Happy Valentine's Day people! :*
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto T~T
Chapter 4:
After Sasuke had reached his room and was thinking about his brief encounter with the pale-eyed beauty, he felt his stomach rumble. He sighed and went down the stairs to see if there was anything in the fridge at all. He groaned when he noticed there was no sign of any tomatoes at all. He quickly got his money and went out of the house, not forgetting to lock the door. He went to the nearest convenience store and took some time to look for tomatoes, and paid for them once he was satisfied with the amount he had gotten.
On his walk home he began to eat some of the tomatoes, licking the juices off of his fingers once he's done with one whole tomato. He reached the gates of his house, and was surprised to see the lights on… they were probably back. He knocked on the front door and was greeted by his mother, and kissed her cheek and laid down his paper bag that was filled with tomatoes on the counter. His father and brother were seated on the dining table. He quickly caught scent of a delicious aroma that his mother was cooking and he got hungry once again.
He took a seat right beside his brother and waited for their mother to emerge from the kitchen. After sometime, Mikoto finally emerged from the kitchen with delicious food, and set them down on the table…
"Itadakimasu!" they said and had begun to eat. Halfway through finishing with the meal, Fugaku had cleared his throat, and everyone's attention was on him…
"I have an announcement to make." He said, "I have just been promoted at work." Mikoto then quickly congratulated him, as did Itachi, while Sasuke had to prevent himself from rolling his eyes and congratulated his father. He proceeded to eat once again, giving more of his attention to it than to his father…
"Demo, the job base would be in America." He added, now that perked up Sasuke's interests…
"We're moving?" he asked abruptly and three pairs of eyes stared at him…
"Not until after the school year Sasuke… but yes, we are moving." His father then had begun to eat once more, so did Itachi and Mikoto, but Sasuke suddenly lost his appetite, "I have already arranged for our place there, and while we are preparing to move, I've already begun to search for high schools and colleges our sons could go to."
"Demo, Fugaku, you said the base is in America… school year had just begun, how are you going to work then?" Mikoto asked, worry could be clearly heard in her voice…
"I can always travel here back and forth… but I will be spending more time in America." He dismissed, and the rest was eaten in silence. Sasuke was the first to get up from the table and placed his dishes to the sink. Once he arrived in his room, he almost slammed the door shut… he wanted to, but he didn't. He wanted to lash out on his father… for making him think he could easily adjust to the life there. He knew he couldn't adjust there… he wouldn't admit it… but he knows he didn't want to be away from Konoha… from Japan… from his home.
America was a whole new country, a whole new world with different people and different culture and most of all…
He was afraid…
~-_-~… ^o^… ~-_-~
It had been a week since the incident had happened and Hinata had still not uttered a word about it. She was now hanging out with her friends during her free period, when she saw those two delinquents pass by her classroom. She immediately tensed, luckily for her, no one noticed for Sasuke followed the two boys, and the girls began squealing and were huddled on the doors… but she didn't miss those distant look in his eyes… as if he was thinking about something, and it bothered him greatly…
She quickly shook her thoughts away and blushed. She convinced herself that she was only worrying for him because he was the one that helped her… and that was all. The bell rung and the students went back to their places as Anko-sensei had entered the class. She was teaching them science… one of the most dreadful topics during high school… although it isn't very hard, but the way she teaches it is very intimidating, making the students more aware of her rather than the subject at all…
But Hinata wasn't bothered by it… she wasn't afraid at all. She knew that as long as she paid attention and could answer the questions, then she was in no trouble…
Time passed by quickly and students rushed out of the classroom and filed in the cafeteria. She struggled her way through the waves of people around her and saw her friends waving at her. She quickly made her way through the crowd and sat right across Ino…
"So have you guys heard about the rumour?" Ino said. Hinata sighed, 'Probably not true anyway.' She thought, and then unpacked her bento box. She then muttered a soft 'itadakimasu' and ate her lunch, listening to Ino once more…
"What rumour?" Sakura inclined, Ino then leaned in a bit closer to the table and everyone on the table scooted closer… Hinata didn't bother though for she could clearly hear Ino anyway. She was seated right across of her for crying out loud! She continued to eat…
"They say that it is Sasuke's last year already." Ino whispered, and they all gasp, while Hinata stopped chewing the food in her mouth…
'Last year? Why?' she thought, and listened more, no one noticed her stop, so they let her be…
"Yep, they say they're moving to America after the school year ends." Ino added…
"Where do you get these rumours anyway?" Kiba butted in, sounding a bit annoyed, Ino just rolled her eyes at him…
"It's none of your business." She rebutted
"He could charge you for stalking."
