I was woken up by a female voice.
Reluctantly, I sat up, eyes still closed, as I forced myself to stay awake, "Yes?"
"Lady Hinoka, you're late for your training with Neji."
My eyes snapped open as I looked at the clock before lunging out of my room.
I couldn't even remember when I had fallen asleep; the last thing I could recall was Haku coming to the hospital.
How many hours of sleep had I even gotten?
"I'm here!" I exclaimed as I stopped in front of Neji, lightly panting. He had a scowl on his face as he replied, "Let's begin."
We had been going at it for hours as Neji lunged towards me and I blocked his attack, matching him strike for strike.
I twisted my body to the side, dodging a strike before aiming a punch at his head.
Suddenly, Neji ducked, hitting me in the stomach multiple times.
I fell to my knees, clenching my stomach as I coughed up blood.
"What are you doing?" Neji asked, glaring at me.
As I stumbled to my feet, still clenching my stomach, I replied, "I'm sparring. What does it look like?"
"I thought you were serious about changing the clan. You haven't had a chance to practice for days, and today is the first time, yet you were late and made foolish mistakes time and time again all day long."
"I was—I mean, I am serious!"
"Yet something is distracting you. If you cannot solely commit yourself to this, then you were never truly serious about changing the clan. Decide where you truly want to be, what you truly want. Changing the clan is not something you can do while having a cup of tea; it will take a lot of work, Hinoka. I can only hope you choose wisely."
Neji began walking away as he concluded, "We're done for today."
I stood there alone as I stared at the spot where he had been standing, his words repeating over and over in my head.
Yukio chuckled as she said in a smug, mocking tone, "Who knew what would be distracting the great *beeeeeep* from doing what needs to be done would be a boy? You just can't stop thinking about him, if he's awake, if he's getting worse or better, or if he'll stay just like that, in that same condition forever."
"Shut up!" I exclaimed while Yukino simply laughed.
I walked off, leaving to freshen up.
There I sat in my room, my knees to my chest as I stared at it.
The necklace Sasuke had given me. I was simply worried about him; I knew it wouldn't do any good to worry, but for some reason, I couldn't get him out of my mind.
I grabbed it as I left the compound. All I wanted to do was check up on him, then I'd come straight back and train.
That's all.
I stopped in front of Sasuke's hospital door, my hand on the handle.
'Choose wisely.'
The same words resonated in my head over and over again, endlessly, louder and louder.
Neji was right. If I wanted to change the clan, I had to stop worrying about other things and concentrate on getting stronger.
I stared at the door, finally managing to let go of the handle, and just as I was turning around to leave, the door suddenly opened.
I whipped back around as Sakura stared at me, taken aback, "Hinoka."
"Hey," I replied, avoiding her gaze.
"Were you going to leave without seeing Sasuke?" she asked, not wasting a second to get to the point.
Past her, there Sasuke was, lying on the hospital bed, looking just as lifeless as he did yesterday.
'In that same condition forever.'
"Hinoka?" Sakura called out, looking worried.
"Y-yeah? Sorry, I spaced out for a moment. I just realized I forgot something. I'll be right back."
Before Sakura could reply, I ran off.
"He was just a few steps away, and yet you ran away after thinking about him all day," Yukino said.
'I can't go into that room,' I thought.
"Yet, you want to so desperately."
I ran across roofs and into the forest with no idea where I was heading, but I knew I couldn't stop or else...
'I can't.'
"So why do you want to?"
'I don't want to!'
"You forget we're two halves of the same coin. I've lived in this world as Hinoka Hyuga longer than you have, and while I would rather not, I can feel your emotions. You want to."
"But I can't!" I exclaimed, tripping as I missed the next branch, falling to the ground.
I tumbled, rolling, before I finally hit a tree and stopped. "I can't," I whispered.
Why? Why do I feel this way? What exactly is it that I'm feeling? Why does my heart hurt so much?
They're not real. Sasuke isn't real; he's just a character in an anime. That's all he is to me... right?
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I've been rewriting chapters a lot recently so I haven't been able to post new chapters sorry😔
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