Hello hello! Sorry the update's a little late…progress reports came…
-Ducks the flying furniture- Yeah, that's never a good sign. Well anyway, I think this chapter is a little bit confusing. Just keep in mind that italics means thoughts of flashbacks…I'm sure you'll all be able to decide which is which. I'll try to keep my updates consistent. Let's not even think about writer's block right now.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or the characters, or the manga, or the anime, etc…
Chapter 4: Shudder
Temari saw how worried Hinata was. "Are you afraid because we're late? Ha, you are too cute! Don't worry about a thing."
Asumna-sensei was already taking roll call. Temari casually walked to her spot in roll call line. He didn't bother looking up from his clip board and carried on with a rather peeved expression.
"Ms. Temari, may I ask why you are late…yet again?"
She doubled over dramatically and clutched her stomach. "I was having cramps."
The boys and Asuma all sweat-dropped as the atmosphere became increasingly awkward. Fanning his reddening face, Asuma cleared his throat. He began muttering under his breath, something about lousy, teenagers, and hormones. "So, may I ask why Ms. Hinata is late as well?"
"Why, she was giving me a necessary female sanitary product. You know, a PAD."
Suddenly, Asuma regretted ever bringing up the topic. He just couldn't win with these lousy teenagers. "Can we, ah, just start the activities for today…"
Temari winked at Hinata, who bowed her head in deep gratitude.
"Okay class. Apparently, the track had eleven different toxic chemicals in its soil, and the health committee 'deemed' that is was too 'hazardous' and would cause severe 'mutations' if anyone were exposed to it." He made another 'quote' sign with his fingers at the end for good measure, and rolled his eyes.
"Why back in my day, they made us run through the rain, sleet, snow and mud and now they're trying to tell me you precious darlings can't bear to be near the bad, meanie toxic! But whatever."
The class sighed as he continued to mutter under his breath. "Anyway, since the track is unavailable for said reasons, we'll simply have to make do with what we have. We'll just take it easy and spend the rest of the period doing laps around the campus. If I see you walk, that's an F. We're in an epidemic of eating here."
He started walking towards the outside of the campus, when he abruptly turned around. "Oh yeah, watch out for cars!" He gave them a happy-go-lucky smile before turning around and leading them to the school gates.
"What, why are you all staring at me for? Get running."
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Hinata loved that pounding, light-headed sensation she got from running. She may not have hand-eye coordination, or any coordination for that matter, but run she could do. Running was the only thing that gave her a sense of control.
Running put the color back into her face.
It brought the feeling back in her insides.
She could hear the drumming on her racing heart.
And was stupid as it sounded, it made her feel alive.
There were a couple people ahead of her, but Hinata was definitely in the upper-tier of the group. Not that she actually counted, but there were probably about three people ahead of her. Her shirt was soaked with perspiration, and her stomach was twisting into knots, but she picked up the pace.
After another ten minutes, she had caught up to the leads and darted passed them. Tenten and Temari looked impressed while Sasuke simply continued his even pace – never slowing, never hastening.
So what if some under-nourished girl passed him. She had, like fifty pounds less to carry.
And so this continued. Sasuke was lost in a train of thought as he ran until he heard a series of screams behind him. He snapped out of his reverie, and saw that a car was pursuing the class like that stupid boulder from Indiana Jones. Asuma was blowing his whistle, waving his arms.
"Alright, everyone off out of the way! It's Tsunade driving!"
If students were jogging before, they now sprinted off the track as the red-faced principal continued to aimlessly wander onto the school parking lot. Sasuke stood off to the side.
"HEY! I SAID OUT OF THE WAY! THIS SCHOOL CAN'T AFFORD TO BE SUED! Geez…I wasn't serious about the whole 'watch out for cars' thing…"
Sasuke looked to see all of the students running off to the side of the parking lot.
All but one.
His head began to pound with apprehension; his suspicions became more and more affirmed as a small blue-haired girl continued to run along without a care in the world. Without a care in the fact that she was moments away from being road kill.
Uchiha Sasuke cursed; how the hell did she get back there so fast?
That spot under the tree's shade was looking mighty tempting, but if anything happened to the little princess, he just knew Tsunade would be all up in his ass.
Sighing in frustration, he ran a hand through his tousled hair: "Fucking girl…"
He ran towards her, growling at the wall of bodies that were shouting at her to get her attention. Did they always have to make a spectacle out of anything that resembled a fatal situation? Seriously, didn't they get enough of that on the news?
