Thank you so much for all of the views that the first chapter got; I'm surprised to have gotten viewers from so many countries! Fanfiction really is a wonderful place... haha. (:

Thank you too, to the people that reviewed, it really made me happy that you took the time to do that.

This chapter is dedicated to the amazing author crazygurl12. Her fics always helped me to get through the down moments in my life this year. Thank you. (Her fics are really good though, srsly, go check them out. Esp if you are a Hinata fan like I am lol.)

So! Without further ado, here is chapter 2! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing it! (:

Chapter 2: Dates Over Flowers

The classrooms were bigger than she would've preferred, but she'd have to make do. Hinata had gotten there pretty late and all the other students were already in their seats socializing or sleeping. She scanned the room quickly, looking for any available seats. Luckily, a couple of seats seemed to be vacant near the middle and with a heave of her bag, she trudged over and sat. Letting out another sigh (she's been doing this a lot recently), and pulled her notebook out along with her pen.

A couple of students around her started to whisper as she sat there doodling, but she took no notice as her mind drifted elsewhere.

I can't believe I did that back there. God, I'm so stupid! Why didn't I say anything? It would've been at least a little better if I had told him off. Stupid, stupid, stupid! She frowned, scribbling her doodles harshly, which only made it worse. Sasuke Uchiha thinks he can just do anything ugh, it sickens me. His friends aren't any better either. Hinata paused, her pen barely touching the paper.

What was that look Gaara gave me? Was he laughing at me? Hinata thought, thinking back to when their eyes met. His jade eyes had twinkled in amusement at the very least, and she definitely heard the quiet chuckle that escaped him earlier.

Everyone here is so confusing. I'd rather still be homeschooled than stay at this school. She then remembered Neji. What was he doing at the school? When did he even get back to Konoha? She thought his family had left for Suna for good!

Does father know he came back?

Hinata jumped back a little in her seat when the first bell rang suddenly rang, signaling the start of class and angry looks from teachers to any students who dared come in late. Of course, that would've happened if there was a teacher in here. Hinata looked down to her schedule. Someone named Mr. Hatake was supposed to be teaching this AP English class, but no one else seemed to be fazed that he wasn't even here.

Hinata slunk back in her seat and kept doodling. If she was going to wait, she might as well hone her drawing skill. She looked at her latest creation. It was a little cartoon of her daydream of giving Sasuke what he deserved. Hinata let out a quiet giggle, proud of herself on how silly it was. She then noticed that she had subconsciously drawn a small portrait of Gaara in the margin at the top of her paper. It was quite well-drawn actually, and his handsome features will only accentuated in her sketch.

"Hey Hinata! Sorry for not waiting for you," a bubbly voice interrupted.

Hinata gasped and slammed the cover of her notebook back on, covering the sketches she had made.

"H-hi Sakura," she replied weakly.

Sakura pointed to her left towards a desk with a red leather handbag and a few binders on top. "My desk is over there if you need anything."

Hinata smiled. "Thanks."

"Can I see what you were drawing?" Sakura asked, pulling up a chair beside her.

Hinata's smile dropped. "It's…nothing really," she began, choosing her words closely, "just a bunch of nonsense scribbles because I was bored."

Sakura shrugged. "If you say so."

"Do you think s-something happened to Mr. Hatake?"

"Nah, he's always late like this. I bet Kakashi will say something like 'oh, I was helping an old lady on the street' or some bullshit like that," Sakura replied, imitating Kakashi's deep voice. She then got up from the desk and pushed the seat back in.

"I'm going back to my desk to study for today's quiz. But don't worry, I bet you don't have to take it."

Hinata nodded. "Good luck Sakura."

When she had left, Hinata eyed around her quickly before opening her notebook again. The same chibi doodle was there, as was Gaara. She studied it further, wondering whether or not to add something to it. It was missing something…something like…

"You forgot the tattoo," a husky baritone voice said softly from behind her.

