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It started slow, and young, sitting in the middle row in Iruka’s classroom, Kiba tucked between Hinata and Shino in the hopes it would quiet him down. It worked well enough; the middle row was easy for him on calmer days, when he could chatter to Hinata while he worked, or when he would doodle on his paper, secure in the knowledge that his deskmates weren’t going to tell Iruka.
Someone like Naruto never meant to snitch on him, but he was just so loud that it was hard not to draw the sensei’s attention to whatever they were doing. Even Ino and Sakura, while fun to sit with for a while, inevitably drew Iruka near, and that always led to Kiba being in trouble for something.
But next to the two people who would later become his team, he tended to do okay. That desk, where Kiba carved his name, and Hinata stammered her way through her lessons, and Shino took illegible notes, was the same place it all started. All of it. Team 8 began there, and their love took its roots there, and Hinata’s insecurities bore through her there.
Her father was cruel to her, and her family shunned her for all she was worth to them, but it was at school that she had the time to feel the weight of that. When Kiba came to school talking about his sister Hana, or when Shino sat more quiet than usual after Torune was taken away, she had to actually see how different she was.
It wasn’t just that her family hated her, but they made her different for it. She couldn’t be like the others, even when Hanabi, still so young, crawled into bed with her, she knew she wasn’t like the others. Her family's love came at so high a cost, and she could only afford Hanabi’s, paying for it in the blood she spilled shielding her sister from their fathers abuse.
Hanabi never saw, she made sure of that, and as such, she was allowed to be loved by her, but everyone else parted before her, flocked from her, kept as far away as they could from their heiress. She was worthless, tainted as if they could catch whatever had made her father hate her.
Kiba and Shino couldn’t though, their blood seeming incompatible with the virus she carried, unable to spread it like she had to everyone else. She had watched it infect Neji, and his father, but she couldn’t see it darkening Kiba’s already black eyes, nor could she sense it in the movements of Shino’s hive.
They were there for her, Kiba smiling with too many teeth, his adult canines growing in much sharper than her own could ever dream to be. She looked at his abandoned and sloppy work, the piece of torn white linen, haphazardly repaired with a running stitch that creased and bunched the fabric. Her own was neat and efficient, the stitches of a young clan kid, and Shino’s were clean but fast, the way he had been taught by his father.
She watched Kiba from the corner of her eyes as he played with the needle, pressing it through the skin at the top of his finger, and then pulling it back out, just to do it again, and something in her clicked. Something demanding and desperate held her hand out for him, asking him to show her what he was doing.
Shino turned to watch as well, as Hinata let Kiba press the needle through her skin, quietly letting out a surprised sound when it broke through without her even feeling it.
Of course Iruka heard though, and despite Shino and Hinata’s recounts, Kiba was given after school detention for it, the sensei not believing Hinata would willingly subject herself to that. Little did he know just how much she would though. Seeing Kiba being held back because of her, seeing him be left behind, separated from the others, from her. She couldn’t let that happen.
She asked Shino to stay back with her after school, to wait for Kiba, since it was her fault he was in there, and he agreed easily enough, since he too felt guilty for what happened. He could’ve told them to stop before it happened, he could’ve argued Kiba’s case more convincingly. His inactions, his lack of effort, had hurt the other boy, at least he could stay back to see him out.
Kiba came out looking miserable as could be expected, but perked up when he saw the other two waiting for him, getting up from where they sat across the field to greet him. Hinata hugged him for the first time in their friendship, and squeezed him too tight. She wasn’t going to let him go again, not him or Shino, not the two people she could actually get close to.
Iruka watched from the doorway as she clung to him, brows furrowing curiously and with a little worry. He knew, he could feel, one of the Hyuga’s were nearby, watching her, and feared what that would mean for the kids. Would they step out, pull her away and back into the compound? He flared his chakra warningly to any nearby shinobi, not enough the kids might feel it, but enough to say that these were still children on school property, and he wouldn’t let a random Hyuga walk in here and stop them.
He didn’t know it yet, all three of the kids felt it, as clear as the Hyuga on the sideline. Hinata, trained already to be wary of a stray signal, taking in too much constantly, and Shino and Kiba, both masters of creatures that could sense a single spark of chakra across a radius they weren’t about to disclose. They had all felt it, like a warning, like a threat, like a cool comfort from their sensei, who took care of them.
