📖 Chapter 11 – Auras in the Mist, Encounter with Hinata
The rain had stopped, but the sky still held the sadness of gray.Rei walked down one of Konoha's side streets, hood low, eyes fixed on the cobblestone beneath his feet.
It wasn't a planned outing. He had slipped out of the house after a silent breakfast with Shuri. His mother was still away. Since his return from the last dungeon, Rei had been sleeping poorly, eating little, and avoiding eye contact.
His world was on pause.
"You have to look ahead, Rei," Shuri had told him.But how could he, when even his own inner world kept hiding truths from him?
He stopped at a corner where an old stone fountain whispered with the persistent drip of water. There, among neatly trimmed bushes, a small figure was practicing clumsy strikes with open palms.
Rei frowned.She wasn't just any girl.
Her movements were soft, ceremonial. She wore light-colored clothes, her dark blue hair tied into two short pigtails. She failed, but kept trying.
"…Gentle Palm Strike number four…" she murmured.
Rei was about to walk on, but as he circled the fountain, his chakra brushed against hers.
And in that moment, something inside him stirred.
It wasn't an alarm. It was a warm sensation, as if a forgotten thread had shyly awakened. A faint echo—barely there, yet present.
The girl turned, startled.
Her eyes—so large, so sincere—fell on him. For a second, everything about her froze. Not from fear, but from something closer to reverent curiosity.
"Who… are you?" she asked, almost in a whisper.
Rei looked at her. He said nothing. There was something distant in his gaze, and yet… something gentle.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bother…" she lowered her head. "Sometimes… I practice here when no one's around."
Rei felt a faint pull in his chest. Not because of what she said, but because of how she said it—with a pure, unfiltered honesty.
"You're not noisy," he finally said.
Hinata lifted her gaze. Her cheeks warmed."Thank you…"
Another silence stretched between them. Rei turned to continue his path.
"Is your chakra… always like that?" she asked quietly.
Rei stopped."Like what?"
"It's… like a lake in winter. Silent, but deep. It gives me peace."
Rei didn't know how to answer. He simply nodded, and walked on.He didn't look back.
Hinata watched him until he turned the corner. Then she sat on the edge of the fountain, heart beating like a drum inside a cave.
Who was that boy?She didn't know. But something in her… would never be the same.
Hours later, back home, Rei tried to recall his day.He couldn't—not fully.
The image of the girl blurred among his recent memories, just a faint whisper in his tired mind.
But that night, as he drifted toward sleep, a moment slipped into his dreams:A pair of pearl-white eyes looked at him without judgment.And for the first time in weeks… he didn't feel alone.