THE TIGRESS' LANTERN - A HINATA HYUGA FANFICTION

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: GOOD ENOUGH, NOW?

Amaterasu: Hello, everyone. I've returned to this chapter because I found a song that would be better suited to the message of his chapter. Now, let's being.

The title is inspired by the song: Good Enough by Little Mix
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[Picking Up Where We Left Off In The Previous Chapter]

The Stadium went quiet - with the silence, you could hear a pen drop or a tumbleweed blowing in the wind - all eyes were wide and every heart ran cold. The Hokage nearly jumped from his seat when the face of the murderer was revealed to be the Heiress they all had mourned for an entire year. The Genin of The Hidden Leaf looked at the blue eyes - eyes that once held a love that was undeniable and full of compassion - but those eyes...they weren't the eyes of the Hinata Hyuga they once knew. No, while that was her face, her voice, those eyes didn't hold the same soul - the same love - for the Hidden Leaf Village.

The Crimson Eyes of the Sensei of Team 8 watered as the familiar face of the girl she cried over every night stood before the Hidden Leaf Jinchuuriki but there was nothing there for him but hatred. The Hinata she knew was a creature of love, compassion, and grace - this...Kurenai Yūhi didn't know who this was. She looked to the side and glared at the Former Demon of the Mist and Hinata's 'Husband' with a hatred that matched the fire in her blood.

'What did they do to my student?! What did they do to my Hinata-chan?!' Her mind roared.

"H...Hinata-chan...what?" Naruto's words stumbled but they went silent when Hinata started chuckling.

"Wow, I never thought I'd hear stuttering  from you, considering how much you hated me for doing it." She said with a small smirk before frowning and glaring at him with disinterest, "Why was I even interested in you in the first place?" She questioned herself.

"Hinata-chan...I don't understand." He said.

"You don't understand what, Naruto? How is it possible that the person who crippled the Hyuga Clan's Genius was the same person who you thought couldn't harm a fly? How a person who could rip a soul fragment out of a little girl's chest was the same person you overlooked and mocked for years on end, along with the ones who were supposed to be alongside her?" She looks down at the mask piece still connected to the ribbon by her foot, "Or is it that you can't believe that I've gotten stronger in a year than you or anyone in this village could be in their lives?" She growled as she stomped on the mask fragment, crushing it into shards before looking up to meet her sapphire blue eyes with Naruto's sky blue.

"What happened to you, Hinata-chan? The Hinata I know wouldn't do the horrible things that have happened - she wouldn't almost kill her cousin, she wouldn't send her sister into a dying state, she wouldn't betray the Hidden Leaf Village!" He stomped and looked at her with tears forming in his eyes before looking up at Zabuza and Haku - who wore smiles upon their faces - then looking back at Hinata, "They did something to you, didn't they?! Tell me what they did and we can fix it! We can help you and then...we could..." Naruto couldn't finish as Hinata began laughing again.

"You think they did something to me? You think that's why I'm like this? No, Uzumaki, they did nothing to me except giving me the love and respect I deserved. The ones who made me like this were those backstabbers I called teammates & friends, that entitled brat I called a sister, that perfectionist I called a cousin, and you - the one my heart fell for, the one who ignored me in favor of someone who would rather beat the shit out of you than give you the time of day, the one who talked about me, called me weak and a freak for attention...The one who pushed me over the edge was you, Naruto Uzumaki! Your betrayal was all I needed to get the hell out of this cancerous village, to find a place of my own, and I found it - besides my husband and father-in-law/sensei." Hinata said as she pointed at Naruto with a perfect claw point, making him shiver with each word she said.