Chapter 3

The next morning, we headed out bright and early.

To my surprise and amusement, Konohamaru and Hanabi were arguing almost nonstop the entire time we traveled, both with red faces. My sister took my advice and went to sleep next to him last night because she was too prideful to admit that she was shy about it. Apparently, Konohamaru handled the situation better than any of us thought he would and cuddled her without complaint and she hadn't fought it.

She swears it's because she didn't want to get cold, but the red of her cheeks told us all that that likely wasn't the entire reason. Probably embarrassed that she'd enjoyed it, she was lashing out and being meaner to him than usual, which is why they were arguing.

The sun was almost right above us, meaning it was somewhere close to noon, when we finally reached Inaka. It's a small village, but seemed modern and welcoming. There are a few small businesses, like Tenten's father's shooting range and weapon shop, a family owned grocery store, a flower shop, and a few more. Then, there are houses, of course.

According to Tenten, the village has just under two thousand residents and they thrive without needing to trade with any other towns or villages. Inaka is completely self-sufficient.

Unlike every other city we've visited since Oto, it isn't completely deserted. It wasn't the bustling place we'd been told it usually is, but a few people were outside working on their gardens or tending to their crops and they waved at Neji and Tenten as we passed.

With each step we took, my heart rose further in my chest.

Hands trembling with anxiety, I bravely reached over and held onto Neji's hand. He looked over at me in surprise before offering an understanding look and squeezing my hand supportively.

Is my mother going to be angry when she sees me? Will she even recognize me?

We approached a cute little house with a white picket fence and a pretty winter flower garden up front. My heart was beating loudly in my ears as my eyes landed on a woman. Her back was turned as she knelt down, tending to the pansies and violas there. Long, dark brown hair ran down her back in a loose braid and her skin was pale.

By the time Neji reached to open the gate of the fence, he was pretty much leading me because my feet didn't want to move anymore. The woman heard the squeak of the hinges and turned to lay eyes on her son, stealing the breath from my very body.

It's her, there's no doubt about that.

Soft silver eyes with the slightest hint of lavender teared up as she dropped the little shovel in her hand and hurried over to wrap her arms around Neji's neck. The corners of her eyes crinkled tenderly as she smiled with closed eyes, visibly relieved to see her child alive and unharmed. He patted her back with a pink face, but thankfully didn't let go of my hand or else I might be tempted to flee.

"Neji, where the hell have you been? I was so worried when I saw what happened on the news and they wouldn't give me any information on where you and Tenten were taken! I should wring your neck for making me stress out like this!"

She pulled back, pulling his head down so she could reach and kiss his forehead before turning to pull Tenten into a hug, "You'd better go see your Dad before he keels over, Honey."

When the girl didn't immediately obey, she seemed to finally realize something was off and turned to look at her son again with a question on her face before her eyes turned onto me and widened so much I thought they might bug out of her head. Tears were welled up heavily in my eyes and I felt my chin quivering as I fought with all my might to keep it together.

"H-Hinata…is that you, Sweetheart?"

My mother looked like she was staring at a ghost, which isn't really fair considering that's what it felt like I was doing because I've been under the impression she's dead. The woman's face had lost all its color and her eyes traveled over my appearance in disbelief. When she took a step toward me, I tensed up, taking in a sharp breath. Neji stepped slightly in front of me, pulling her attention back to him.

"What's going on here? What is this?"

"That's what we want to know, Mom."

Somehow, we ended up inside as she prepared tea for everyone. Since Inaka runs on its own power grid and plumbing system, it was easy to forget what was going on in the rest of the world. Things seemed so normal.

The home was a little small, but cozy and had that often sought after home-y feel to it. Family photos decorated the walls, a homemade quilt lay over the arm of an old recliner, and every dish in the kitchen seemed like it was passed down from a previous generation.

Naruto held my hand in his lap as we sat at the dining table with everyone else. He knows there isn't anything he can do to help the situation get easier, but his wordless support kept my urge to run away at bay.

Once we all had a cup of steaming tea, my mother sat down in the last chair and returned to staring at me with an unwavering expression of disbelief. Tenten had excused herself to see her family.

"We want answers," Neji wasted no time breaking the silence.

The older woman sighed and finally released me from her strong gaze so she could look down into her tea cup before taking a sip, "Where should I start?"