"I'm not stalking him."
"Yes you are."
"No am not!" Shino sighed and made a comment…
"Should we clear out to give these lovebirds some space?" both teens looked at him, everyone else on the table snickered…
"We are not lovebirds!"
"Then stop acting like it." Shino finished. The little fight died down and they continued to eat, while Hinata was busy pondering on what was going to happen to Sasuke. She knew it wasn't any of her business, but moving away would be pretty hard… unless of course they knew a lot of people there then he'd be easily accommodated. Moving into a different school was hard… moving into a different home is harder… but moving away to a different country… away from the life you used to live in, away from everyone else you have come to know… she can't help but understand why he had that distant look he had a while ago…
"Hinata, are you alright?" her cousin asked her, she just smiled at him and nodded. He left her alone then, and talked once again to TenTen, she made a note to ask about them later. She scanned the cafeteria for any sign of Sasuke, but sadly there were none… where could he be?
~-_-~… ^o^… ~-_-~
It had been a week since he knew they'd be moving to America, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't feel any better. He figured he could have a new life there, new opportunities but still he felt scared. He didn't say anything about it to anyone yet though, not even to Juugo and Suigetsu who were currently with him right now on the rooftop. Suigetsu had been taking a short nap, while Juugo was busy petting the bird that landed on him. Suigetsu finally woke up and saw Sasuke still sulking. He then sat up and nudged on Juugo, making the bird fly away. Juugo glared at him but he wasn't fazed a bit and tilted his head towards Sasuke. Juugo nodded in understanding…
They got up from their positions and went towards Sasuke, who was leaning on a wall for support and kept on staring out into space as if there was no one there with him at all. They noticed his distant behaviour but thought that it was just going to disappear. Sasuke often paced before, but never this long…
"Oi," Suigetsu called out, "what's happened to you man?" he said and placed an arm around Sasuke, he looked up to both of them and just sighed…
"Nothing, let's go." He said and they left the rooftop. They went inside the building since it was almost time already. They went to their respective lockers and Sasuke proceeded to open his locker, he of course still wasn't paying attention to any conversations within the area, therefore he failed to see the lingering pale eyes he saw a week ago…
Hinata saw him walk in the corridors and eyed him curiously. He still seemed distant and as if he didn't know what he was doing at all. He just stood there in front of his open locker and just shifted around some things… not really taking anything out at all. She gave him absentmindedly a look of pity. It must really be taking a huge toll on him…
"Hey did you hear?" a girl that was beside her suddenly said to her friend, "Sasuke-kun's moving to America." They both were talking in whispers, but Sasuke picked up what they just said. He immediately crumpled a paper in his hand and slammed his locker shut. He turned to them. Hinata gulped; hopefully he didn't think she was eavesdropping on his situation too. Both girls silenced once they noticed him walking towards them. They didn't know they just provoked Sasuke and acted as if he was going towards them because he was interested in them, but Hinata knew better. And it was only unfortunate of her to have a locker right beside theirs…
"Sasuke!" the girl said but immediately shut up when her locker was slammed by Sasuke himself. Everyone that heard the shriek of the girl stopped and stared. Sasuke was glaring at her with great intensity that no one around was able to move, anticipating his next move…
"Next time you talk about a person's life… make sure they don't hear it!" he hissed and walked away from her. He didn't fail to notice though the frightened look in Hinata's eyes, along with that sympathy. He felt his chest tighten just seeing her and he quickly went away from the scene. He went inside his classroom, but still he couldn't get out of his mind the look in her eyes. He sighed again to himself. He should really learn to control his emotions more. He didn't want her to be scared of him…
'Wait… what?! Not scared of me?' he thought, he didn't even know her so why was he even caring if she was scared of him or not. Hell, he didn't even know her name except her last name, and that was 'Hyuga', besides that he didn't know anything about her at all. He shouldn't be thinking about her anyway. It was just too ridiculous for him to care. They weren't going to meet anyway, and that incident with Suigetsu and Juugo was probably their first… and last interaction to each other…