Hinata immediately froze in her spot, her eyes wondering. "I-I, this—"

Gaara took a seat to the right of her and pointed to his temple.

"Love."

"Love..." Hinata repeated dumbly. What should I do? He already saw it! Is he offended? Does he think I'm creepy?

Gaara calmly took her notebook and turned it around to examine it from all directions. "Looks pretty good," he commented before tossing it back to her, "but I wouldn't know; I'm pretty shit at art."

Hinata's face turned a deep red. "I-I'm sure you're not that bad."

"If there would be one thing that I was the most confident about, it would be the fact that no one should ever have to see my art, ever," Gaara replied, chuckling.

His laugh is nice, it's kind of cute, Hinata thought, her face still burning. Wait, what am I thinking? I just met this guy! Stop it Hinata!

"There you are Gaara! Where were you, ya bastard?" a loud and cheery voice yelled out from behind them.

"Kyahh! It's R4!"

"Oh my God they're so hot!"

The girls' screams ensued, seemingly never ending. The pair turned around to see the two out of the four R4 members standing above them. The voice had belonged to the Uzumaki from earlier, and despite the choice of words he used he had a bright smile on his face.

Gaara groaned and flexed his arms unintendedly making Hinata blush at the movement. "Naruto, it's only 8 in the morning, stop being so loud."

Sasuke smirked. "The idiot had four cups of coffee this morning; no matter how much you beat him up he'll just stay like this."

Naruto feigned hurt and put his hands up in defense. "Hey, I take my coffee very religiously. Not my fault if I need more energy than others."

"Coffee is the last thing you need Naruto and you know it," Sasuke muttered before finally noticing Hinata next to his red haired friend. "Didn't know you knew Hyuuga personally, Gaara."

Gaara glanced back to Hinata before looking back at their self-proclaimed leader of the group. "No," he admitted, "at least, not yet."

Naruto grinned at his friend. "Well any friend of Gaara is a friend of mine. I'm Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm going to be the future president, just like my dad and you better believe it! Nice to meet ya!"

Hinata felt her face heat up badly again from Gaara's earlier comment and stood up straighter in her chair feeling embarrassed before greeting Naruto back.

"Hinata Hyuuga, heiress to the Hyuuga Corporation. N-nice to meet you too

"Is that so…?" Sasuke asked, eyeing the ravenette up and down. "I never formally introduced myself, Hyuuga. My name is Sasuke Uchiha, heir to the Uchiha Conglomerate. " Sasuke ended, raising his hand to shake hers.

Hinata took a deep breath, willing herself to not stutter in front of him. Don't show weakness, don't show weakness, don't show weakness…

"It's nice to meet you," Hinata said softly, returning his hand shake, noticing the way he deliberately put his over hers. Hinata narrowed her eyes slightly, knowing what this meant.

It was a challenge.

Her, the heiress? Looks like Neji has been hiding something from us the past couple of years, interesting. Sasuke thought as they let go.

"Will the Hyuuga be participating in the company auction here this week?" he asked, not a hint of emotion displaying on his face.

"Yes, we wouldn't want to dishonor our family by not going," Hinata replied evenly and silently congratulated herself for staying composed.

I see the little Hyuuga has a feisty side. "So you're going? Good," Sasuke said huskily, a smirk growing on his face, "then be my date."

The classroom immediately became silent as everyone heard what he just uttered. But just as soon as they had gone quiet, hushed whispers and gasps filled the air as the other students processed what he said, and focused their eyes on Hinata.

Said girl in question's eyes widened, her pearly eyes fully showing her confusion.

"Excuse me?" she sputtered out, red dusting her cheeks. All composition she had just a few minutes ago was all undone at his question.

Gaara whipped his head to fully face his friend, as he took on an incredulous expression. "What the hell Sasuke?"

Sasuke looked over nonchalantly to the red head. "What? Is she your girl or something?"

