Chapter 4: Making Friends [Rewrite]
While much of my time is spent with Neji training, either at home or at the academy, I still have Death's words lingering in my mind. I was sent to this world for a lesson, and so far, my only friend is Neji. I have spent a lot of my time being angry at the clan, forgetting my purpose here as I've been so focused on surpassing the clan's expectations. Neji and I have both calmed slightly over the years, never losing our dislike of the main family, but calming enough to show proper respects to them when in their company and to behave properly at all times, even when we are seething on the inside. Our rage became something private, something only known or seen between the two of us.
When we were eight years old, we heard of the massacre of the Uchiha clan. While this struck many as a great tragedy, it hit me very hard personally. It made me realize two things; one, that I have spent enough time being so single minded and focused on my own goals and needs, and two, I felt sorrow for the characters, and not actually the real people. I don't leave the Hyuga compound often, there's usually no need for us to leave or the branch elders don't allow us to. Therefore, in my head, I still view the other main characters of the show as just that, characters. The massacre made me realize that just outside the walls of the compound are real life people, people that I should be getting to know.
So that is exactly what I started to do. Neji was confused the first time I said I was going for a walk outside our home, he said it was a waste of time that could be spent training. I said that I wanted to see more of our village every now and then, and get a better lay of the land. I offered for him to come with me, but he said he would rather spend his time training a new technique. I made sure he was ok with me going by myself, and when he assured me he was, I went out alone for the first time.
It was a day off from the academy, of which Neji and I are top of our classes. I wandered around different areas, until naturally I gravitated to one of the training grounds. It's been about a month since the massacre, and I was surprised to see the sole survivor was the person already at the nearest training grounds.
Sasuke Uchiha, identifiable by his clan symbol on his shirt and his dark glare in his eyes. I can only imagine the thoughts going through his mind currently, probably directing all of his anger towards his brother. I need to work out a plan to get him to direct his anger towards the right person, but that will be difficult, and should be handled delicately. For now, I think I'll just try to get to know him.
"What are you staring at?" He stops practicing throwing his kunai to turn around and face me where I stood. I wasn't exactly hiding, standing to the side of him while I contemplating how to approach.
"Your form. You hold your wrist too stiff, that's why you're missing the target. Hold it looser, see how it travels farther." I inform him after processing his form I had been watching.
He glares at me for a moment. "I didn't ask for your help." He says angrily to me before turning back to his stump, throwing his kunai the same way he had been. I take out three of my own, and throw them all near flawlessly at the center of the target he had been aiming for, all while standing almost double his distance. He whips around to stare at me in shock for a moment. Throwing knives has become one of my favorite things to do in this world, especially since I always have some on me.
"Like I said, relax your wrist more and you'll be able to throw further. Try it." I suggested with a shrug. He glared again, then looked at the kunai in his hand for a moment. He tried throwing with a looser wrist, but loosened it too much and threw it too high. "Hey, it went further, didn't it?" I ask him when he glares at me again as if him missing was my fault.
He tried again a few more times before he got the knives to land more consistently. I practiced on the tree beside him, and noticed him occasionally glancing over at me.
"Who are you?" He asked me angrily after we practiced in silence for over an hour.
"It is proper manners to state your name before asking for someone else's." I say haughtily with a smirk.
"Tch." He tsks out, "Sasuke Uchiha."
"Ami Hyuga. Good work on your technique. I have to go home now, I'll see you around." I wave goodbye to him as I head back to home. I've been gone for a while now. I hear Sasuke tsk again from behind me. It wasn't much of an interaction, but it was something.
"Where have you been all day?" Neji asks me when I get home.
"I went for a walk, but then I went to a training ground and practiced kunai. Got better at my range." I tell him honestly, I really did push myself today to work harder on range. So far, Neji has been better at that than me, likely because he has more muscle than me. But only a little more.
Neji nodded thoughtfully at my response before going back to dinner. We chatted about different techniques or about academy homework. I had fun today, doing something different. I'll go out again next week, see who else I can meet, or else just find Sasuke again.
I met up with Sasuke several more times over the next few months, nearly every week on the same day. Our conversations progressed from single word answers to actual full sentences. We would talk about mostly ninja related topics, but I did manage to get out of him that his favorite food is tomato, which I can't stand. Neither Neji nor I like it, so we never cook with it at home, but apparently Sasuke will just eat an entire tomato like an apple, of which he demonstrates often when having a training snack. He did one day also show me a tea house he used to like, said I would probably like it. It was nice inside, and the atmosphere was relaxing. I told him my brother would probably love it there, and he just shrugged dismissively. I saw him lock up slightly at the word 'brother', then I remembered his hatred for his own. Neither of us have talked much about our families. I'm not the talkative sharing type, and he likely doesn't care.
I did end up taking Neji to the tea house the next week though. It was tough to lure him away from training, but he has been curious about my walks I take, so I forced him to come with me on one. When we got to the tea house, I watched him slowly start to relax.
"What can I get you dears today?" The shop keeper asked us as we sat down.
"Jasmine tea, please." Neji ordered for us and I smiled. We often had it at home, it was our favorite. I was never much of a tea drinker in my first life, so when I came to this world that was a bit of a change to get used to having tea so often. Our father Hizashi always had Jasmine tea when he wanted to relax, I guess we picked up the habit. On colder evenings, Neji and I will often be found sitting on our porch drinking tea, it's our way to relax and be calm.
"Thank you for coming with me, nii-san." I say happily to him with a soft smile.
"Thanks for making me." He says quietly, a tiny smirk on his face. Our tea arrived and we drank it peacefully together. We didn't need to talk while we sat, so we just enjoyed the nice weather at our outdoor seats and watched the people walk passed. They would occasionally glance our way, since twins are not very common. Since we are only eight, we are still very much identical. We have the same slightly narrow face shape, the same long black hair, though mine is a little longer. We both wear our heads wrapped to hide our curse mark. We are even the same height, though I feel like that will likely change over the years. I had contemplated on getting bangs in my hair to make us look different, but I didn't really want them, and I quite liked looking like my twin, so I left my hair long. Our only difference in appearance was our clothes. While he wore simple loose blue shorts and an off-white shirt, I wore tighter black shorts, hitting about mid-thigh, with a green kimono style top. My sash that tied it together matched the wide sleeve hems, which were black. I found I could keep a few kunai up the sleeves of the kimono top, and chose to keep that style as my daily look and my training clothes. Neji said I looked very pretty in it when we were taken shopping one time, so I stuck with it.