Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I can't own Naruto. I think Sasuke could, though…

A/N: Sorry that this took so long to update… I was gone for a week, and then super tired too. :D

Wow! I literally got 4 reviews only 2 hrs. after posting the last chapter! That feels… so GOOD! I generally like to stay one chapter ahead (I type two and post one), but because I feel so loved, I'm posting this one right away!

I'm going to write beautiful, long replies to my first 4! 3

Winter Ink : Why, thank you. Right now, I'm only self-published, so I'm trying desperately to get a traditional publisher—school, SATs, SAT IIs, etc. haven't exactly been helpful, though. My writing style is constantly evolving, something that's both good and bad… but I'm glad you think it's good! (I, for one, am still convinced that I am decent crap. In other words, crappy, but not so crappy that you can't read it.) :D Runaway writers are annoying for me too. I'll try to avoid becoming one. Really, I don't exactly know how this story will turn out just yet. I'm making it up as I go, so…

Faenea: Yes, I love the eating scene too. I was tittering the entire time I wrote it. *tee hee* You can check it out on and . Type in "Devoted by Shirlene Obuobi" and it should come up. On amazon there's a "Look Inside" option. I will totally include a sample chapter. One of these days, I'll just post two chapters at once. One will be some "Forever Elusive" to satisfy my lovelies, and the other an actual chapter. I really want people to read Devoted, so I appreciate your interest sooo much!

Winterkaguya: OMG you wrote me a book! I love you! I don't particularly want Sakura to come across as a total sleaze…I'm actually kind of sick of fanfics doing that. So, basically, you got her down to a 't.' :D Oops! Did I do a cliché? Dammit, I've been trying to avoid those. Well, I think Hinata is in the limelight because she's had encounters with Gaara, and Gaara has to be in the limelight (kinda) because he's new and different. And yes! I love developing the characters' relationships

Also:

WhiteDemoness11: I really don't know what to be more excited about--- the fact that a h.s. teacher is complimenting my work (what do u teach, btdubs?) or the fact that you called my Gaara the sexiest. I'm so glad!

Hinata turned around slowly and caught the cold, dark eyes of Uchiha Sasuke staring down at her. He smirked. She shuddered, but that didn't keep a flush from rising to her cheeks.

Uchiha-san and Sabaku-san were so alike in so many ways. They were both pale as death, and, she was embarrassed to note, had very similar builds, although Uchiha-san seemed a little less lean and a little more muscular. Both of them had eyes of such a pure, flat color that they were entrancing and terrifying—Uchiha-san's were such an unforgiving black that they seemed like endless tunnels.

And, unfortunately, both were so unbearably beautiful that she had to look away to keep her composure.

Sakura jolted up in her seat. "Why are you here?" she said, and there was an edge of hysteria in her voice.

He raised an eyebrow slowly, uncaringly, and stuffed his hands into his pockets. "I'm meeting the person I like for a date." He held up a pastel blue card and waved it and both Sakura and Hinata gasped. "Clever of you to send this. Too bad Hyuuga-san litters."

He turned to Hinata, and she looked back at him, still confused and slightly embarrassed. She must have dropped the card earlier…

"Uchiha-san," she said cordially. I am Hyuuga. Where is my poise?

"Hyuuga-san." He nodded his head in a half-bow and smirked.

"Why?" she finally blurted out, and he quickly put a finger to her lips. She flushed, looking up at him with confusion.

"I'll answer that later," he said, and then looked down at Sakura again. "Why are you still here? You've tried to sabotage me already, and you've failed. Go away."

Sakura glared venomously up at him and hopped off her stool. She slapped down a few bills on the counter slung her bag over her shoulder. She turned to Hinata.

"Don't forget a word I've said," she warned, and then walked away.

The moment she had left, Hinata yearned for her presence again. Being alone with the Uchiha was unsettling. Of course, she was curious about him, but it was well known that curiosity killed the cat. Nothing made sense to her.

"Sakura's gone now," Hinata said, once the pink-haired kunoichi had disappeared from sight. "Can you tell me why now?"

He grinned. It was strange, because she had never seen him really smile before this. He had smirked, sure, but that was mocking and not warm. But the look he had given her before was so gentle that it transformed him into someone completely different.

"Can I take you on a real date first? Seriously, did you think I'd ask a girl to Ichiraku's?"

Despite herself, Hinata smiled. "According to Sakura, there isn't a girl you'd bother taking anywhere."

He held out his hand for her to take, and she looked down at it, confusion renewed. It seemed strange to hold it—after all, she didn't really know him and his action seemed incongruous with her words. He was persistent, though, keeping his hand outreached for a full minute, grinning at her.

Slowly, she took it. He grinned even wider and squeezed it.

