I will remember their faces

A piece of shogi was moved, eliminating its enemy. Then, the opponent moved in an attempt to avoid being eliminated, but after three moves, this piece was also captured.

Shikamaru looked at the board with a pensive expression; every time he moved a piece, his father was many steps ahead of him.

*Tap*

With a final move, Shikaku eliminated all of Shikamaru's pieces. "It's your loss, Shikamaru."

.

"Let's play another game, Dad," Shikamaru said as he started to set up the new board.

"By the way, today we have a new friend playing with us," he continued. His tone was slightly sarcastic, which didn't go unnoticed by his father.

Shikaku raised his eyebrows in interest; his son seldom talked about these types of topics.

He knew his son was mature for his age; here, four-year-olds go to war, five-year-olds graduate from the academy, and at 12, some become jonin. In the future, a 13-year-old kid will massacre his whole clan, which raised him from birth.

.

"Oh, what is your friend's name?" Shikaku asked with interest.

"Hinata," Shikamaru said without looking at his father.

.

Shikaku's eyes squinted at her name; he was sure something was wrong with that girl, but every time he tried to solve her mysteries, he found nothing. He knew he was being paranoid over a 4-year-old child.

"Tell me about her, how she behaves or acts around you," Shikaku asked.

.

Shikamaru looked at his father in suspension, but he also rarely talked about these things, and he was the one who started it, so he spoke, "First, she approached us shyly and timidly as if she didn't know how to talk with us."

.

"That makes sense; she had never gone outside the clan," Shikaku nodded; until now, there was nothing suspicious.

"Then she started to open up with us. Time passed slowly, but I don't know what Ino and Sakura said to her. She became angry and hit them with a snowball. She then started to mock them, and when Choji tried to intervene, she called him fat and snatched his chips," he said while moving his piece.

"So what did Ino and Sakura do in response?" Shikaku spoke in a tone as if he were truly interested in the story.

.

"Of course, they also hit her with a snowball."

.

"Didn't she dodge or something?" he asked.

Shikamaru thought for a while, "Sometimes she dodged their attacks, but some of them hit her in the back," he said.

.

'So Hiashi had started her training,' he thought; it was obvious after that incident.

"And what were you doing at that time?" he asked his son.

Shikamaru laughed wryly, "I was hiding behind a rock," he said.

.

"And she didn't find you?" he asked.

"No," Shikamaru replied.

.

'So she hasn't awakened her Byakugan,' he thought.

In his opinion, it was impossible to cover such small details, just like Uchihas; they also brag about their eyes. If she had them, she surely would have shown her superiority.

This was his conclusion based on her personality and the information he got from spies, only a branch family member had awakened his Byakugan at the age of 4 and it was Neji. As for Hinata, there was nothing.

.

"So what do you think about her?" he asked Shikamaru.

"She is troublesome, too spoiled, haughty, arrogant, and bratty," he said.

.

Shikaku laughed at his son. Now that he thought about it, he was being too suspicious of her; she is a child just like his son.

Maybe someone else killed the Kumo ninja. 'But the question is who.'

.

But there was still a lingering feeling that he was being played, in someone's palm. From the beginning, he couldn't do anything but watch and try to unravel it.

.

'If this is true, then Inoichi will surely go to the Hyuga clan. His daughter is also unreasonable. Let's see what happens there. Then I will finally stop suspecting that girl. After all, she couldn't fool someone like Inoichi,' he thought and played with his son.

---

"Who had drawn this?" a white-haired man spoke in anger. His fury surged even more when he looked at the drawing where his hand pierced his friend Rin's chest in a cold-blooded manner.

However, his anger turned soon into guilt when he glanced at his other friend who was watching him, witnessing how he killed her.

He had promised Obito that he would protect Rin, but what he did was kill her with his own hand.

.

To him, both of his friends were dead, but when he looked at this image, Obito was still alive and watched him as his Chidori killed her.

'If you are still alive, why haven't you come back, and how am I going to face you,' his rational mind didn't want to believe that this image was true.

But his heart had found some hope, that maybe, just maybe, his friend was alive out there.

.

But with hope, this image also resurfaced his guilt, his bad memories. When he looked at his right hand, he felt the blood of his friend was still on it.

He again started to doze off from reality, spending more and more time at the memorial.

If he continued like this, he could die on some missions; his mind was always distracted as he wanted to find his friend.

.

Beside him, a dog was standing; this dog was none other than his summon. "Don't you find anything?" Kakashi asked him.

"I have told you, Kakashi, there is no scent on the paper; it was burnt by fire," Pakkun said and lowered his ears.

Kakashi just sighed. After countless tries, he couldn't find the person who drew this.

He found it suspicious that the person knew exactly what he was dealing with.

