A/N: Ahhh! I never expected such a response for the last chapter! Thank you to every single person that took a moment to review! I had planned to do weekly posts but with that kind of response I'm more motivated to post more frequently. So here is chapter 10 for your reading pleasure.

Running theme of this chapter is denial. I guess it is kind of angsty... leading to two very tormented souls. It starts out kind of philosophical, so bear with me and my infatuation with philosophy.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

CHAPTER 10: Six Months of Denial

Six months: the time it took to build a bond.

A few minutes: the time it took to sever that bond.

Everything had effortlessly gone back to the way it was six months ago or in a sense nothing had changed at all, therefore there was really nothing to go back to. No one had known about their relationship to begin with, no one knew when or how it began, no one knew of its existence, and no one knew how it ended. Well truth be told, a few people knew but the ones who did would certainly not recognize it and if no one recognizes it then in essence it does not exist, correct? Kind of like that old proverb about a tree falling in a forest and no one being there to hear it, does it make a sound?

It's up for debate, but what is clear is that the relationship between Uchiha Sasuke and Hyuuga Hinata did not exist. It did not exist to the Uchiha, the last six months, the training, the food, the laughter, the companionship could all be summed up as figments of his imaginations or so he would claim. To him none of it was worth imprinting into his memory, but his heart would tell him otherwise and he would continue to ignore its pleas. Hyuuga Hinata was just the weird shy girl that sat in class and didn't talk to anyone; she was nothing special, not even worth a glance.

For the Hyuuga heiress the last six months were her time of growth, growth that could not be attributed to any other person but herself. Uchiha Sasuke did not exist, he was not the reason she had earned what little respect her father was willing to afford her, he was not the reason she had awakened her Byakugan, he was not the reason for her confidence. He, the Uchiha, was the reason for her betrayal. She had turned her back on the clan she would one day lead, to run off gallivanting with the jaded, broken, cold, indifferent Uchiha survivor. He had been the one to scorn her when they had first met, then to reel her in and heal her open wounds; only to have him scorch her with his hurtful words. Mind you, her heart knew the truth, it knew who had provoked those hurtful words and it knew his words were nowhere near genuine or authentic, but it's not like she would listen to it. Uchiha Sasuke was just the arrogant boy that sat in class and didn't talk to anyone; he was nothing special, not even worth a glance.

Or so they would tell themselves.

Their last six months at the academy went by quickly and without mishap. There were no exchanges, touches, glances, between the two, but why would there be? It's not like they knew each other right? Sasuke remained cold and distant, striving only to become stronger, he was still top of his class and graduated as the top rookie to boot. Upon graduating he joined Team 7 led under to questionable guidance of a masked man who always had his head in a certain orange book, but this man also happened to be the great copy ninja, Hatake Kakashi. Among the other members of his team were a familiar blonde boy who went by Uzumaki Naruto and a pink haired fan-girl named Haruno Sakura. To Sasuke's surprise, he had unknowingly built a bond with Naruto much like the one he had with a certain Hyuuga heiress. Life was good again; he had another reason to live that did not simply revolve around killing Itachi.

On the other end of the spectrum, life was anything but good for the Hyuuga Heiress. At best, life was mediocre. Any progress she had made during her training sessions had ceased and again she was just weak little Hinata again. Upon graduating the academy her father had handed her off to Kurenai, wanting nothing to do with her, he had completely given up on her and dubbed her a lost cause. On the bright side she was teamed up with her friends from the academy, Inuzuka Kiba and Aburame Shino under the watchful crimson eyes of Genjutsu expert Yuuhi Kurenai. Life could be better, especially if a certain blonde boy decided to confess his undying love to her.

Life had continued for both without the presence of the other whether physically or mentally. Each had successfully pushed the other into the deep corner of their mind where no one ever set foot and it stayed that way. They went about their missions with their teammates as though those were the only people they held deep within their hearts. They continued their training with those teammates. They entered the Chuunin exams with those teammates. They passed the first stage with those teammates. They survived the forest of death with those teammates. Uchiha Sasuke did not need Hyuuga Hinata and she did not need him.

After another six months life for both had drastically changed. Hinata was thoroughly defeated by her cousin Neji, who in turn was thoroughly defeated by Naruto. The defeat had changed him for the better; he eventually undertook the role of a sort of older brother to Hinata, constantly watching over her. The determination she displayed during the Chuunin exams had earned the respect of her father and he had resumed training her as well as training branch member, Neji. And her admiration for the fox boy only continued to grow with each passing day.

Sasuke had continued to grow stronger alongside his best friend Uzumaki Naruto, mastering the great copy ninja's original techinique, the Chidori. But despite his immense growth, he was dissatisfied and deemed that he needed to grow stronger faster, especially since he saw Naruto to be evenly matched with him even possibly surpassing him. Then a proposition was made that fateful night when he had discarded everything he ever held dear; leave Konoha for the limitless power of Orochimaru.

It was that fateful night that the barriers crumbled, the dams cracked, and the tears fell. Hinata had been sound asleep until a sudden jolt of her window sliding open woke her. A dark figure climbed in, taking slow and steady steps towards her bed. Normally, she would be terrified but something about 

this person made her feel at ease, but it was not the same ease she felt when Kiba snuck in at night to talk. This was different, it was warm but at the same time callous and jagged, something she did not know how to react to. Then a gentle hand reached out to caress her cheek.

"Hinata" the soft voice was just above a whisper.