"Was that so hard?" he whispered. Hinata turned away, her face flushed.

They started walking.

"Uchiha-san," Hinata asked, "Please answer me."

Sasuke chuckled. "Why do you want to know so badly?"

She pursed her lips and let him swing their hands forward, clutching her bag in the other. She could see the other girls passing them, giving them looks that ranged from despair to hatred to glee. She could almost feel their envy.

"Because," Hinata said, "This," she held up their hands, "doesn't make sense to me."

He nodded, finally looking a little serious, and then sighed. "You're different."

She cocked an eyebrow. "Everyone is different."

Sasuke laughed, and she felt his hand squeeze hers. "No. In many ways, they're the same. Some a bit more annoying than others, but otherwise, there's no difference."

She laughed harshly, turning away from him. "So you like me because I'm a novelty? What if I end up like all of them too? Lusting after you, or whatnot?"

He scowled now and walked a little bit faster. His thin, black muscle shirt was slightly wet with perspiration, and she could see the outlines of every muscle in his chest.

"There's more to you than that," he said. He dropped her hand, and then turned her around to face him, to look into his eyes.

**

Temari stirred spoonful after spoonful of sugar into her cup of tea, watching the liquid ripple and spin as she stirred it. In the few days they had been in Konoha, she had become a horrible sweet tooth. She'd always known she was prone to it—as a child she had very little self control and thus could never be found without a lollipop or some chocolate. But as the years passed she had learned to control herself, more or less, in Suna. Something about the carefree attitude in Konoha made her lose a bit of her discipline.

"Where's Gaara?" she asked Kankuro as he walked in. He watched her in awe as she dropped more sugar into her drink, and then shook his head in a mixture of amusement and confusion.

"Comatose," he answered, "Sitting in his room. He wouldn't let me in. Wonder what the hell he's doing in there."

"Sitting?" Temari asked. Kankuro was plenty of things, but dumb usually wasn't one of them. Dropping her voice to a low whisper, "Do you know whether he's got any sand out?"

Kankuro nodded. "All over the place. I could feel it outside, too."

"Outside?" Temari asked in horror. She wanted to trust her little brother, but knowing what he was capable of, and knowing that he certainly wasn't afraid of living up to those capabilities, was terrifying.

Kankuro shrugged. "He doesn't have a reason to go after anyone here, ne-chan."

He gave her a long, cold look and turned away. Temari sighed, letting her spoon lean against the side of her mug for a moment. She knew she ought to trust that her youngest brother had changed, but something feral had returned to his eyes and he seemed to be closing himself again, distancing himself. He was behaving exactly as he had frequently as a child, shutting himself off.

So who could blame her if she was worried? She tried to tell herself this, to remind herself that Gaara was not entirely innocent even now.

But this still didn't keep her from feeling horribly guilty.

**

His siblings' words were little more than a buzzing undertone—he heard the concern, felt the fear, but he chose to ignore it. He had a far more important task at hand. Sitting cross-legged on the floor, Gaara closed his eyes and kept his hands held at his chest in an uncomfortable seal, one that had to be held for hours on end if he wished to extend his reach to far distances.

After reading (and rereading) the Hyuuga's note, he had been sure to send some more sand out to Ichiraku's, just to keep watch—and perhaps to pulverize the impertinent bastard who dared encroach on his territory. Instead of a boy, however, he was surprised when that pink-haired girl from their class showed up. From so far, he could only pick up snippets of their conversation, but what he heard was both unacceptable and relieving. The pink-haired girl was not on the side of his rival. But she had said something about this other man's indelicacy, his uncaringness. She had said he would break his Hinata. And this, Gaara could not, would not, tolerate.

His displeasure peaked when the boy arrived, when he shooed off the other girl and dared touch his Hinata, dared take her hand so intimately in his. The anger shot through his veins like an illicit drug and his eyes shot open, his brow already creased with fury.

Uchiha-san will pay.

**

"Last year, do you remember when we sparred?" Sasuke's grip on her shoulders was strong, keeping Hinata rooted. She nodded dumbly, recalling the event.

It had been part of an end-of-year activity. The individual classes were accustomed to sparring amongst themselves, but this grew dull because they were limited to non-fatal moves and had, over time, learned almost every upcoming shinobi's techniques. As a way to break the seemingly endless monotony, Kurenai-sensei and Kakashi-sensei had decided to merge rooms for a Tournament of sorts. Each student drew from a hat his opponent.

Somehow, Hinata had managed to pull Uchiha-san.

At first, she was terrified. She had, for almost two years, been practicing wildly, strengthening herself and preparing herself, becoming a kunoichi worthy of the Hyuuga name. But no amount of training could completely eradicate the fear in the pit of her belly. She had seen the Uchiha fight before, and he was brutal and rash, much like Naruto except smarter. Which also made him deadlier.

