it's pretty bad, Haruka-chan never stutters like that. Not unless her mouth is in too much pain to talk properly. "I found my chakra." Hinata knows there's more so she waits for Haruka to continue. "But then I found another chakra source. A-And it turned into some weird eye thing. I-It looked right at me. I-I was so scared." Haruka-chan was crying in fear at the memory. Hinata hugs her in response, rubbing her back.

How could Haruka-chan have two chakra sources? Well that at least explains the power Haruka-chan used when the cloud nin threatened her. Seeing the redhead calm down a bit she said, "Haruka-chan wha—" Haruka interrupts again.

"Haru-chan." Hinata nods knowing what she meant. "Haru-chan what did the eye look like?"

"I-It was red, with several rings around the pupil, I didn't count how many, and…"

"It had tomoe in the rings, they look like commas." 

Haruka nodded dumbly and asked. "How did you know?"

"Haru-chan… That's… What your eyes looked like on the night you saved me. When you blacked out."

"Oh… Hinata-chan, am I a demon?"

"I don't think so, a demon wouldn't save me from being kidnapped." Haruka nods accepting the answer. She's still unsure but if nothing else she doesn't act like a demon and her friend doesn't think she's one. That's enough.

The two girls went to Ichiraku Ramen for dinner that night, it's Haruka's comfort food, and her favorite food. Hinata-chan usually tells her not to have it at every meal, though she can't really stop her from keeping it at home. It helps that people can't sell her rotten ramen, ramen just never lasts that long in the stores and has incredibly long expiration dates. Anyways because she usually has dinner with Hinata-chan she's forced to eat those nasty vegetables, though at least she's not super thin because of it. Between Hinata-chan's comforting and the ramen she'd calmed down a lot in the past few hours and was back to her usual self.

Hinata was glad to see Haruka-chan was no longer upset. The two seven year old girls finished their meal and Haruka was taken back to her apartment. "Thanks for today, Hina-chan." She said smiling brightly at Hinata. The white eyed girl blushes, Haruka hadn't shortened her name like that before. She likes it. Plus she loves it when the redhead smiles at her like that.