Chapter 44: A Comforting Smile

The sight of the young crying girl immediately made Keitaro almost blow a gasket. While he had brushed off her appearance earlier, it was mainly because there was no way for him to interact with her. 

She was the only daughter of the Patriarch of the Hyūga and the 'star' of today's event. While he was a guest, he wasn't important enough or of high enough social standing to be mingling with her in the slightest. 

Which made the fact that she was here out of sight of anyone crying her eyes out all the more concerning. He didn't hesitate for a second as he approached her as his concern for her grew. 

What could have happened for Hinata, the princess of the Hyūga , to be crying out here by herself at her own birthday celebration?

Maybe hearing as he approached, Hinata looked up at him and her cheeks immediately flushed red with shame. She immediately lowered her eyes and redoubled her efforts to stop crying. 

"Are you alright Hinata? Why are you crying?." asked Keitaro as he kneeled down next to Hinata. 

Instead of saying anything, Hinata just kept her mouth sealed as she continued to wipe at her eyes and sniffle softly. 

Keitaor couldn't help but shake his head in defeat. He already knew that HInata was supposed to be quiet and reserved, but this was too much!

"Here, this might help." Keitaro reached over and gently dabbed at Hinata's face with a handkerchief that he had on hand as he dried her tears for her. 

Hinata flinched a bit at the sight of an unfamiliar boy reaching out to her face, but once she realized that he didn't seem intent on harming her, she didn't say or do anything to stop him. Taking her silence for permission, Keitaro continued to wipe away her tears. 

"There, that's much better. You look much cuter without those tears." Keitaro smiled at Hinata as he put away the handkerchief and continued to sit next to her. 

He didn't say anything else and simply sat down next to her as she pulled herself together. Her sobs had abated by now and after another minute or two she seemed to have settled down. The two sat together in silence until Hinata finally worked up the courage to speak. 

She spoke barely above a whisper, but Keitaro still managed to make out what she was saying.

"Um… Thank you."

Keitaro looked over to the beet red Hinata and couldn't help but to smile. 

"No problem. What kind of man would I be if I didn't lend a helping hand when I saw a girl in tears? My dad would never speak to me again if he ever found out about it."

Hinata lowered her head once more, but Keitaro didn't miss the fact that the corners of her lips were pulled up into a small smile. 

"So why are you out here by yourself? Aren't you supposed to be the birthday girl?" 

As soon as Keitaro asked the question he immediately regretted it as Hinata's eyes started to mist up again. He quickly waved his arms around trying to placate Hinata as he quickly exclaimed. 

"You don't have to explain if you don't want to! But, I'm a really good listener… You might feel better if you talk about it."

Hinata seemed to contemplate his words and after a moment of hesitation she looked up at Keitaro. She examined his face intently for a moment before looking off to the side. Keitaro thought that she had decided not to say anything further only for her to mumble something softly.

"My father scolded me for embarrassing him and the clan with my behavior." 

Keitaro couldn't help but to raise his eyebrow at that. While it was technically something that could have happened, he had a rather difficult time believing that Hinata would have done anything serious enough that she managed to embarrass her entire clan. 

"How did you manage to do that?" asked Keitaro as he glanced at her from the corner of his eye.

"I-I was supposed to greet everyone that came to the celebration, but it was just too much. T-There were t-too many people and I…I was scared."

Hinata sniffled softly as tears began streaming down her cheeks once more as she continued to speak. 

"They all kept looking and staring at me and I-I just couldn't handle it. I was stuttering when I tried to greet anyone and almost tripped on my dress in front of everyone when I tried to bow to one of the important guests. My dad kept having to greet everyone on my behalf and eventually he started scolding me. When I started to cry he told me it was better off if I just left-"

Keitaro didn't bother to let her continue as he gently wrapped his arm around HInata's shoulder. As if she was waiting for it to happen, Hinata wrapped her arms around him as she hugged him tightly. The sobs that she had been trying to hold back came back with a vengeance as she buried her face in Keitaro's chest.

Slightly taken aback by her reaction, Keitaro was helpless to do anything other than gently pat her on the back as she cried. While he had been the one to reach out to comfort her first, he hadn't expected such an explosive reaction. 

Though, as he thought about it, it made sense.

Hinata may have been the first born child and the traditionally recognized heir of the Hyūga Clan, but she was always considered to be the black sheep of her family. With a genius cousin in the form of Neji for her to be constantly compared to, her father had always lamented the fact that his daughter was so lacking in strength and had started to treat her poorly. 

Hinata always had a soft spoken and gentle personality, but the constant verbal and physical abuse that she endured under the hands of her own father only served to shatter any shred of confidence that she might have had in herself. 

She had become reserved and timid to the point where even when she eventually managed to become a shinobi, everyone was still practically able to just walk all over her without her even speaking up for herself, and in a way it was all the fault of her own father.

Constantly hounding her to increase her training, only to tell her that she wasn't performing well enough. Heaping unrealistic expectations on her shoulders only to ignore and ridicule all of her hard work and dedication. 

And that was all before her even more monstrous talented younger sister was even born.

Once Hinabi entered the picture, Hinata's home life might as well have been a hell on earth. She would have been stripped of her right to lead the clan by her father who would deem her to be nothing more than a burden and a disgrace of the Hyūga name. 

He had forgotten about it before, but it seemed that from the way that Hinata was crying at the moment, her treatment was still quite poor. Even though she wasn't a branch member, her treatment might have well been worse than some of them experienced.

Why else would she be here on her own crying where no one else could see her? How many times must she have been told that crying was a sign of weakness that needed to be stamped out at all cost?

Again Keitaro was reminded of his own previous childhood with an abusive father Of how the neighbors and those around him could see the harm and damage that his father inflicted on him but did nothing to stop it.

While in this world it was the norm for children to be borderline abused in order to train them in the ways of combat, the things that Hinata had to experience were anything but normal. How could he not do anything to help her when he was in a position to do so? Wouldn't he be just as bad as the people that he used to despise?

"You know, It's okay to be afraid. If I was in your position I might not be able to handle having to deal with all of those people either.The fact that you lasted as long as you did shows just how brave and strong you really are. " 

The tightening of Hinata's grip was enough to let Keitaro know that she was listening and he smiled as he continued.

"Everyone has fears and uncertainties no matter how much they try to hide them. Fear is something that everyone has to deal with, but what determines the truly brave and strong from the weak and the cowardly is the ability to face their fears no matter how afraid they might be.

As long as you're willing to keep getting back up and as long as you endeavor to face and eventually overcome your fears, no matter how scared or frightened you may be, then you're already doing better than a lot of other people who don't have the heart to even face their fears."

Keitaro pulled out his handkerchief and with a gentle tug, lifted Hinata's chin so that he could see her tear stained face. Once again he dabbed at her face, wiping away her tears as he smiled down at her.

"As long as you keep getting back up regardless of how hard and challenging a task might be, then you're going to be fine. Don't let your fathers words get you down, you might not have been able to handle the pressure now, but I'm sure that next time you'll have it under control."