Nevertheless, she had given it all she had. He had come at her with the illegal moves and she had dodged them, responding by drawing the water from the nearby stream to extinguish his fires and pellet him, wearing him down. He had resorted to punches and kicks, some of which she caught (mostly in the gut), some of which she parried, most of which she returned. Once he was low on chakra he had even been desperate enough to yank back her hair, but this only brought him close enough for her to perform the jyuuken, and once she had, Kakashi had had to run in to keep the Uchiha from doing something rash that would permanently affect both of their bodies.

He was angry, she remembered. So pissed that he wouldn't let Kakashi help him back, so ticked that he completely disregarded Sakura's green, glowing, healing hands. Back then, he had thrown Hinata a glare that convinced her that he would search her out and kill her. Terrified, she had slept in Neji nii-san's room for a week.

Hinata grinned at the memory. "I do remember."

The Uchiha scowled again. "You beat me."

"I did."

He laughed then. "I was so pissed."

She couldn't help but smile. "I thought you were going to kill me back then."

He was silent for a moment, looking down at the stones on the path. "I thought I was going to kill you, too."

Hinata smiled. It seemed as though she couldn't look away from their hands. The feeling wasn't quite blissful—after all, she wasn't in love with him—but she had never held hands with a boy before, and definitely not a boy like Sasuke. Somehow, it was pleasant.

"You don't want to kill me anymore," she observed.

"I'd die first."

"When did you change your mind?"

He laughed. It was amazing what the expression did to his features. She had always thought him so cold, so heartless. When Sakura had warned her, she had been completely prepared to heed her. But when he smiled that way…

"Don't quite remember." He looked down at her, his eyes gliding from her eyes down to her toes, and his smile became a smirk. "Ha. I was right. You do have curves."

She wrinkled her nose. "Yes, I do. But that's besides the point. I have questions, and you haven't really answered them."

He sighed again. "I just started watching you…train. And you were strong, and I liked that. But you didn't gloat about it. Looking at you at school…you were always so kind to everyone, but not because you were afraid. You weren't like those other girls, always saying stuff about each other and picking pointless fights." He ended his spiel and stopped walking again, and then turned to her. "You like Naruto, right?"

Hinata had to look up at him for a moment before she registered his question. Then, she remembered Sabaku-san's cool, green eyes, his gentle, moist tongue on her fingers, his fierce grip, and she blushed.

"No," she answered, and for the most part, she wasn't lying.

Sasuke looked relieved. "Ah. Well. That works out."

She scowled. "Just because I don't like him doesn't mean I will like you."

He shrugged. "It sure makes my chances a little better."

"And if I liked someone else?"

She didn't know exactly why her words should be so derisive, but the moment she said them, Sasuke's smile dropped and his body tensed as though she had just spoken the gravest insult. His hand tightened over her own.

"Then, Hinata-chan," he said seriously, "I'd be forced to change your mind."

His hand dropped hers, and she thought that would be it. She thought she had forced him to give up, even for a short while.

But then, his hand snaked up to her chin, and then further up to her cheek. She froze, her internal machinery dying as he drew closer, closer, closer. His breath was hot on her cheeks, and when she finally looked up at him, his eyes were half-closed, the black irises taking up almost the entire eye. Sakura had not lied—Sasuke truly was a sight to behold…

But just before his lips had brushed hers, Hinata jumped back to her senses. Pushing her arms forward, she put some distance between them, keeping her eyes on the ground.

"U-Uchiha-san!" she stammered, "I'm sorry! I like someone else!"

When Hinata had gathered the courage to look up again, she realized with another flush that he was staring at her intently, a light flush visible over his cheeks. He dragged his tongue over his lips, slowly, sexily, and had she been any other girl she might have swooned.

"You'll forget him soon enough," Sasuke said, too confidently. "Who is it, then, Hyuuga-san? Let me know what my competition is like."

Hinata looked down again, fisting her hands in her skirts. She remembered the exact, porcelain-smooth texture of Gaara's stomach, the toned muscle directly under the skin, the torturously slow and smoldering smile, the rash, bold, unpredictability. The strength that he wore on his shoulders, the way he bore the burden of knowing that everyone around him did not trust him. He was everything she adored in Naruto and more, so, so, much more.

He's not here anyway.

"The one I like is…" Hinata paused, and then frowned at her own indecision. Hadn't she just agreed with herself to admit it? "The one I like is Sabaku Gaara!"

Behind her, a minute trail of floating sand dropped to the ground, and many miles away, the man controlling it let his arms drop to his sides and let his face slacken, and then stretch into a ghastly, beautiful smile.