"Well, no but—"

"But nothing, Gaara. She's a big girl, she can answer on her own," Sasuke smirked. "Your answer, Hyuuga?"

"Can I ask why, Sasuke?" Hinata blurted out quickly, chastising herself for not staying calm.

"I have many reasons," Sasuke answered, sitting down at a desk behind Gaara and Hinata. "Not that I'm going to tell you."

Hinata thought about it before shaking her head. "I-I don't know…"

"Ah, you kids are still here, great…" a deep voice drawled out from the front of the classroom. "Sorry guys I was helping this old lady out on the street and—"

"WE KNOW KAKASHI!" Her fellow classmates yelled back, momentarily forgetting about the Uchiha drama. Hinata faced forward to see a man in his late twenties with white-silver hair, though it didn't make him unattractive. In fact, most of the girls in her class had begun to get the dreamy look once they got over the teacher's tardiness.

"Holy shit Kakashi you're like thirty minutes late, even I'm not that bad," Naruto joked, making the class laugh.

Kakashi sat down on top of his teacher's desk and crossed his knee. "Uzumaki last time I checked you weren't in this class," he said with a sinister smile, an ominous aura creeping from him, "so I suggest that you get the hell to wherever you need to be before I make you do ten times the exercise for track!"

Naruto sweatdropped before making a break for the door. "At least I don't take forever to get here from reading poooooorn!" With that he bowed to the class as a final gesture, making the students explode in laughter whether it be from Kakashi's obvious irritated stance to Naruto's usual antics.

Hinata herself giggled at the retreating blonde until she felt a breath behind her neck, causing her to turn around.

Sasuke looked her dead in the eye and folded his hands in front of him.

"I want an answer by tomorrow. Yes or no, as simple as that. And it better be yes."

Hinata furrowed her eyebrows and returned to face Kakashi as he wrote out the class agenda on the smart board. As she started to write down the homework, she saw a small paper ball that rolled onto her desk.

Can't see what Kakashi wrote for hw well from here.

Can I copy from you?

Hinata looked up at Gaara and tried to silently ask if it was from him. Gaara nodded slightly to which she happily obliged and handed him her notebook, to which he jotted the notes down quickly. He seemed to pause mid-sentence, debating on whether or not he should write it before handing it back with a mumbled thanks.

Hinata hummed in understanding and flipped back to start her notes when she noticed her chibi Sasuke cartoon had been circled in black ink, along with some writing at the bottom.

Do you always draw yourself kicking your enemies' asses? Either way it's still better than any of the other crap I ever drew.

Maybe I could see you in action one day? 1(843)733-7263

PS. Though not as quite as good as yours, my family has naturally perfect vision.

Hinata struggled to hold in her gasp and frantically looked between the messages on her notebook to the red head sitting next to her.

Did he just hit on me?!

/o/ HXS /o/ HXG /o/

"Daaaamn Hina, that's some school you go to," Tenten whistled as she scrolled through the photographs of Konoha Academy online. Hinata huffed as she settled a huge box filled with a new shipment of books down onto the ground in front of her.

"I disagree—achoo!" she sneezed from the dust that had accumulated, causing someone to shush her.

"Who the—"

"Sweetie, you're having a bad day. Don't take it out on our lovely patrons," Tenten cooed, patting Hinata gently on the back.

"I'm the librarian! They can't shush me!" Hinata whined uncharacteristically, still sniffling.

"Yeah, but you know who else will? Our boss if she finds out we back talked to the people here! Now come sit next to me so you can talk it out." Tenten led her to a chair beside her. "You know, I'm surprised your dad is still letting you part time here. After he withdrew you from our middle school for homeschooling I was sure he would make you quit here too."

Hinata sighed and propped her head on her arm. "I'm sure he has his reasons. I guess someone has to make sure I don't screw up on my heiress training."