"From the beginning, preferably." I glanced at my brother. His mouth was in a firm line and his glare was unwavering. He wasn't going easy on her.

"Alright, then. I got drunk at a party when I was sixteen, so did your father, and you were conceived."

Neji interrupted, "Why did you hide it from him?"

She shook her head slightly, "I wasn't ashamed of you, baby, so please don't think that. It was a different time, back then. If people found out I was having a child out of wedlock and at such a young age, my life would've been ruined. I would've been expelled from highschool, never would've gotten into college, and never would've met Hiashi."

My eyes narrowed and I was surprised by the sudden surge of anger that shot through me.

She noticed, "I know I don't deserve to even say his name, but I truly loved him. He was everything I ever dreamed of, everything I'd ever need."

As though realizing she was skipping ahead a bit, she turned to face her son once more and backtracked, "Your grandparents legally adopted you so you could go to school when you got old enough and so no one would know you were mine. It worked out well because I got to keep you and return to school for my final year. Madara never suspected a thing."

She shook her head with a sad smile, looking down into her glass again, "He met you, you know, just one time when you were a couple months old. We were best friends all through school, so it was only natural that he came over once in a while to study or hang out. The fool thought nothing of it."

"Why didn't you tell him? Didn't he deserve to know?" Neji was here to get some answers and he wasn't leaving without them.

"Madara…he loved me long before you were conceived. I didn't feel the same way, but I still cared about him as a friend so I turned him down. He never asked again, but I knew his feelings never went away. A girl just knows. It was already terrible of me to drunkenly hook up with him. I couldn't give him even more hope by telling him we have a child because I wasn't going to marry him, no matter what, and he would propose the moment he found out."

"Then, I met Hiashi later and when I told Madara that we were dating, he started to change. He befriended him, sure, but something was always a bit off."

Her eyes danced back up to meet her son's and the look on her face pleaded with him to understand, "I've never told anyone this, not even Hiashi, but the night before our wedding, Madara tried to force himself on me. He was drunk and depressed and begged me to run away with him. That was the one and only time I've slapped someone in my life. As soon as I did, he gave me the most awful look and left. He didn't say a word during the wedding and was gone the very next day."

I felt her eyes turn onto me and averted mine down to my cup of now cold tea. I hadn't even taken a single sip of it.

"But Hiashi made me so happy. It was so easy to live life at his side. Money was a little tight when we were both still in school, but somehow we managed, and then I got pregnant with you, Hinata."

I couldn't stop myself from meeting her gaze this time, but couldn't bring myself to say anything so she just continued. "I fell in love with you the moment I first laid eyes on your sweet little face. All I wanted to do from that day forward was love and protect you."

My eyes narrowed, but she spoke again before I could say anything.

"But things don't always go as planned. That day, Hiashi opened a letter from my parents, thinking it was meant to be a birthday card for me, but it had Neji's school photo's inside. He…saw the resemblance between him, me, and Madara and when I got home that afternoon, he confronted me about it."

I glanced over at Hanabi, unsure if I wanted her to hear the rest of this. Whether she likes my mother or not wasn't any of my concern. Hell, I don't even like the woman right now, but what she's about to say may tarnish my little sister's opinion of our father and I don't know how she'll react if that's the case.

"Your father never raised a hand to me, let me assure you of that first. He was a gentle and caring husband from day one. That day, though, was the first time I was afraid of him. When I finally told him the truth, he got so angry that he was yelling. You were crying, he was crying, and I didn't know what to do."

"Hiashi eventually calmed down enough to inform me that he was going to tell Madara because he deserved to know the truth. I still hadn't told him about what Madara had done that night before the wedding and somehow couldn't bring myself to do it then. I felt so guilty about leading him on for all those years that I couldn't…I couldn't make his closest friend hate him. I thought I was making the right choice, all that time."

"So, I left. I drove the six hours to Madara's house and came clean about all of it because if he was going to find out, it had to be from me. He…didn't take it well. I won't delude it and say I didn't deserve his anger because I did, but he got violent. I won't go into details, but I was pretty roughed up when he chased me out of his house and I was crying as I left and started to drive home. Then…well…you probably know that I was in a car wreck."

I nodded, glare still hard on my eyes.

