Friend Zoned
Chapter 1: Give Me Love
Give me love like her. This thought ran through her head constantly. When they held hands. When they made inside jokes. When they went on dates. When they gave each other those special smiles. When they kissed. When they said those words. Those filthy heart wrenching words. I love you.
They always said it, and today was no exception.
"I love you, Sakura."
"I love you too, Naruto."
Then there was the passionate kissing.
Here she was smiling through it all. Looking directly at them, yet not. Sasuke clutching her hand as tightly as she was his. Both suffering, yet refusing to acknowledge it.
Refusing to acknowledge the stab of love because they believed it false. It had to be false.
"Hey guys we should really leave now, class is starting soon."
Hinata looked at them expectantly, praying they would release their tongue lock soon.
Unfortunately, her prayer wasn't answered quite yet.
Sasuke sighed in annoyance.
"Baka, stop attempting to eat Sakura."
Still no change in positions.
Sasuke growled, growing irritated.
Hinata glanced over at him in surprise. It usually took more to irritate him. Something must've happened.
She gave him a look of concern, one he caught, but said nothing to.
She sighed and turned back to the couple.
"Naruto if you don't stop kissing Sakura then I won't let you copy my homework for Orochimaru-sensei's class."
She wasn't even sure if he had finished the homework or not, but she was willing to bet a winning lottery ticket he hadn't even started it.
As if he had just been told he'd grown breasts, Naruto rapidly turned away from Sakura and stared at Hinata with wide eyes.
"You're joking right?"
Hinata said nothing, merely shook her head.
Naruto's eyes widened even more.
"But Hina, you know I haven't even started mine! And you know that creep hates me more than Sasuke, and that's saying something…"
Sasuke glared at the blonde idiot.
"Pleaseeee Hina, pleaseeeeee just wait one more minute, just one minute."
Hinata resisted his adorableness and shook her head once more.
"Sorry Naruto, but we have to start leaving now if we want to make it to class on time."
"But…"
"Come on Hinata, let's go."
Once again Sasuke clutched her hand and started pulling her towards class.
She heard Naruto cuss as her and Sasuke turned their back to him.
She whispered a small thank you to Sasuke.
Sasuke smirked.
"You were about to say yes weren't you."
Hinata glanced down at the floor in shame.
Sasuke's smirk transitioned to a frown.
"You've got it bad, huh?"
Hinata's cheeks turned as red as the tomatoes in her lunchbox.
"Shut up Sasuke! He might hear you!"
"Who might hear you?"
Of course Naruto would intervene at the best of times.
Hinata's eyes expanded to the size of Jupiter and she stuttered to get a response out." U-Uh… just uh… uh…"
"Her stalker." Sasuke answered as if it were obvious.
Naruto stopped in mid-step.
"Whaaaaaat?! Hinata since when do you have a stalker?!"
If it was possible to create whole new shades of red then Hinata was the perfect candidate to execute them.
"I don't have…"
"Time to waste. Come on Hinata, he was going to find out sooner or later." Sasuke pulled her towards him as he quickened his pace.
Naruto stopped and stared at their backs in astonishment.
Since when had they become so close?
Sasuke and Hinata made it right in the nick of time. However, even that wasn't enough to satisfy Orochimaru.
"What is this? Uchiha and Hyuga late to class? Well, well, it seems Uzamaki is finally rubbing off on you two."
Sasuke appeared unruffled, but the same couldn't be said for Hinata.
Too busy fiddling with her fingers, she failed to notice her sensei's proximity.
"Look at me when I'm speaking, Hyuga!"
Utterly frightened and surprised by the proximity of the sound, she did the one thing she always did in situations like this, she closed her eyes and punched the closest thing to her. Fortunately, for Sasuke, it wasn't him. Unfortunately, for Orochimaru, Hinata had a pretty strong fist.
The chaos that ensured was enough to startle Naruto, who had just entered the classroom. All he saw was: Hinata wiping away tears. Orochimaru's nose bleeding profusely. The class laughing and taking pictures. Sasuke trying to contain his laughter.
What had happened? He planned on figuring out.
"Wha…"
"Uzamaki! To the office. Now!"
"But I just…"
"Don't say a word if you value your grades."
Naruto snapped his mouth shut.
"That goes for the rest of you vile creatures. Shut it or fail this class this semester!"
Everyone but one unfortunate student who had his earphones on stopped laughing.
