By: AlwaysHiei
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Chapter- 2
It was a bright, sunny day in Konoha, in which everyone was happy and joyous. Well, mostly everyone. Those who didn't like the sun weren't really that overjoyed, and were probably still asleep. But, not for long!
As usual on these kinds of days, Hinata was awakened by the sun. And also like usual, she wasn't happy about that.
Hinata silently complained to herself about her younger sister's habit of opening their blinds every morning to let the "wonderful" sunlight into the room as she got ready for another day at West Konoha High.
After she was pretty much ready, Hinata glanced at her clock to see if she didn't have any extra time to stay inside. Unfortunately, she didn't. If she waited much longer, she'd miss the bus.
She quickly dashed downstairs, managing to completely miss her father, Neji, and Hanabi that morning. As she exited the house still in solitude, she absentmindedly tried calculating how much time she just saved for herself to not have to wear her fake mask of joy.
During her calculation, which she figured would come out to about five minutes of precious solitude for her, Hinata had made her way to the bus stop, which as she expected but did not appreciate, was already crowded with her peers awaiting transportation to one of Hinata's personal hells, highschool.
"Hinata." She heard a familiar voice say from a few feet to her left. Glancing in said direction, Hinata found it to be her older cousin Neji.
One glance in their direction told her that it was Neji.
"Oh, N-Neji! G-good morning." Hinata greeted in fake joy.
"Thank you. I'm sorry for not waiting this morning; I wanted to meet up with Tenten to discuss the presentation for English we're doing today." Her cousin explained.
"I-it's not a problem." Hinata replied. Hinata was in fact quite glad for his absence at their house that morning. Neji wasn't mean- he was a very good cousin, more like an older brother. He was often overprotective, but generally that wasn't Hinata's problem with him. Neji was a person, and that made him hard for Hinata to handle being near.
"Good. But there's something I'd like to ask. Where were you last night?" Neji asked, staring straight into her eyes suspiciously, daring her to lie to him. "I saw you leave very late when I came home from work. You ran by my car when I was parked in the driveway and you didn't come home for quite a while. I was worried, but I figured you must have left a homework assignment or something at Tenten's yesterday, but when I asked her she said you didn't leave anything, and she never even saw you last night."
Hinata had no clue as to how she could explain, but luckily for her, the bus pulled up right at that moment.
Hinata ran up to the doorway and climbed inside before her cousin could say anything more. Once in, she began searching frantically for a seat next to another that was already filled, just in case Neji had any plans to continue his interrogation during the ride.
She saw quite a few, but they were all getting others to sit on them. She thought she found someone when she saw Tenten, but Neji sat by her right before Hinata could get over there.
Only one seat left...
...By Sasuke Uchiha.
Hinata was pretty much frozen in fear. She had nowhere else to sit; 'Only two people per bench'; that was the law. But Sasuke was so cold, Hinata felt like she'd be better off sitting in the middle of the aisle or hopping onto some random lap than go with was already considered an unspoken law for people who rode her bus that no one sits by Sasuke Uchiha. NO ONE.
While Hinata was in the middle of her internal conflict the bus driver turned around and said, "Sit down so we can go."
Hinata had no other option. She had to sit there.
She quietly walked over to the empty seat and sat down on the very edge.
Sasuke merely glanced in her direction with a raised eyebrow and a very slight, possibly just a figment of Hinata's imagination, look of amusement in his eyes before turning back to stare out the window.
It was then that Hinata noticed every single person staring at her; she saw all of her friends looking at her in concern, every Sasuke-fangirl glaring at her in disgust, and every guy and girl who were neither looked at her in awe.
Hinata just shrank back into her seat, trying her best to not draw any attention to herself.
As they drove, Sasuke, who had been looking out of the window, suddenly turned away from it, shut his eyes, and used his hands as a shield from something. This got Hinata to glance out of the window for a split second, only to be met by the sun's rays of light right in her eyes. Hinata did the same thing as Sasuke, using her hands as a shield.
"I hate it too."