She seemed to accept my unhappy emotions, "I'd left in such a hurry that I hadn't taken my purse, so I didn't have my ID, and the car was in such bad condition that they couldn't run the plates and find out who it belonged to, so when I woke up in the hospital that night I had a decision to make. For the sake of everyone involved, I thought it best to disappear. So, I told the nurses and police I was running from an abusive husband so they'd help cover up the fact that I survived and well…the rest is history."

She placed a hand on the table in my direction and frowned, "If I have one regret, it's that you had to grow up without me there. I knew Hiashi would never let anything bad happen to you. That's the only thing that kept me from coming back. You were safe, Hiashi didn't have to live with a wife who broke his heart with such a giant lie, Madara couldn't try to get revenge on me or my family for what I'd done, and I could raise Neji how I should've from the beginning."

My eyes widened when I suddenly realized I'd been crying for some time now and I averted my gaze down to the table so I could wipe at my tears with the hand Naruto wasn't holding. It was silent for a long time after that.

She gave every detail. She admitted her wrongdoings and didn't attempt to make excuses for her actions, something I could respect even in this situation.

The burning ache in my chest at her betrayal, her abandonment, was still there, though. I get it. I understand now why she did what she did, even if it's impossible for me to completely do so since I wasn't in her shoes. Even so, I also couldn't wrap my head around it all.

If she was so in love with me, how could she leave me like that? If she loved my father so much, how come she never told him about Neji? And how could she still worry about whether Madara's feelings were hurt after he got violent with her?

My angsty thoughts were interrupted by the last person I expected to speak first, "I hope you realize how much Hinata has suffered because of you."

Hanabi's voice was laced with poison and when I looked at her face, it was full of hatred. I lifted my free hand to stop her, "H-Hanabi, don't-"

"No, Hinata! I know I didn't do much when my mom was mean to you all those years, but I've never been blind. Our rooms have always been right next to each other. You think I couldn't hear you cry yourself to sleep all those nights after a bad day? Do you think I didn't see that woman's photo on your phone's home screen?"

My face warmed and my mouth opened slightly in surprise. There wasn't a single reaction that felt right so I didn't know what to do.

My sister turned her glare back on my mother and continued, "You should be ashamed. You should've stayed and faced the repercussions of your actions instead of running away like a coward."

Her expression softened slightly, "I realize that I probably wouldn't be alive today if you hadn't, but that doesn't change the fact that because of you, people that I love suffered."

The woman in question looked at her with a sad smile, "You're Hiashi's youngest." It wasn't a question, but a statement of fact. "You look so much like him… I appreciate your honesty and respect your feelings. All I can do now is apologize to those I've hurt."

When I looked at Neji, he was looking at me. His expression told me that he was satisfied with her answers and it was up to me to decide if I wanted to end the conversation here or keep going. As I looked around the room, I had to take a page out of my mother's book and face the situation with maturity.

Voice wavering, I finally held her gaze firmly, "W-What you did hurt me," she nodded slowly, a look of sorrowful understanding, "but I'm happy that Neji was able to be raised by his mother."

The man in question looked just as surprised as our mother did.

"I still had Dad there for me and he did his best, but Neji didn't have either of his parents. I-I know he was with family, but even a kid can be affected by something like that. So, while I'll n-never be able to say you were a good mother to me, I can forgive you because you've been one to my brother."

With that, I politely excused myself from the table and went outside so I could crouch down with my back to the side of the house as I cried. My arms wrapped around my knees and I stared down at the cold dirt as I listened to Naruto's quickly approaching footsteps.

He came to crouch down beside me. After a moment of silence, he spoke in a soft voice, "I think that was far more impressive than anything else I've seen you do."

A small laugh past my lips and I glanced at him as I reached up to wipe at my wet face. He grinned, "What you just did for her and Neji was a really great thing. I'm proud of you."

My eyes widened at his words and I felt a heat rise to my face. It's been such a long time since anyone has told me I've made them proud and I hadn't realized it until now. It was quiet between us for a long time and my tears eventually dried up.

Then, he spoke again, this time in a less serious tone, "Do you think she'll let us shower together?"

I scoffed, shaking my head at him with a blush on my face, "I-I don't think she'll say no to anything I ask her right now."

He held out his hand and I let him pull me up to my feet, "Well let's go, then! I wanna get clean before dinner."