"Inuzuka! You better figure out a way to avoid your mom this semester!"
By this time, Kiba had removed his earphones.
"What? Why?"
Naruto swore Orochimaru looked like Medusa then. He looked feminine enough to pass for her. Plus, he had a weird fascination for snakes and he sometimes sounded like one. Maybe in his past life he had been a snake.
"You just failed this class."
Kiba's eyes widened, but quickly receded to their normal size. He commenced laughing once again.
"Nice one sensei. I almost fell for that joke."
He continued laughing. Orochimaru glared. How did he get stuck with such idiots?
"The only joke here is you, Inuzuka."
Half of the student body gasped, while the other half yelled out:
"Burrrrrrrrrrrrrn!"
Kiba's jaw dropped. What the heck just happened?
"Uzamaki and Inuzuka to the office. Uchiha and Hyuga take your seats."
Kiba and Naruto were about to protest.
"Not one word unless you want to fail second semester as well."
Kiba and Naruto glared at their sensei, but didn't speak a single word as they exited.
Sasuke bit his lip to keep from laughing.
Orochimaru turned to glare at Hinata.
Hinata quickly wiped her tears away and walked to her seat forlornly.
She just wanted this class to end already.
Lunch spots are ideally featured as being on a rooftop with the sun setting, but in reality, or at least in Hinata's and Sasuke's reality it was the complete opposite, because honestly, what school let their students eat lunch on a rooftop? Not theirs, that's for sure.
"I was always glad we chose this lunch spot." Hinata confessed.
"Yeah, no fan girls or any other annoying person for that matter."
"It can be overwhelmingly stinky at times though."
"Oh well, at least the lovers won't ever think to look for us here."
"Sasuke!" Hinata looked at him in reproach.
"Oh come on Hinata, you know that's the one of the sole reasons why we chose this spot."
Sasuke stared at her. Waiting for her to reproach him then, but of course she didn't, because what he had said was true, and sometimes the truth hurts.
"Okay, okay. Enough of that. What's wrong with you?"
Hinata looked at him in concern.
Sasuke eyed the trashcan.
"If this trashcan hadn't been so huge we would've been discovered by now."
"Sasuke, quit trying to avoid the topic."
"It really is huge."
"Sasuke!"
Hinata glared at him.
Sasuke sighed.
"Alright, alright, I'll tell you, now quit being grumpy."
Smiling, Hinata nodded furtively.
Sasuke couldn't help, but let a peek of a smile emerge upon seeing Hinata's childish behavior. She really could be quite cute sometimes.
"You know I have Sakura in first period, right?"
Hinata nodded.
"Well, the idiot of Kakashi…"
Hinata frowned.
"Okay, okay, Kakashi-sensei partnered us up."
Sasuke paused and looked away from Hinata.
"Is that it?"
He gulped.
"Unfortunately, no."
Eyebrows raised, Hinata waited for him to finish his story.
Sasuke cleared his throat.
"We were trying to mix two chemicals together and Sakura accidently ended up dropping an extra chemical into the mix. That's when a chemical combustion occurred, and I jumped in front of her for she could avoid the blow, but instead I tripped on a cord and landed on her."
Hinata said nothing, so Sasuke continued.
"I apologized and tried to get up, but she held me down, and she looked at me like…"
Sasuke grit his teeth and scrutinized the ground.
"She looked at me like how she looks at Naruto. Like she loves me, like she's always loved me. That's why when class ended and she ran to Naruto like that… kissed him like that… with me right there. Right fuckin' there! It just…"
"It hurt you."
Sasuke glanced up at Hinata.
"It's okay Sasuke. You have every right to feel the way you do. She may not be dating you, but the way she emotionally played you like that, it's just not right. She may be my one of my best friends, but even she can do wrong, just like Naruto, just like you, and just like me. I don't know how we're going to get over them when we hang out with them practically every day, but we've got to try. We have to hope we'll get over them someday. After all, that hope is the only thing that's keeping us sane."
Sasuke stared at Hinata with intensity. Hinata fidgeted under his stare. Maybe she shouldn't have said that.
"You really are a genuine best friend ,Hina. Thank you. Honestly, thank you. You better not tell anyone I said that though, because I will deny it to my death bed."
Smiling, Hinata flicked Sasuke's forehead.
"What was that for?"
Hinata decided to pull a Sasuke. She smirked and stated:
"No reason."