The bell had rung and class had started. After a few minutes, Kakashi-sensei had finally arrived and they were then tasked to read more of the history of the world. Sasuke mentally cursed when he remembered that he didn't take anything at all from his locker. But he needn't worry; he read the book in his free time anyway. Kakashi, who was busy reading Icha Icha Paradise, noticed Sasuke not doing anything. He placed his book down and looked at his prized student. He heard of the move of course, but he thought that Sasuke would remain impassive and act as if it was nothing… but surely it was something if he was already neglecting bringing his things…
He then called out to him, and the entire class became silent, but because Sasuke was glaring at them, they immediately gave them privacy. Both Kakashi and he walked out of the room…
"What?" Sasuke rudely said
"Now, now Sasuke, I'm just worried for my prized student." Kakashi stated, Sasuke scoffed, "What is it? What's bothering you?" Kakashi asked him, he knew the answer, but he still wanted to hear it from Sasuke. Sasuke refused to speak, and Kakashi sighed…
"That right there is your problem Sasuke." Kakashi said, Sasuke shot him a glare, but he remained impassive, "How can anyone help you when you do not tell them what to help you with? You need to start talking Sasuke, tell people what you feel." Kakashi said and placed a hand on his shoulder, Sasuke remained silent, "You need to voice out your thoughts."
"Will they listen?" Sasuke stated, and then went inside the classroom again. Kakashi sighed…
"How will we listen when you won't talk at all?" he muttered to himself and followed Sasuke inside the classroom…
~-_-~… ^o^… ~-_-~
The day had passed by so quickly, but the news spread even faster. Hinata couldn't help but feel a bit angry about the people that surrounded her. They kept on talking about how lucky Sasuke was that he was able to move to America and live there. They talked about how liberated the people there were, and how it would be exciting to explore new things, but Hinata knew better. She knew it wasn't going to be as grand as they say it was, but she admits that once she was like them… envying the people that were able to go to different countries and experience living there. She thought that they were just throwing their money away when they don't even treasure the experience they have their, but now that she experienced it, she somewhat of understood their feelings already…
She was the outsider in the country… and she was labelled as a nerd, and was somehow bullied verbally even though they didn't know her yet. She knew that Sasuke was in no way happy of the turn of events. She knew… she could feel it… see it in his eyes that frightened look in his eyes when he glared at the girl a while ago. She failed to notice that she was the only person in the corridor, and failed to notice that she was just standing in front of her locker, not doing anything at all…
Sasuke had just gotten out of the guidance counsellor and he didn't find it a bit helpful. He still felt angry at Kakashi for being forced into that meeting and went to his locker to place some things inside his locker. He stopped in his tracks though when he noticed that the girl he rescued a week ago was just standing in front of her locker. He stared at her for a while and went to her locker. She wasn't any of his business, and he had too much in his mind to even be bothered by her. He yanked his locker open and she snapped out of her daze, and stared and noticed that it was only the two of them.
She quickly fixed and placed her things inside her locker and dashed out of the corridor. Sasuke ignored her though and closed his locker. As he passed by her locker, he was closing his bag, when he noticed a sheet of paper on the floor. He stopped and picked it up. He unfolded the paper and stared at its content. It was only an assignment, and he looked at the name…
'Hyuga… Hinata.' He read, 'So… that's her name huh?' he thought, and folded it once again, slipping it into her locker. He was going to go home and try to calm down…
At least now he knows her name…
~-_-~… ^o^… ~-_-~
My time is running out… but not so soon…
~-_-~… ^o^… ~-_-~
Well, there you go minna! :3
I know it's short, I tried to make it longer but I liked the way I ended this chapter…
There isn't really I could place much in this chapter…
Hopefully you guys liked it
Happy Valentines' day again and happy birthday to Ayame :3
Thank you to the following who reviewed…
Watch out for "Complications" for the second chapter will be updated on February 20… that's Konan's and Yahiko's birthdays minna ;)
And if you happen to read this on Feb 18… please be kind enough to review :3 it's my birthday…
Thanks!