Hinata pulled away quickly, asking Kiba if he was okay as she did, and when he said he was, she left, making off to where she knew Kō was waiting for her. He took her aside, like she knew he would, and his words were firm as he told her not to associate herself with those boys. He wanted to protect her from her father, but she could face him, she did everyday already. She just needed friends.
That night, sitting at her desk doing what her father assumed was homework, all she could think of was those two. She had friends, finally, who could stand near her without fear. She could come home and face her fathers wrath, and then she could return to school the next day and they would be there.
They would be there always for her. She could make sure of it.
She pulled Kiba’s messy scrap of work from her pack, and started unpicking it. He had been sent home to re-do it, the work was fine but it was a part of his punishment, and Hinata had taken it from him before leaving the classroom. Shino had seen, and covered for her.
Doing his work for him, felt like an appropriate way to apologize, and she made the stitches only an ounce better than his own had been. Enough that Iruka would see his ‘efforts’, but not so good that they would be ousted. Lying to protect herself and Hanabi had become second nature, and now she had another to do it for as well. Protecting others was almost a love language, but she wanted more.
Keeping him safe was one thing, but she needed to keep him close, never let him get away from her, Shino too. They were hers, the one thing she had, and she would cling to them.
She toyed with the needle as she sat there, pressing it through the tip of her finger as Kiba had shown her, killing time until dinner, not wanting to spend a single minute longer out there then she needed too. In her room, as long as she stayed at her desk, she could pretend she was still working, taking hours to fix the sloppy stitches her father would easily take for her own best efforts. He wouldn’t come to check on her though, there was no risk he would open her door to see if she was okay, despite being home late.
He didn’t care where she was, he only bothered to pay attention to how it would affect the family. Kō hadn’t said anything to him, that much was clear still, but she wasn’t sure how long that would hold up. Would the next time she saw those boys out of class, the next time she dared to touch someone, dared to care for people, would that be the time she was dragged before her father?
The needle dragged through her skin, her mind wandering and her hands taking over as she stabbed through the skin again, and again, not noticing until Hanabi knocked at her door to get her, that she had stitched the tips of her fingers together, the red thread holding them tightly. She rushed to cut them apart before her sister could open the door, just managing to throw the scraps of string to her desk before she joined her in the hallway.
Dinner passed painfully quietly, her father not bothering to waste the words for small talk on her. She didn’t speak either, not wanting to invite him in towards her, and Hanabi followed, young enough to not know this wasn’t normal. She would learn soon enough, but for now she could be content with this, aching for a more she didn't understand was better than knowing what it was she was being denied.
Hanabi followed Hinata to bed that night, after she had been bathed and dried and dressed by her older sister. She liked to be able to sleep in her arms, the young girl so lonely, without even the sanctuary of school as her father had decided to keep her from the academy. Hinata didn’t think Hanabi even knew another person their age.
She held her tightly as she fell asleep, buried in warm arms, and thin sheets, and all the care Hinata could muster. Her sister slept easily there, and Hinata often did as well, her own nightmares staved off, knowing she couldn’t let Hanabi see her shaking and sweating through the night. Hanabi wouldn’t say it, but she needed something similar. Needed to be somewhere safe, somewhere with someone she could love just as much, her little hands clinging to the front of her sister's pajamas.
Summer storms rolled through the valley constantly, and her sister slept through them all. The bright flashes that Hinata loved to watch, meaning nothing to the sleeping child. The crash of thunder was no more dangerous than Hinata’s laughter sitting proud in her chest when she let it. The light that caught the needle on her desk was as inconsequential as a whole storm was, which was to say the trees hit by lightning died, and people slipped in the rain, and bugs drowned in the puddles; but that never mattered to someone safe in their homes.
Hinata stared at it though, understanding filling her like a growing warmth.
They could be together. Shino, Kiba, and her, inseparable.
A weak smile played on her lips as she slept, and stayed there until she was awakened by the rising sun, and the promise of finally having people she could always be with, who could never leave her, never be pulled from her.
Iruka met her at the door to the classroom, took her aside, asked if she had been okay with a tone that meant he knew too much. She didn’t need to lie that day, and a part of her hoped she never would need to again.
That day, Iruka made sure to send Kiba back between Hinata and Shino, eyes apologetic as Kiba was moved, not for being a troublemaker for once, but just to make sure Hinata was okay. He seemed to understand, or maybe he had wanted to be sent there in the first place, judging from the way he settled into his spot, hand tracing his name in the wood.
