日向導 - A Hyūga's Guide

Chapter Five: Waterfall

"You need to eat." Hinata opened Sakura's bedroom door without bothering to knock. Frankly, she could care less about their boundaries and privacies since she's been extremely annoyed at the immature behaviour of her sister. Setting the tray of food down, she stood in front of Sakura's futon and looked down at her. "It does not benefit you if you keep laying there instead of doing something with yourself."

"Get out of my room." Sakura grumbled and pulled her sheets over her head as she ignored the Hyūga girl. "And tell the maids to not bother coming in here for the rest of the day."

"You smell." Hinata lied as she took a good look at the room. Nothing had changed since she'd last been there and it was honestly sad to see. Sakura was always changing something in her room.

"That's fine, you can stop smelling me if you leave." She turned around and gave her sister the meanest glare she could muster up. "I don't know why you keep bothering me when you usually have no problems in ignoring my existence."

"In case you've forgotten, Sakura, you're my sister. Just because you annoy me to no end, doesn't mean that I hate you."

"Wow, thanks for the compliment I guess."

"Mother has been worrying about you since you decided to be a wallowing mess after the dinner at the Palace." She opened the curtains and began putting the dirty utensils from the previous day into a basket.

"I wonder why I don't want to get out of my room." Her voice dripped with sarcasm as she rolled her eyes. "Why aren't you affected by any of this? We got back and you continued your life as if we went on a simple stroll outside and not the fact that we saw the Crown Prince bleed his eyes out."

Hinata paused for a moment and shrugged. "Have you ever thought that you and I don't regard or admire the Crown Prince in the same way? You're practically in love with him, whereas, I'm neutral about his existence and status. You were just forced to realize that your precious Prince isn't as perfect as you thought him to be."

"You're great at providing comfort, you know that?" Sakura sat up and combed through her long hair with her fingers. "Do you know what happened to him?"

"I'm sure the imperial physician has managed to help him with his little problem. That guard of his seemed extremely attached to him throughout the entire ordeal, so he must have helped as well." Hinata was about to leave Sakura alone as she had previously requested once she organized her room somewhat but she reached out to stop her.

"You don't think he's...ya' know?" Sakura whispered as she read too deeply into what Hinata said.

"You can't possibly be obsessed with him still after seeing what happened. You've been mourning him and crying about what you saw, if you still have interest in him after that, I won't look at you the same way again."

"That's not what I mean."

"I know exactly what you mean; I just think it's extremely ridiculous that you're worried about whether his interest is in men or women after seeing that display last week. It's so very clear that the Prince has no interest in a marriage — that's for sure." Hinata murmurs as she rolls her eyes.

"You're always talking as if you know something I don't. If you love me so much, you should tell me everything." Sakura pleaded with her.

"Maybe if you stopped being self righteous for just one moment, you would have noticed that night that he was not looking at you or anyone in that room. He seemed as though he didn't want to be there at all."

"So you were looking at him!" Sakura gasped, "what happened to having no interest in him?"

"I'm becoming a little bit annoyed right now, Sakura, please let me go so I can take care of the things I had planned today." Hinata's gaze hardened as she observed the desperation that filled Sakura's eyes.