Tenten scoffed. "See, this is why I hate business people. I'm perfectly content with running my family's weaponry shop instead of all these industries and what not," she paused for a moment, "no offense Hinata."

"Your family's shop is a business too Tenten," Hinata chuckled, "just on a smaller scale."

Tenten waved her arms around. "Whatever, so tell me, did you meet the famous Rookie 4 yet?"

Hinata felt heat rise to her cheeks as she recalled what happened not too long ago.

"Oh my God! Hina you did!" Tenten screeched, leading for the other people in the library to look over in their direction. "I'm the librarian, don't shush me!"

"You're having a bad day. Don't take it out on our lovely patrons!" Hinata laughed softly as she mimicked a high pitched version of her friend's voice. "Way to be a hypocrite Tenten."

Tenten muffled her laughter. "Shut up. Now spill, I want to know everything."

"Fine, I did meet them," Hinata started, unsure of how to explain what happened. "But I probably made a bad impression. Wait no, I definitely made a bad impression."

"What happened? C'mon don't leave me hanging!" Tenten pleaded.

"I kicked Sasuke Uchiha down there, if you know what I mean," Hinata replied, her eyes cast downward.

Tenten's eyes widened. "No fucking way Hinata! Did you really?"

"No," she admitted, "well not completely true. I did it…in my mind."

Tenten leaned back in her chair, smothering more laughter. "You're a real hoot, you know that?"

Hinata pouted. "It's not funny Tenten! I made a real fool out of myself! I was a stuttering mess, Father would be so ashamed of me."

Tenten pretended to clean the nonexistent dust off her clothes. "Are they as good looking in person as they are in their pictures?"

Hinata blushed as she remembered when she first saw them.

"Ooh, looks like Hinata's got a little crush," the brunette teased, smirking. "Who was it? Was it the Uchiha?"

Hinata scrunched her face in disgust. "Oh gosh, no Tenten, just no. Never. I mean I'll admit…he is quite handsome but his personality is absolutely horrible. This morning this girl gave him this beautiful handmade flower arrangement and you know what he did? He smashed it against the floor!"

"What, really?" Tenten frowned a bit then sighed. "Why is it always the hot ones?"

Hinata nodded. "We have a few classes together, but my first class with him was such a mess. He interrupted my conversation with Gaara and—"

"—Gaara?" Tenten interrupted, raising an eyebrow. "And who is this mister Gaara? No wait, let me look him up." She swiveled her chair to face the library computer. "What's his last name?"

"Um, Sabaku if I recall correctly," Hinata replied. "Wait why are you searching his name?"

"To see if he's hot, duh," the brunette joked. "I'm just messing with you. Maybe. Anyways woah, this guy is inheriting the world famous Suna Services? I've seen my dad selling some of our weaponry to them."

Hinata bit her lip, unsure if whether or not she should tell her friend what Sakura had told her about them. A front for their mafia organization…

Tenten whistled. "And he is pretty hot. What'd he say?"

"N-not much, really. He just complimented my little d-doodles that I drew," Hinata said.

"You're stuttering. Around me," Tenten deadpanned. "You're either lying or not telling me everything."

Hinata flushed. "W-well…I might have drawn a portrait of him and a little cartoon of beating up Sasuke."

"And he was okay with it?!"

Hinata's face turned even redder. "Y-yeah… he said he liked it."

Tenten grabbed the ravenette's shoulders. "Aw I'm so happy for you! My little Hina might finally get a boyfriend!"

Hinata wiggled away from Tenten's grasp. "It's not like that Tenten, and even if it was I can't afford to have any distractions this year. Not when my future's at stake."

"Sometimes you need a break too Hina," Tenten said softly. "If you spend all your energy on training for the Hyuuga, then you'll just get burnt out before you actually make it. You deserve some happiness too."

Hinata was taken aback from Tenten's kind words. Despite her tomboyish front, she did have her moments that made Hinata truly feel special to be as close to he as she was.