“Do- do you may-maybe… want to… hang o-out after school… to-today?” She stammered out so quietly Kiba wouldn’t have caught it all if he hadn’t been watching her speak. He agreed, and when she gave a pointed look to Shino, he agreed as well, smiling a little.
All through the rest of the day, she seemed to almost shake with excitement and the second the bell signaled the end of the day, they were gone. Hinata grabbing both their hands and sprinting out the door before Iruka had a chance to dismiss them, all three of them moving at surprising speeds through the halls, out a less used door, and through a back field.
Nobody would start looking for her for at least a few minutes, Kō would wait until all the other kids had left, before he would realize she was missing. She knew the range of his eyes, and knew that if she could get the jump, she might just be able to slip past it.
The boys didn’t stop her, running as fast as they could to keep up with her, Kiba letting out a boyish giggle as the wind rushed through his hair and once she was sure they had made it, Hinata broke into a bright laugh. Falling onto her back, panting as the boys followed her down, laying together in the grass of a mostly abandoned field.
Shino looked to her, a rare smile gracing his lips as they all caught their breaths, none of them daring to ask what they were doing, their youth and Hinata’s keenness was all they needed. Young enough to run wherever they were taken, kids who knew she needed them even though they couldn’t tell why. They didn’t ask what she was doing as she pulled the needle from her pack, and didn’t deny her anything as she led them to join hands.
They held each other's wrists, sitting in a circle in the warm afternoon sun, Kiba still filled with his warm happiness that seemed to radiate out from him, keeping Hinata’s nerve from freezing back over after her escape had finally been enough to crack through the icy shell.
She worked quickly, pulling pre-threaded needles from her backpack with her second hand, and offering them to the boys, who took them with morbid excitement. This was what they would do, to be together, to tell Kiba they would always wait for him, to let Shino know they wouldn’t be taken like his brother was, to prove to Hinata that they wouldn't leave.
There was something in them all that pushed them to do this. They were joined on a front of broken homes, loss and abandonment. Kiba wouldn’t need to drag himself home alone anymore, Shino would never let his friends slip through his fingers.
She made the first stitch, full of focus and dedication, joining her hand to Shino’s wrist with delicate movements. He watched her, how deep she went, how tight her stitches were, and followed suit, and he attached himself to Kiba, who quickly started working as well, trying much harder to be neat than he had in class.
Minutes passed quickly, and slowly all at once, the way that they tended to when someone was doing something they knew they shouldn't be. There would be repercussions, but if they could just be one by the time they were found, it wouldn’t matter. If only they could do it.
And did it they did, hands joined by bright red threads, a few slipped stitches dripping blood that seemed to only strengthen their bonds.
Kō found them not long after that, accompanied by Iruka, who rushed over to them, horrified by the tight red knots that held them together. The kids looked up at their sensei, eyes a kind of peaceful that sent a shiver up his spine. It was a look that told him they would do it again, a thousand times over if they needed to, because this was how they were supposed to be. Together, hand in hand in hand.
He pulled a kunai out and started unpicking the stitches, trying to talk to the kids, but none of them would say a single word, only shared glances that he could tell meant more than he would ever know. They were empathetic, caring, loving even, to the kids who didn’t know how that was supposed to feel.
Obsessive seemed to fit better, but what was love if not this? A mutual and intense desire to be together, always, unending. They had lost too much, they wouldn’t lose each other. They let themselves be cut apart, but didn’t release each other's wrists until Kō pried Hinata away with force, and Kiba and Shino were both restrained by Iruka.
Kiba screamed and bit, and Shino thrashed, his hive, too weak to be dangerous, climbed from his skin in a warning he was too young to follow through. Hinata’s byakugan activated and chakra sparked dangerously from her hands uncontrollably. They clawed at the ground, trying to drag themselves back together, as if they might never see each other again.
In the end, they calmed down for reasons neither Kō nor Iruka could figure out. All of them, at almost the same time giving in to the adults who restrained them, and the next day, as if nothing had ever happened, they were all back together at their shared desk.
Nobody spoke of that day, and within a few weeks, things seemed to have entirely returned to normal, but to Iruka, who watched them every day, he could always see it. Those eyes, those slack faces, knowing they would endure it all just to be together without an ounce of regret. Sometimes he would catch them, walking out to that back field, but he couldn’t bring himself to follow them out there again.