"Sasuke" she responded, pulling his hand off her cheek, "what are you doing here?"

He took a seat on the side of her bed then spoke, "I don't know."

"How could you not know?" she glared at him awaiting a more informed answer.

"I don't know why I'm here; I can't understand why I came to you" he shook his head. "Maybe I came to tell you how I really feel about you?" he paused to organize his thoughts into coherent words, "To tell you how much I can't stand you, how much I hate you, how I think you're worthless."

"I don't want to hear it, please leave Sasuke" she replied confidently.

"No! You're going to listen to every word I have to say" his gaze locking on hers, "Aside from my family, there have only been two people in my life that I consider important, Naruto and you."

"Stop Sasuke" she could feel the guilt rising within her.

"But I regret ever being friends with you! You're weak and stupid! You're just like all the other girls, annoying. You're completely worthless; you can't even stand up to your own father! How do you expect to lead one of the noble clans when you can barely take care of yourself?!" he continued to glare at her, his once black eyes now a bright blood red. "You disgust me! You're pathetic!"

"If you hate me so much then just leave!" she shouted back, tears gently creating their paths down her cheeks.

"I'm not done yet!" his voice deep and oozing with anguish, "Hinata, you are the biggest mistake of my entire life! I never should have been nice to, I never should have helped you, I never should have thought that you were the one to care about me like my parents did! I can't even express how much I hate you! You betrayed me!"

"Shut up!" she slapped him across his face while doing her best to hold in her sobs.

He turned his gaze back upon her pale eyes, not even affected by the searing pain of the slap. "You made me a promise under that tree and then turned around and broke it!"

Her eyes closed and her head bowed down in disgrace. She had indeed made him a promise and she did break it.

"Good bye Hinata" he was now calmly making his way towards the window, "good luck with your life."

"Wait" she suddenly found herself off her bed with his wrist in her hand, "I… I'm s-sorry Sasuke."

"Save it, you're not worth anything to me" and with that he released his wrist from her grasp and was gone in a matter of seconds.

Hinata fell to the floor, tears pouring unstoppably, ever since that day that she had severed their ties, she had hid all her emotions.

"No… n-no… Sa-Sasuke…" she bawled heavily into her wooden floorboards, "I'm s-sorry… I'm sorry…"

She writhed on the floor, her breaths shallow and uncontrolled. Loud short gasps echoed through her room as she poorly attempted to calm her breathing, the short nails of her fingers scraping away the top of her floorboards. She continued to sob uncontrollably on the floor, eventually crying herself into a deep slumber.

Hinata slowly brought her eyelids up, on a chair beside her bed sat her long time friend Kiba. She rose up to take in her surroundings when she noticed her cheeks were wet.

"Hey… you're finally awake" came a groggy voice.

"Yea" she nodded happily wiping the tears that had fallen during her sleep.

"I think that's a new record" he grinned at her, yawning to relieve himself from his sleepiness.

"Huh?"

"Usually when you faint…" he paused to stifle another yawn, "you usually don't sleep an entire night."

"Faint?" she had on her cute confused expression, eyes blinking and mouth gently agape. Hinata had grown up to be arguably the most beautiful of the girls of the rookie nine plus team Guy, "I fainted?"

"Remember? When we were eating Ramen with Naruto and Sakura?" Kiba continued to admire the expression plastered on her face; maybe she could be considered the most beautiful of all of Konoha not that she was one to stand out, so her beauty was rarely acknowledged. Kiba definitely would have been one to openly acknowledge it but he knew how she felt about Naruto and therefore never said anything.

"Arghhh…" was her only response once she had remembered Naruto's sudden interest in her love life or lack thereof. "I was passed out for a whole night?"

"Yea, I took you back here when you didn't wake up"

"Thanks Kiba" she was grateful to have such a good friend.

"No problem!" he grinned brightly, "so what were you dreaming about? You were crying."

"Hm?" she recalled the feeling that had possessed her body just seconds before she awoke, "it was nothing, just a bad nightmare."

"Alright then, as long as you're okay" he stood up and stretched his limbs, "I should go, Neji keeps coming in to check on you and mumbling something about his Byakugan and killing me if I tried anything" he shrugged and made his way to her door.

"Sounds like Neji" she giggled.

"Yea, he's scary... Well, see you later"

"Yea, bye Kiba and thanks again" she waved him good bye.

"Bye Hinata" he was gone and she was alone to wallow in her thoughts.

A/N: Sasuke's a big meanie! gahh... but he seems pretty confused eh? He goes from caressing her cheek to a nasty verbal lashing, scares me a little.

This is actually version 2 of chapter 10, I had it pre-written but went back and changed some things suggested from a few reviewers. I value your critques! (Kyashi Mina - I tried more showing instead of telling, but it's hard for me since Sasuke is so damn indifferent! haha... The scene where Hinata is crying on the floor was rewritten because originally it was told instead of showed. / guiltshow - Is this a more accurate portrayal of Sasuke?/ Encuentrame - I'm still doing alot of summarizing... but is it any better? can't really get into the stuff the manga/anime already did.)

I don't know exactly how long it actually took for everything to happen but I chopped it down to a year and a half. 6 months together, then 6 months apart before graduating, and then 6 months of genin days before Sasuke's betrayal.

I'm close to 100 reviews, so here's the deal: if you guys can get me to 100 I will post the next chapter ASAP and as always constructive critiques are welcomed and even encouraged!