"Have some faith in me Tenten," Hinata said, a devious tone under lacing her voice. "I actually got his number."

Tenten gasped. "Wait what?!"

Hinata gave her a small smile and nodded. "He pretended that he needed to copy down the agenda from me but instead wrote his number in my notebook."

"You sly minx!" Tenten smirked, gently punching her friend in the shoulder. "And here I thought I would have to put you on blind dates. Well, what are you doing talking to me? Call the poor guy!"

Hinata frowned. "But we still have to work here for another hour. You know how the boss is about phones on shifts."

Tenten sighed. "Fine, but you better call him and let me know what he says tomorrow!"

"It's a deal," Hinata softly chuckled at her friends antics and picked up the forgotten boxes of books that had yet to be organized back into the shelves.

"Hey, I'm going to put these away, think you can handle sitting at the computer alone for a couple of minutes?" Hinata called out to the brunette.

"It's what I've been doing since 4! Don't take too long or I might end up watching more mind numbing videos on the internet again." Tenten joked, dismissing her.

Hinata shook her head fondly and hauled the box of books towards the back of the library.

I wonder if I should have just done two trips, Hinata mused to herself, trying to see around the stack of books that towered over her. Just as soon as she thought she was in the clear, something hard smacked right into her sending the box and herself falling to the library's wooden floors. But right when she was about to hit the ground, she felt a hand grab her harshly, pulling her to him.

"Shit!" A deep but familiar voice muttered before looking at her. "You okay there?"

"Yes, thank you," Hinata began, then looked at her savior, eyes widening. "G-Gaara?!"

"Hinata," Gaara acknowledged. "Sorry about this. Let me help you clean this up."

Hinata waved her hand around, trying to say no. Well, tried. At the moment, they were still very much pressed up against each other and she wasn't sure if he had noticed yet or not.

She wasn't sure if she liked the fact that she felt comfortable in his arms either.

"You can…let go now," Hinata said weakly, her face blushing wildly.

Gaara looked at their predicament and quickly let go of her. He bent down to pick up the books that had dropped and slowly started to put them back in the brown cardboard box.

"Was I too forward?" He suddenly asked, looking into her eyes. "You didn't call or leave me a text."

Hinata froze as she bent to grab a book and slowly got back up. "I ah, was actually planning to call you later. My boss doesn't like us making private calls during work."

Gaara chuckled. "So that's what it was. Sorry, I'm not used to this."

Hinata tilted her head to the side and continued to put the books into the box. "This?"

"I was surprised you know," Gaara continued, not answering her question. He paused and crossed his arms casually. "Two things, actually. Firstly, no one ever calls out Sasuke. Or doesn't suck up to him every moment of the day."

"It ah, was more of a reflex," Hinata admitted, biting her lower lip. "And secondly?"

Gaara's jade eyes flashed down to her lips for a split second before looking straight to her again. "Why are you talking to me?"

"Excuse me?" Hinata asked, caught off guard from the question.

"You must know what my family does if you go to Konoha Academy," Gaara scoffed. "You're not afraid to be seen with me?"

So it's true. His family does run the underground here. Hinata shook her head.

"I admit, the idea of mafias being around is kind of scary," Hinata said, poking her index fingers together. "But you don't scare me Gaara. Why would I be afraid to be around you?"

Gaara raised an eyebrow. "People will talk Hinata. Many people, both in our school and outside, think I'm a monster. And they might not want to be associated with you if you're with me."

"Well I think you're nice," Hinata blurted out. "You've never acted anything but polite with me. You're my friend Gaara."

Hurt tinged his eyes briefly before the red head smirked and brushed his fingers against hers.

"Look, I know Sasuke asked you to go to that company event at the school first but," he began, an out of character blush slightly forming on his face, "I want you to go with me. I mean, I would like for you to go with me. I, uh, fuck. Just, think about it okay?"