Hinata's head jerked towards Sasuke again when she heard him whisper that little sentence. He said no more and Hinata kept her silence as well. She turned back to facing forward and contemplated Sasuke's small outburst. He must've been referring to light. All Hinata had done was shield her eyes from it and cringe, just as he had. He must've taken from her reaction that she hated light, Hinata could think of no other explanation.
The ride only lasted about fifteen minutes more, but for Hinata, fifteen minutes was a horribly long time to be in any spotlight. Once the ride was over, She quickly got up and walked out of the bus, avoiding the still staring faces of her classmates, Sasuke in tow.
She thought, though they still had at least twenty minutes unti lthe bell would ring, he was just going to go to class once they got into the school, so she payed no heed to his following her as she did her best to continue avoiding her cousin Neji. But that wasn't Sasuke's plan.
As she continued to briskly wander around the school aimlessly, she really had thought that Sasuke was gone.
This assumption was corrected when she felt a tap on her shoulder.
Hinata quickly turned herself around to find Sasuke directly behind her. "O-oh! Uchiha-san! I'm s-sorry about t-today in the bus. Th-there was nowhere e-else to sit, s-so..." Hinata trailed off. Now that she thought about it, why did she have to sit there? Before, there was no problem on the bus like that; no one had to sit by him. She quickly concluded that the school must have received a new student today.
"--night?" Sasuke finished a sentence Hinata had not heard due to her contemplations over the increased size of the student-body at Konoha Highschool.
"What? I-I didn't catch that, U-Uchiha-san." Hinata apologized, bowing as a deep scarlet flooded her face. How could she have been so stupid to space out while Sasuke Uchiha was talking to her? He probably lost any slight respect he may have had for her right then!
Sasuke sighed before saying "Nevermind." and walking off to class.
Hinata stood there in the middle of the hallway as she watched Sasuke walk away, horribly embarrassed and curious as to what Sasuke had said. Today was shaping up to suck even worse than usual for Hinata. The bell rang and Hinata made her way to her locker, still thinking about how crappy today and every other day was. Because of her thoughts, she had completely forgotten about the little problem she was trying to avoid right now.
"Answer my question, Hinata." Neji began his interrogation again as he stood directly in front of Hinata's locker, blocking her from her books and thus blocking her from the escape root that would be going to class.
"Qu-question?" Hinata played innocent.
"Answer me. Now." Neji didn't believe her, and ignored her efforts to get out of the mess.
"I-I was going to the library t-to g-get a b-book for a report I forgot a-about. It's d-due today, s-so I needed to g-get it then." Hinata lied.
"...I'll accept your answer; for now.I have to go to class. Goodbye." Neji backed down, moving out of Hinata's way and down the hallway.
Hinata breathed a sigh of relief, opened locker to get some books.
But, on the locker door, there was a note that read:
"Why do you hate the light?
Do you love the night?
-S.U."
It was clear to Hinata that the note was from Sasuke. As she had earlier concluded, Sasuke had figured out her disgust for light. And he was curious about it.
Hinata could have ignored it. She could have pretended she never got the note, he put it on the wrong locker. God knew Sasuke frightened her- most people did, and he was more critical and aloof than most people. She didn't need to get involved with him at all, the bus ride could be the one and only time they had to be in the same situation. Hinata didn't need more people to have to see and know and lie to all the time. She already had more than enough.
But against her apparent best interests, Hinata ripped a paper from the inside of her binder and rummaged through her bag for some tape. She got a pen and scribbled something onto the paper, walked down the hallway for a few feet and stopped at a locker. Silently she took and the tape and stuck it to the paper which she stuck to the locker.
Hinata walked back to her own locker, got her book, and went towards her first period, in a hurry because the bell would soon ring and the hallways were already empty. She slipped Sasuke's note into her pocket.
TO BE CONTINUED
Thanks for the reviews; I hope to get more.
I tried pretty hard on this chapter, so please review!
EDIT: 7-30-09
I am attempting to edit this story because I am not at all satisfied with it.
Seeya,
AlwaysHiei