.

With another sigh, he just looked at the image for at least one hour, still standing in front of the memorial.

It only took one painting to break him into pieces. He was already drowned in a sea of guilt, but this image just pinned him to the bottom of that sea.

.

He folded the image, put it in his pocket, and vanished.

He was so distracted that he forgot to unsummon his dog.

Pakkun also sighed, and with a puff of smoke, he reverse-summoned himself.

---

*

It was morning, and I was happily chatting with my mother.

"Mother, look, my friend is visiting me," I said with a cheerful smile and ran outside of the house.

I saw Ino with her parents, and Choji was also with his father. I ignored them and looked at Ino, a smile formed on my face. "Did you come here to play with him?" I tried to walk towards her, but she quickly hid behind her father and pointed her finger towards me.

"That's her daddy; she hit me with a snowball and broke my toys."

.

A surprised expression appeared on my face. 'Wasn't that toy belongs to Sakura? Why is she lying?'

I then looked at Choji, who spoke with a slightly angry look on his face. "Yes, Father, that's her. She stole my chips and also hit me with a snowball," he complained.

.

Both of their faces were smug; they knew they were with their parents, so I couldn't do anything to them.

'How wrong could you be.'

"Oh, so you're here to complain and not to play. Where is your other friend... crybaby?" I said to Ino, ignoring her mother and father.

.

"I am no crybaby… look, Father, she is doing this again," she complained to her father.

Until now, my mother also arrived. She looked at Inoichi and Choja, then at me, and she understood the situation. "Why don't we talk inside," she gestured for them to come inside the home.

.

They all nodded, and I glared at Choji, scaring him.

All of them sat in the living room, and a maid served tea and some food. Yes, we have maids.

.

"So, Inoichi-san, what brings you to our clan," my mother asked him.

He just sighed and then looked at Ino. "I also didn't want to come, but she…"

"Daddy, say something to her; she hit me," Ino yelled at her father.

.

My mother then looked at me. If glares could kill someone, I would be boiled in hell.

'Here it comes.'

"Hinata, what did you do," she asked, her voice becoming stern and scary. 

.

"Mother, she called my eyes strange," I glared at Ino.

"You hit me in the face."

"You also hit me, why are you complaining," I said, my eyes never leaving her.

.

"You threw my chips on the ground and also called me fat," Choji said with courage.

"You are fat…" I was about to say something.

"HINATA…" but my mother cut me off; her anger was literally leaking out from her body.

.

"You also broke my toy…" Ino accused me more.

'Bitch, that wasn't yours.'

"It was accidental, and I said sorry, didn't I," I tried to reason with her.

"You were laughing when you broke it," she said.

.

"No, I wasn't," I myself wasn't sure about it.

"No, you were, laughing," she yelled.

"And you were crying…hehe," I said with a smirk and superiority.

.

*slap*

.

A sound of a slap silenced everyone.

My hand unconsciously raised to my cheeks, and my head turned to my mother with tears in my eyes, a wronged expression on my face, but I didn't cry.

"That's enough, say sorry to them."

.

I then glared at Ino and Choji, "Sorry."

'So this is how it felt being slapped, certainly not a good feeling.'

I then lowered my head, looking at the ground. 'Even though I planned all this, you will pay for this, bitch.'

I then looked at my mother, glared at her, and ran away from there without even asking for their permission.

.

"Sorry for that, she is just like that," she said to them.

"Don't worry, kids are all like this," Choja said, who was busy eating the food until now.

"I assure you this will never happen again," she said in apology.

---

I walked towards my uncle's house; nobody stopped me, my head still lowered. Reaching a certain room, I knocked on it.

"Brother, are you in," I said in a tone that indicated that I was about to cry.

.

Within just a second, he opened the door and looked at me, "What happened?" he asked.

I entered his room, closed the door, and then I raised my face.

*sob* *sob*

My sobs burst into cries.

He became worried, and then he looked at the handprint on my cheeks, his eyes became bloodshot with anger. "Who hit you?" he asked.

He was so angry.

"M-Mother, she hit me because of them," I said between sobs.

.

He couldn't let tears in his sister's eyes. He quickly hugged me and patted my back, "Don't worry, sister, I will pay them back for what they did to you."

He activated his Byakugan and looked at Ino and Choji, "I will remember their faces," he murmured.

.

I just cried while he continuously patted my back. I was wondering where my tears were coming from.

"Will you really do that?" I asked him in a mosquito-like voice.

"Yes," he said, and I could feel his anger.

"You are the best, brother," I said.

'Yes, Neji... You really are a good brother, 'my brother,' 

.

.

---

End of the chapter. how do you like it? tell me in the comments... 

and add the book to your library...