He then picked up the last book from the ground and fit it into the box. "See you tomorrow morning," he said, leaving a stunned Hinata behind in the back of the library.

Did he just ask me on a date? Gaara Sabaku asked me on a date?!

"Hey Hinata I saw some guy sprint out of here, you alright?" Tenten asked, appearing from the aisle. Hinata shook and took in some deep breaths.

"…." The ravenette mumbled under her breath.

Tenten shook her friend's shoulders. "BREATHE HINATA BREATHE! Now, what did you say?"

Hinata looked at a spot next to Tenten's face. "I said, he…."

"You're still muttering Hina," Tenten pointed out, frustrated.

"I said, he askedmeoutonadate!" Hinata replied, her mind going crazy.

Tenten jumped from the news. "Whaaaat?! That's amazing! Tell me you said yes!"

Hinata shook her head. "…"

"Goddamnit Hinata you're killing me, what did you say?" Tenten yelled at her, not caring that they would get in trouble if someone decided to complain to their boss.

"Sasuke Uchiha alsoaskedmetogotothesameevent!" Hinata bit out, her voice also rising. This whole ordeal was crazy, really. Not even years of predicting the stock markets could ever have helped her know that this would happen.

"Holy shit Hinata! Who'd you say yes to?!" Tenten shrieked, scaring her friend. "Tell me you didn't say yes to that power hungry Uchiha twit!"

Hinata shook her head. "I haven't given an answer to any of them yet."

"Isn't obvious? Go for mister bodyguard heir! Geez Hina, and you're supposed to be the smarter one." Tenten scoffed at her answer then smirked. "Unless of course, you're going with the Uchiha for the thrill."

"No it's not that. I'm just…a little curious why he asked. We hardly know each other and he only became interested in me when I told him I was the Hyuuga heiress. I just can't figure him out," Hinata explained. "And I know this sounds terrible, but think of how surprised he would be if I showed up to the event with the Uchiha heir? After years of failing him constantly, maybe this could be my chance to finally prove to him that I have potential!"

Tenten let a hand rest on Hinata' shoulder. "Aw sweetie, don't go with the guy because you want to gain some point bullshit with your family. Go with the guy that you actually want to go with. We're only teenagers. This is the time to do all the lovey dovey crap we read about in books and watch in the movies. You can worry about manipulating people later on."

"Yeah but—"Hinata started to protest.

"—No buts! Besides, do you really want to let Gaara go for some stupid challenge? Don't hurt the poor guy," Tenten said softly and smiled. "Listen, I think you should just sleep on it. Don't make a rash decision and as idiotic as it sounds, listen to your heart. Your gut. Your whatever. Just remember that I'll support whatever you decide on. If anything falls apart, we still have backup plan, alright?"

Hinata giggled. "Our apartment with four cats with a fully furnished mini dojo and art studio. How could I ever forget?"

Tenten chuckle and ruffled the top of her head, akin to what an older sister would do. "Right on. You can make it through this Hinata, it's not like you're making a decision to get married to either one of them or something.

"You're right Tenten, thanks a lot," Hinata said, smiling at her longtime friend. With newfound energy, she made a run for the front desk. "And as thanks, you can close up the place!"

The brunette stood there, shocked that Hinata just up and ditched her like that. She then smirked and walked towards the back room where they kept all the keys.

"And they say she's the innocent one," Tenten muttered while she looked for the right set.

A/N: I swear this is still SasuHina. I've got like, this entire thing planned out (okay, maybe not the whole thing), but EVENTUALLY! *sweatdrops*

Who do you think she'll say yes to? Sasuke or Gaara?

Oh, and shout out next chapter to anyone that can decode what Gaara's phone number means, by the way. I'm sure many of you will get it lol.

And like always, please don't hesitate to review this chapter to tell me if you're liking it so far! Thank you very much!

Au revoir lovelies! (;