Prologue

The city never sleeps. It is never silent, and it never waits. The streets are not kind but the lights are comforting. The smell is not good but the breeze is welcoming. There is no moment of silence except for the pause before a fight. It never waits unless a blow was to be made.

It's dirty, it's dark. It's beautiful it's artistic.

Once you reach its core, you can't escape.

There's no escaping the jungle that is Konoha. The city is a game for all who enter. But sometimes you're not a player, you're just a pawn.

-:- -:- -:-

"So you're leaving?"

"Y-yes."

A snort; "And where exactly are you gonna go? You have no one."

Hinata pauses in her hasty attempt to gather all of her things to look at her younger sister. She stands slender, tall, and beautiful in what seems to be a designer yellow sun dress and a headband to match it. Small pearls rest in her ears and Chanel sun glasses are atop her head. Hanabi un-straps gladiator sandals and plops down on her sister's bed like the two girls are close or something.

Hinata could never dress like her sister. She could never be as confident as her sister...or as cold, or as mean.
No, she could never be like Hanabi...she never really wanted to be like her anyway.

The yellow contrasts her sister's usual doom-and-gloom attitude and more often than not- cold smiles. Hinata shakes her head at her relative that she knew nothing about and said "I'll go to Okaasan. I've already contacted her."

Hanabi twists her brown hair up into a perfect bun and regards Hinata with a disgusted look, "Okaasan? It's not like she can provide for you. She'll be either drunk or knocked out half the time."

Hinata's hands pause from shoving books into a bag and moves to the necklace her mother had given her before she was stripped of the Hyuga name and kicked out, she stares at her sister again. Cold little Hanabi, who was their father's idea of perfect. Hanabi who'd been too young to remember their mother but had been fed stories of how terrible she was. No, Hiashi would never kick her out; so perfect and smart and thin; she would become a great head for the company.

Plus she has no resemblance to their mother...their mother who was a mess. A plague to the Hyuga name. She had a problem. Hyugas don't have problems. They are perfect and flawless and everything that Hinata- and her mother- are not.

For an understandable reason, Hinata doesn't blame her for her problem. Her mother, Kazumi, had cracked under pressure and fallen into a seemingly unbeatable addiction. Hinata only resents her mother because she had not thought to take Hinata with her.

It doesn't really matter anymore because everyone in Hinata's life leaves.

Hinata continues to fold her clothes. She knows that she's making a bad decision but a worse decision would be to stay there with her father and sister.

"Y-y-you don't know what you're talking about, Hanabi."

Hanabi snorts again, "Whatever. If you don't survive there maybe father will let you come back. If you beg."

If her father let her come back would she really want to?

Hanabi begins to pick orange nail polish from her oh-so-perfect nails and says offhandedly, "Besides, you wouldn't
last in the city for two days. You are, of course, one of the rich and spoiled daughters of Hyuga Hiashi."

Hinata's eyes narrow. Of course Hanabi would say that. Of course. It would only make sense for sheltered Hinata to run back home to her rich daddy. But she's not like Hanabi, Hinata is self-dependent and doesn't rely on anyone.
If she can survive social parties full of snotty girls and cold men, she could survive the city.

This of course, coming from the silly rich Hyuga girl.

A/N: A couple of things

1. Yes I know Hinata's mother is dead, but this is an Au after all.

2. Since this is an Au, characters will be slightly different, although I usually keep character's canon attitude/mannerism canon. (Or at least my interpretation of them)

3. I hope you enjoy, I waited until I had written 10 chapters to post this, so I wouldn't fall behind in updates

4. Reviews keep me going. Just because I have 10 chapters written doesn't mean I don't need encouragement to continue. Help me out, reviews are love3