Italics are Hinata's thoughts

Caterpillar

Neji and I managed to get the whole house cleaned up. At first, Neji was reluctant saying that he needed to get his beauty sleep but then I reminded him that he was a guy and guys didn't necessarily need beauty sleep. Then he got up and started helping me.

The place was sort of trashed. Even though the girls and I had set up trash cans around the room, people left their cups and plates around the floors and on the sofas. People had even decided to get out of the party room to go to the living room and the family room because of the TV there. We went around with trash bags picking up trash. At the end we each had done 3 trash bags and they were totally full of trash.

"Hey Neji, what were those girls doing here?"

"Which girls?"

"Temari, Karin, Yuki and Zakuro."

"I don't know. I invited a few people. They invited their friends and those friends invited their friends. See? That's how all these people came." I stared at Neji open mouthed. "What?"

"Nothing. Well, I'm going to bed. Good night."

"Good night."

The weekend ended quickly. Monday came fast. I groaned because I didn't want my weekend to finish so fast. I walked inside and everyone's rumors hit me. They were whispering random stuff. Half of it probably wasn't even true.

"Good morning Hinata." TenTen said running up to me.

"Hey TenTen. Did you get your stuff?"

"Yeah I did. Thanks for sending it."

"No problem."

"See ya later."

"See ya." We both went our separate ways into our homerooms. I went in and the usual whispering started. People stared at me as well. Stupid rumors. When will they stop?

"Hey Hinata!" Naruto greeted sitting down beside me.

"Hi!"

"Did you do your science homework?"

"Yeah I did."

"Great. Can you help me? We're lab partners after all you know."

"Okay sure." So I helped him with his homework. He told me that he didn't like science, he didn't even know why he took it. I don't know why I decided to pick science either. The bell rang signaling the end of homeroom.

We were walking to the cafeteria together.

"I'm so proud of the cupcakes we made in cooking. They looked so pretty!" Sakura dreamily said.

"I know! It's a good thing we had practice making them for Neji's party." TenTen exclaimed.

"Can I have the chocolate one?" I asked. They all started laughing. We made 12 cupcakes. They all looked so cool! We didn't feel like eating them. We all got boxes and put three each of them in our own boxes.

"Uh...guys? While we were crooning over our cupcakes, we forgot about the time! Oh crap! The lunch line is going to be so long!" Ino remembered. We all looked at eachother and started running. The place, as usual, was packed. There wasn't a single empty place in sight. We all walked around looking for a place to sit. People started staring at us. We, the losers, couldn't find a place to sit.

"Hey girls! Come sit with us!" We turned and saw an enthusiastic Naruto waving at us.

"Should we?" I asked. Ino, TenTen and Sakura blushed. Right. They're going out... We went over to them and sat down.

"What's up?" Sasuke asked Sakura.

"Nothing much." Sakura replied. We ate lunch with them. To tell the truth, I felt sort of awkward. I'm pretty sure that Naruto felt awkward as well. All our friends were sitting with their boy/girl friends. I was happy for them.

"Don't you feel like you're invisible?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, I sort of do."

"This is strange."

"True. So true, but I'm happy for them."

"Yeah. So am I."

I smiled.

"Okay...this is getting awkward...lets go somewhere else."

"Sure. See ya guys later." I said to everyone. Naruto and I walked around the courtyards and talked about stuff. We talked about our classes, our likes, dislikes. I told him about Hanabi and how funny she could be sometimes. I looked into his eyes. They were so pretty and blue. I felt as if I could drown in them. I felt myself blush a lot. Maybe I liked him.

It started to rain. Naruto took his jacket off and held it over both of us. We ran back inside. When we reached, we started laughing. We were both soaked.

RIIIING! The last bell rang. School was over for today. The three of us went home and went off to do our homework. I was just going to the kitchen when I saw Hanabi sitting down on the floor.

"Hanabi what's up? Why are you sitting there?"

"Sssshh! I'm trying to capture it!"

"Capture what?" I whispered. I knelt down and saw a huge caterpillar crawling on the ground. "Oh."

She managed to put it on her arm. "Okay! I got him! Help me get some leaves and a branch! One big enough to fit in this jar!" She tapped a jar about 26cm long and 22cm wide. (It was labelled)

"Lets go to the garden." She nodded and put the caterpillar in the jar. We both went to the garden and found a bunch of fallen leaves. The branch was the hardest to find. We had to ask the gardener to help us. After about 20 minutes we found the perfect branch. Hanabi placed it in her jar. It sort of looked like a tiny tree who's leaves had fallen.

"Hanabi what exactly are you trying to do?"

"The other caterpillars were bullying it. So, I picked it up and decided to make it it's own little world. It's almost time for it to make a cocoon."

"Wow! How long will it take for it to become a butterfly?"

"I'm not really sure. All I know is that it's almost ready for it to go in the pupa stage." Hanabi sure knows a lot about caterpillars than I do! I don't even know what a pupa is.

"Are you sure this isn't for your science project?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Okay. Good luck. I can't wait for it to become a butterfly."

Over the next few days Naruto and I got closer to each other. We weren't going out yet...we just became really good friends. The girls and I hung out a lot. We went shopping, watched movies and had sleepovers. Father came home. He got all of us presents. Some strange jade thing from the land of waves. "It's a speciality there." He said.

Hanabi constantly fed her caterpillar. She really cared about it. She decided to name her caterpillar Rayna.

"Why Rayna Hanabi?" Father asked.

"I found her when it was raining." She replied. The time when Naruto and I got wet. I chuckled at the memory.

"I hope Rayna doesn't die." Neji apathetically said.

"She won't die. I'll take good care of her." Hanabi snapped.

"What if she turns out to be a he?" Neji mocked.

"How would I know?" Hanabi grabbed her jar and went back to her room.

The days started to get colder and shorter. It was autumn. The leaves had become red, orange, yellow and brown. I personally thought that it was really pretty. I grabbed Hanabi's camera, despite her protests and took pictures of the leaves.

I sure had come a long way from the start of the year. I had friends. The rumors kept on spreading. Those girls never gave up. They would do whatever it took to see me hurt. I thought about all this while studying for my history test.

"Hinata! Hinata come quick!" Hanabi called. Oh no! What happened? I dropped my pencil and ran to her room. I was preparing for the worst. What could it be? Is father sick? Is Neji sick? Is her caterpillar dead?

Author's Note: Okay guys...that's chapter 10. I had a major writer's block and had no idea what to write about so I'm sorry if this chapter sort of sucks. Please review and tell me what you think. Thanks. :D

Disclaimer: Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto