Hinata's Glasses: Chapter 1

Hinata's Story: I Can't Be Blind!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Genre: Drama

Rating: Teen

Summary: Oh no! Hinata can't see! She needs a pair of glasses badly. But how will poor Hinata be with them when she already has a low self esteem?

Chapter One:

"Oh." Hinata blinked furiously. She had been having troubles see Iruka-sensei all week, but today was the worst. The proper way to throw shuriken diagram Iruka drew on the board was almost non-existent. However, she wasn't certain if not being able to see it was actually a good thing.

"Eww! What is that!" Ino shrieked.

Sakura laughed. "It looks like a demented raccoon on skateboard drinking a bottle of sake!"

Everyone else laughed.

Hinata blushed so hard she didn't even hear when Naruto made his usual stupid comment. Ino noticed Hinata's blush.

"What's wrong Hinata?" She grinned. "Was Iruka-sensei's drawing so bad you went blind?"

Hinata didn't know how to respond being in shock. What if his horrible artistic talent did cause her to go blind? "I, uh, well, I don't..." her quiet voice trailed off as Ino was already wrapped up in her own world, pulling out a compact and caking a few more pounds of make up on her face.

Hinata sighed and pulled out her notebook, doodling another Naruto chibi and Mrs. Hinata Uzumaki for the millionth time. At least she could see close up.

After class, the lone Hyuuga took her normal route to her house by herself. She barely noticed this creepy white haired guy staring into the women's bath that was on the way to her house. Than again, she probably couldn't see him anyway.

When she opened the door to what felt like a prison, she was almost bowled over by something with dark hair.

"Ha-Hanabi?"

"Woof!"

Hinata barely had time to question why her sister was barking when a small girl skid onto the slick wooden flooring. "Did you just call that dog Hanabi? I am not a filthy dog!" she screamed as she attacked with the broom.

Hinata barely rolled out of the way when the broom landed. The dog was already out the door.

"Come back here! I know you're one of the Inuzuka's!" The little girl with unruly black hair ran after the dog.

Hinata questioned the girl's sanity as she head to the kitchen. Grabbing a can to make chicken noodle, she dumped the whole lot of it in a pot and set it on the stove. As she heated it, she wondered why it smelled strangely but she figured that maybe her sense of smell was going too.

As she dolled out the soup when it was done, she sat down to eat her soup. Ugh, my sense of taste is going too. The soup tasted like crap.

"ARGH!!!" Hinata winced. Hanabi was home.

Trying to seem inconspicuous, Hinata hunched over in her seat.

"That stupid dog got away! I swear it's an Inuzuka!" Hanabi came into the kitchen and sat on a stool next to Hinata huffily. She sniffed. "Eww! What is that?" Hanabi examined Hinata's food closer. Then she paused. Hinata could have sworn she was blushing before she exploded into laughter. "Ahahahah! You idiot! That's dog food! I can't believe you're eating dog food!"

Hinata blushed and ran to the bathroom to empty the dog food from her stomach.

Afterward, Hinata ran to the front door hearing Hanabi scream behind her, "If you see that dog, do me a favor and kick it for me!"

Kick a dog? Hinata couldn't do that, even if she could see it! She wandered around the side streets, tripping on everything possible and running into multiple people. Someone actually thought she was blind, by their comment!

Sighing, Hinata finally ran into someone who might care.

"Hinata?"

Hinata glanced up. It was just Kiba, one of her classmates. He was kind of loud mouthed and rude to Naruto behind his back. That made Hinata a little annoyed, even though Kiba was nice to everyone else. Hinata was a little surprised she recognized him, though it wasn't too hard because he's the only person she knew with a white ball of mass on his head that barks.

"Oh, hey Kiba."

Kiba seemed to pause. "Ya okay? You don't look too good."

"I'm fine." Hinata murmured.

Kiba looked at her oddly, at least that's what she thought. "Okay..."

They stood silently for a moment, just outside of the market area.

Kiba leaned in and sniffed. Hinata nearly jumped back in surprise. "Are you having troubles seeing?"

Astonished, Hinata stammered. "H-how did you know?"

Kiba grinned proudly. "My nose can sense anything!" Akamaru barked as though to back up his statement.

"So, what do I do?"

Kiba frowned. "I dunno. Go ask Shino. He always wears glasses."

"Those are sunglasses!" Hinata muttered exasperatedly.

"So? He might know more than me. I can just detect symptoms. I can't provide a cure. What do I look like? A doctor?" Kiba stretched and cracked his back. "I saw him somewhere in the market. It's impossible to miss him."

Hinata nodded. "What were you doing?"

"I was buying some dog food and trying to find one of our dogs. Have you seen a black dog?" Kiba added.

Hinata froze. "Uhh..." I guess Hanabi was right. "My sister saw it earlier but it ran off. Sorry."

Kiba frowned. "... Hnh. well, thanks."

They parted ways and Hinata headed into town. Halfway into town she was slapped in the face by something really painful and slimy.

"Sorry."

Hinata already blurred vision began to fade as things swam in front of her face. Someone with these two big black eyes like a bug was staring down at her silently. Then everything went black.

XXX

"Ugh." Hinata woke up on a cot that smelled like rotten fish. Her first assumption was, that she was kidnapped. She jerked fully awake and nearly jumped out of bed when she hit someone. The person tossed her back on the cot. Squinting her eyes, Hinata tried to see who it was. That black eyed person was staring at her.

"Sh-Shino? Ow!" She touched her forehead. A small lump was growing there.

"Sorry about that."

"Huh? What happened?"

"I hit you in the head with a dead fish by accident."

With how serious he sounded, she would have laughed if her head wasn't hurting. "Ah, okay... Why were you caring a dead fish around?"

Shino pointed a box in the corner. Hinata could barely make out a huge bluish lump. "That was the fish."

Fish!? Hinata thought. That's more like a whale! "Uhh..." Then she noticed something weird with his trench coat. "I-is that an apron?"

He didn't even nod. "It's a part-time job."

Hinata didn't bother to inquire further. Instead she tried to remember something. ... "Oh yeah! Are those prescriptions?"

Even with her poor vision, she could see his eyebrows above his glasses.

"Hey, Aburame kid! Your break is over in one!" someone yelled from the front.

Hinata flustered. "Oh I'm sorry! I took up your break!" She tried to organize her thoughts. "And I meant your glasses.

"No."

Hinata nearly sighed. She didn't what was worse, the fact that he didn't talk or that his glasses weren't prescription. "Well, can I help? As a thank you for making sure I'm okay?"

He didn't say anything, he just turned around and head to the door. Hinata felt depressed for a moment, then he came back. She looked up only to see a sudden white thing on her face.

"After my work, I'll take you to the optometrist."

Hinata glanced at the white fabric in time to figure out it was an apron. "Ah! Th-thank you!" She quickly tried to put it on, having troubles tying the string in the back.

The taller boy grabbed the strings from her and tied it quickly. "Hurry up." She couldn't tell if he was annoyed or not. But she did know he tied it a little tight. Ouch.

Going to the front of the store, the bald store owner gave Hinata an incredulous look. "I'm not paying you too."

"Oh no!" she shook her head furiously, blushing a little. "No! I just want to help Shino. It's perfectly okay."

The bald man gave her another look and laughed. "All right. But His job ends in a couple hours. Will be able to hang in that long?"

Hinata nodded, ready for anything he threw at her.

"Well, follow his lead, duh!" he pointed to Shino who was already grabbing an oversized fish from a crate and tossing it in a tub of ice.

She walked over to Shino.

"Take a fish and put it here. Afterwards we have to cut them into edible portions."

Hinata nodded as Shino passed her thick black gloves. Tugging the gloves over her delicate hand she choked a little from the stench of dead fish. She was reminded a little of when Sakura had tried to hit on a guy, other than Sasuke, and he had said no because she smelled like fish. Sakura had turned bright red, but Hinata still didn't get it. Did Sakura work in a fish market too? And it didn't smell that bad. At least Shino never did. Hinata began to ponder what that boy must have meant as she grabbed a slimy fish.

"Eww..." she groaned, without meaning to. It felt so weird. Then she tried to lift the fish but was having troubles. It felt heavier than her! And it had to be six feet tall!

"That's a tuna." Shino muttered. He then grabbed Hinata by the shoulders and moved her to his other side. "Why don't you take care of the salmon?"

Hinata blushed, feeling useless. She then grabbed a salmon only to drop it on the floor. She then stared at it, uncertain as to what to do. Then the taller boy bent over and picked it up easily, as though it wasn't slippery at all, and tossed it in the bin next to the tuna.

"Like that."

Hinata was worried she was exasperating the boy and hurriedly picked up another fish. She then wobbled over the bin uncomfortably. The fish was still kind of heavy and she wasn't certain how to throw the fish so easily like Shino but she tried. After about five fish for her later, Shino had already gone through half his barrel. Hinata didn't let that get to her, she tried to double time instead.

She reached into the barrel again and shrieked. "Ow!" She removed her hand to see a small lobster looking thing pinching her thumb through the rubber glove. Her eyes began to tear up, partly because it hurt and partly because she felt useless. "I'm sorry!" she felt like wailing but kept it to a slightly above whisper volume. She could have sworn she heard Shino sigh exasperatedly as he took the little crayfish and popped it off her digit. He then tossed it in a different bucket.

He went back to his barrel and let Hinata worry about reaching into the fish container again. On one hand, she wanted to give up and claim it was because of the crayfish. She was tired and she couldn't figure out why she couldn't simply grab a fish and toss it a bucket a meter away! On the other hand. She glanced at her hands, imagining how small and delicate she knew they were. Naruto never seemed to give up. He always stood up after falling with an even bigger grin on his face. She blushed but put her hands into fists. Even Shino. He had time to train and do a part-time job, he was tough too. If others can be strong then so can I!

Grabbing a fish uncomfortably, she then tried to toss it into the bucket behind her. Missing, she had to bend over and pick it up to properly put it back in the bucket. Then she turned and grabbed another fish and tossed it again. Again she missed. Again she put it in the ice bucket. This went on for about another dozen fish until she finally managed to toss one in the bucket properly.

"Yeah!" she congratulated herself and turned to see if Shino noticed. He merely nodded and went back to his pile. "Oh," she muttered, lowering her gaze. For some reason she wanted him to tell her she did a good job or something. She tried to shake it off and grabbed another fish.

XXX

After all the fish was put in the right places, prepared and set on display, they could finally leave. Hinata had bowed politely as she handed the manager the apron back and was surprised when he handed her an envelope.

"It's for a good job." he had said grinning. It was a paycheck but it was nice regardless. Hinata thanked him wholeheartedly and couldn't seem to stop bowing thankfully.

Eventually, Shino dragged her away, reminding her of her vision. When they finally arrived at the eye doctor's Hinata waited patiently in a waiting chair as Shino signed her in. She kicked her feet under the chair absently, waiting for him to hurry up. When he came back, he sat across from her and crossed his arms.

"Thanks for your help today." Hinata nearly fell over from the shock of him saying something. They hadn't spoken on the way to the doctor's so it felt weird. "You did a good job."

Hinata then blushed, remembering when she had wanted him to say she did a good job earlier. "Oh, uh, you’re welcome. And thank you for taking me to the eye doctor. My dad..." She stopped. She didn't really want to tell him that her dad wouldn't have taken her to the eye doctor. He would have been disgusted and have said something to the effect of, "Hyuuga's don't need glasses" She sighed. Oh yeah. If the doctor gave her glasses, what would she tell her dad? She already knew Hanabi would burst into laughter the moment she saw her.

The two sat in an uncomfortable silence for nearly twenty minutes until a nurse came into the waiting room. "The optometrist will see you now."

Hinata got up and gave Shino a glance. He hadn't moved since he sat down and crossed his arms. She had an eerie feeling he might have been asleep. She then wondered if he was actually asleep in class most days too.

When she met the doctor she was a little surprised to see how young he was. He smiled brightly and gave her his hand to shake. He seemed kind of western.

"Hi, I'm Doctor Paaku."

"Hi, Park-sensei." She muttered as he sat her in a menacing black chair.

"Now do me a favor and read the lowest line you can."

"Uhh."

He then handed her a large black spoon looking thing. "Put this in front of your left eye and try."

Hinata shrugged. She couldn't even see the top line.

"Hmm. Alright, now your right." he scribbled some notes down.

Hinata was surprised. She could read five rows down with her left eye!

"Hmm. Alright." He repeated. He then pulled a large contraption attached to the side of the chair in front of her face. "Now I need you to..."

Hinata nodded and followed his instructions.

XXX

Finally, nearly three quarters of an hour later Hinata came back to the waiting room. She was surprised to see Shino still sitting there. She then figured he must have been sleeping. She nudged him gently. "Shino?"

"Did you pick out a frame for your glasses?"

She jumped. Maybe he wasn't sleeping. He certainly was disciplined. Hinata made a mental note to herself to learn to be that disciplined. "Um, no, uh. They have a pair of glasses they can give me now that are actually exactly my prescription so I'll be able to see..." she trailed off. "Uhm, I have a slight stigmatism in my right eye." she was lying, She was actually almost blind in her right eye. "But they said that if they can get my eyes to equal out, I won't need glasses forever. He said something about me being a Hyuuga will definitely help me too." She pressed her forefingers together nervously. "The glasses are chakra enhanced, and I'm really glad they can help me. And I'm really appreciative you helped me out. I'm not unthankful." She didn't even know if that was a word.

Shino interrupted. "Can I see the glasses?'

Hinata sighed. He found her out. She pulled the glasses from the case in her pocket. Embarrassedly she put them on. She was so worried he'd laugh at her.

"They're not horrible."

That was an understatement. The coke bottle glasses with a thick black plastic frame made her look something awful. "Well, it's on my father's tab, so..." She adjusted the glasses. She was surprised he didn't laugh at her.

XXX

The next day, Hinata could have sworn every whispered statement and every shout of laughter was because of her glasses. When she sat down in class, she had expected everyone to avoid her but was surprised when Ino sat on one side of her a Kiba nonchalantly sat to her other side.

"I like your glasses. They look cute on you." Ino said with a smile as she pulled out her notebook for notes.

"Oh, uh, thank you very much." Hinata mumbled.

Kiba yawned and turned to Hinata. "So did you catch Shino? I think he head to the fish market for some food yesterday."

"Huh? Oh, yeah." she muttered.

"Like your glasses. So I found my dog yesterday. Apparently your sister had been feeding it which was why it kept coming to your house."

"Huh?"

"Yeah. It was weird. She was all flustered when I came to get our dog back. She was blushing like and she seemed a little upset that I was taking the dog." Kiba continued, petting Akamaru as he reached for a treat. "Yeah, and it was really weird 'cause it was like she was avoiding eye-contact or something, you know? And then she freaked out when I patted her shoulder for finding our dog. Geez, girls make no sense." He fed Akamaru the snack.

Hinata blushed. He didn't seem to remember Hinata was a girl. Then Ino got angry because of his statement.

"Girls do to make sense!' Ino shot back. "It's just guys are too dim to understand our complexity!"

Hinata sank in her seat a little, letting Kiba and Ino have better aim for each others throats. She then glanced around the room for Naruto. He was busy trying to get Sakura to sit next to him. He gave one of his cute little pouts that melted Hinata's heart. Hinata couldn't understand how Sakura could resist that, but she did.

After a while her eyes wandered from Naruto. Completely zoning, it took a nudge from Kiba to get her attention.

"Huh, what?" She was a little startled.

"Uh, hello?" Kiba waved a hand in front of her face. "I said, did you get your glasses with Shino yesterday?"

"Huh? Oh yeah! He took me to the eye doctor place so I could have my eye's checked. My dad wouldn't have taken me." She mumbled the last sentence quietly but Kiba could hear it.

"What? Why not? You needed glasses, shouldn't he be concerned about that?" Kiba seemed a little angry.

"Well..." Hinata remembered when she got home and how angry he was that she needed glasses. He had wanted to go to Doctor Park and complain about how a Hyuuga doesn't need glasses. Hanabi had been quiet which was a surprise, but Hinata figured it was because Kiba came to get his dog back. Then when she told her dad that the Aburame boy took her there, he became even angrier, ranting about how it was first the Uzumaki boy now an Aburame. He asked her if she really wanted to taint the family blood that badly. However she was a little surprised when he calmed down and told her that at least it was an Aburame, their family blood was pretty good. She didn't have time to wonder about that when he told her to go train and skip dinner. She was still hungry as she didn't even get lunch.

Kiba nodded as though he understood her silence. "Okay then. I guess your dad must be a tough guy to hang around."

Hinata glanced at her desk and nodded. Then she quickly covered her stomach which made the noise of a drowning rooster.

Ino perked up. "Are you hungry Hinata?"

"Oh no!" Hinata shook her head. "I don't want to burden you!"

She hardly finished speaking when Ino handed her a bag of crackers. "They're really good and filling. And they keep you thin!" Ino laughed.

Hinata took a cracker and bit into it, thinking about yesterday. "Ino, what does it mean when a girl smells like fish? Does it mean they work in a fish market?"

Ino nearly fell over from surprise and suddenly Kiba was very interested in his fingernails.

"Um, no, uh. Where did you hear this?" Ino asked, blushing.

"Well," Hinata thought. Did she say something wrong? "I heard a boy say that to Sakura once when she asked him out. And yesterday I was at the fish market, and the people there smell like fish so I was just wondering..."

Ino laughed. "Oh, so someone said that to Sakura. I need to remember that." she grinned maliciously. "But uh, it uh means, well, uh. Why were you at the fish market?"

Hinata paused and glanced at Shino who sat a few rows in front of her. "Um, I was helping out a little and I smelled like fish afterwards so..."

"Oh well that's a different thing entirely."

'So Sakura doesn't work at the fish market?"

Ino grinned. "Nope." But then she frowned. "Hmm. I don't know how to say this so, uh." she motioned for Hinata to get closer. Then she cupped a hand around her ear.

"Ah!" Hinata jumped back. "I, uh, I," she had no clue what to say.

"Sorry to be the one to tell you Hinata." Ino muttered and turned to her notebook and purple pen.

XXX

On the way home, Hinata felt her face burning up. A lot of people in her class said her glasses were cute, everyone in fact. But then Naruto...

She covered her face embarrassedly. Her glasses were wet so it was a little hard to see.

"You look kinda nerdy."

Hinata felt horrible. She had run into Naruto by accident after class and at first he didn't say anything. Then he said that he didn't recognize her at first and called her nerdy. She felt like her heart was cracking with every step. She hadn't made it halfway to her house when an orange blur stopped her.

'Hinata, wait!"

The blur ran in front of her and grabbed her wrist.

"I-I'm sorry Naruto. I should get going." she muttered trying to tug her arm away.

"No no! I'm sorry!" Naruto rubbed the back of his neck embarrassedly. "I didn’t realize what I said until someone said I was being rude. So I want to apologize. I didn't mean it. I think they're actually real cute. I just didn't recognize you, you know?"

Hinata blushed and stared at her exposed toes in her sandals. "Um, thank you. Uh who...?"

"It was Shino. He seemed annoyed that I said that and then Kiba got into it. I barely got away when Ino was ready to close in on me!" He laughed, his cerulean eyes crinkling. Then he got serious. "But I am sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I just said the first thing that came to mind. But don't worry," he grinned "you make the nerd thing real cute."

Hinata felt as though her head might catch fire with how hot her face was. She couldn't even stutter out a response. "I... I... I..."

"It's okay if you hate me for i--"

"No! I don't!" she said forcibly, then stopped.

"Well." Naruto rubbed his head again. "I was heading to Ichiraku's. Do you want to come with?"

Hinata nearly fainted. It's almost like a date! "Well, I..." However she knew she couldn't. Her father expected her home today after yesterday's fiasco. He was already being lenient by letting her go to the market after school. That, and if he heard she went somewhere to eat with Naruto, he dad would get ready to kill him then her. "I'm sorry."

Naruto actually looked a little flat.

"But I'd love to another time. I'm just busy today." she felt a little confidence seep into her.

"Oh, so you don't hate me?" He actually seemed relieved by that.

"Of course not." She then smiled, but then she quickly dropped it.

Naruto grinned. "Hey I saw you smile, cool. You should smile more. It looks good." He then stretched his legs. "Well, see you tomorrow!" He then dashed off into the trees.

Hinata put a hand to her heart. Wow. Wow! WOW! She just carried on a full conversation with Naruto!

She silently congratulated herself. Then she remembered something. She did tell her dad she'd be a little late to shop for food. She plucked up her courage and walked into town. As she neared the place that used to smell disgusting to her she stopped. She took in a deep breath and thought how good it smelled now. She then went to the side near the back.

She saw a blue blur headed towards her and ducked.

The person who threw it turned around.

Hinata smiled slightly. "Um, I was wondering if I could help today."

The boy stared at her for a moment. Then the bald guy came from the back.

"Oh, hey it's you again!"

"Hi." the Hyuuga did her best to seem confident. "I was wondering if I could help out today too."

The man paused. "Sure, go ahead! More help is always welcomed!"

Hinata went to the back to grab the apron and even tied it by herself. Then she stopped. She untied it again and went to the boy tossing fish.

"Can you help me tie this Shino?" she asked shyly.

He nodded and tied it, just a little tight, like last time.

Once she tugged her gloves on, she dove right into her barrel of salmon and actually let out a laugh when she tossed it into the barrel behind her. She turned to Shino to see him in what seemed to be what could best be described as shock. She then cracked her back.

"Isn't this fun?" Hinata giggled lightly and grabbed another fish.

She might not have been able to see or really hear it, but she could have sworn Shino had laughed as well.

Shizuru Speaks: Yay! I hoped you liked it! It was sort of a cutesy story about Hinata with glasses. I really liked Hinata in this story and was really surprised how it came out! It was originally supposed to be a comedy about her trials and tribulations with glasses but then it became all drama like. It also feels a little like romance because of her interaction with Shino and even Naruto. And I don't know if you could tell, but Hanabi has a crush on Kiba! Anyways, feel free to comment! It would make me a very happy person. After all, I need a comments and critiques as badly as Hinata needed glasses!