Sasuke ran with such intensity and force that it was unnecessary to part the spectators; they were blown away by his vigor, pushed aside and onto their knees.
Hinata looked ahead and saw what looked to be the majority of the class jumping and waving their hands. She furrowed her brows in confusion; did this turn into a race? Were they cheering her on?
Her confusion only grew when she saw her classmates teeter to the floor like bowling pins.
The confusion converted into fear as she saw the bowling ball named Sasuke run towards her. In fear, she turned away from him and ducked, covering herself with her arms. It was then that everything clicked; why the class was hysterically jumping, why he was hastily running towards her…
As the bright lights flashed into her eyes, her face lost all traces of warmth and color. With pain-staking sluggishness, the car headed towards her. She squeezed her eyes shut and opened her mouth, in silent screams of terror.
Bright lights…tracing the outlines of their silhouettes.
Bright lights…dilating her pupils.
Bright lights…that blinded her.
Sasuke pulled her out of the way, and tipped over from the momentum. He flipped them over so that he landed on the black asphalt.
After shaking the dizziness from his head, he grunted when something collided with the side of his head. He wrenched his eyes open and watched as she flailed wildly in his grasp.
"Hey….stop…"
His pounding headache returned, but she apparently didn't notice or care as she continued to thrash around violently. Sasuke grabbed her flapping arms, and secured his arms around her abdomen, locking her arms.
Still, she shuddered, causing his head to repeatedly hit the ground beneath him.
Cripes, at this rate his skull would crack…
"Calm down. Hey, calm-stop."
She had somehow slipped from his hold, and continued trembling. Sasuke sighed in frustration, flipping them over. He loomed over her, supporting his own weight with his elbows and began to lightly hit her across the cheeks.
When he tried to fruitlessly calm her down, her index and middle finger shot up, jabbing him in the forehead.
"Ow, you always do that! You could've poked me in the eye!"
Right between his eyes.
"That's enough."
His hands went into autopilot and shot out. He was grabbing her arms, pinning her to the floor.
The tone of his voice was curt and sliced through any other outside noises.
The pressure of his words alone caused her to become still like the dead and open her eyes.
She was a complete and utter mess. Her hair was disheveled, she was covered in sweat, but more than that she looked shaken on the inside.
And then there were her eyes…
They were wide pools of terror and strain; she was physically out of breath. Her face was more or less stoic, but her eyes still managed to convey that she was scared shitless.
He knew that face…that scared-shitless face.
He was still hovering above her, with nowhere to look but at those white, shaken eyes. Those…familiar eyes?
It was all getting a little too annoying for Sasuke's taste. Glaring towards her direction (he wasn't able to look at her eyes…), he jumped away from her like she was the plague and walked away, leaving behind a flabbergasted group of teens, and one very dazed Hinata.
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They eyed her as she walked towards their direction. "I heard she did it on purpose, so he would save her. Since he's, like, her babysitter."
Her friend rolled her artificially blue eyes. "Obviously, how could you not notice thirty people thrashing and waving their arms?"
"Maybe she's just slow."
They were on other sides of the hallway, yet they didn't bother whispering. "Yeah, doubt it. She's definitely one of those book-types."
"Hey, I would've tried to same. Oh wait…I already did…"
Even as Hinata walked by them, they continued their shouting, louder than ever.
"I bet she's having fun milking this whole 'deaf' thing."
Only when Sakura walked by did they hush. "Hey Haruno." She quickly waved her hand, returning their greeting. She knew they were talking to her; no one called Hinata a Haruno.
Sakura weaved her way past the bodies and gossip floating through the hallways. She needed to get away from the rumors, and clear her thoughts. "She's your sister, your sister, your lovable deaf sister."
…But maybe they were right. Hinata was in all AP classes; she had to know that a car was right behind her! She had to know it was there!
"Your lovable deaf sister who follows Sasuke like a lost dog…"
The more she wanted to believe it, the truer it became.
And there is no persuasion like desperation…
Sakura would've liked to believe that Hinata was a devious little girl who liked to take advantage of her flaw; her defect.
And that's exactly what she believed as she poked her head under the dinner table that evening and saw the gruesome gash on Hinata's knee.
She reached across the table snatched the salt dispenser, shaking a good palm-ful into her hand. Her parents were to busy wincing in disgust at the scrape on Hinata's cheek to notice.
Without ever taking her eyes off of Hinata, she ducked her hand under the table and rubbed the salt against her own knee, still picturing her sister's wound.