Author's Notes

I'm sorry this chapter is so short! I'm working on the next one right away and should have it up really soon! I hope you enjoy the next chapter and thank you all so much for the reviews!

Begin

Orochimaru glared at Gaara and knew he was in a tight spot. Gaara kept his silent demeanor as he continued the stare-down in which the only noise was the soft wind blowing. Hinata's hair blew lightly in the wind as did Orochimaru's which slightly grazed her face. It sent a sickly feeling down her spine as evil seemed to adorn every strand of hair. Tears pricked at her eyes as the blade pushed against her neck relentlessly up to the point of where the scratch became deeper.

As the exceedingly long standoff continued, a tear slid down Hinata's cheeks. When suddenly and without warning, she felt a hard push on her back which caused her to fall forward onto Gaara. She blushed that she fell onto yet another person but before she could even apologize, she heard Naruto yell.

"Orochimaru! Get back here!" he said, screaming at the top of his lungs.

After Naruto's dismal attempt at getting Orochimaru to stop, Hinata heard Shikamaru reply with "Give it up, he's already gone."

Hinata looked up to see Gaara's emotionless face staring off at what she guessed to be the direction Orochimaru had gone. She quickly backed up with her face a vibrant red and apologized.

"I'm s-sorry, I d-didn't m-mean to f-fall onto y-you. It's just that he p-pushed me and I d-didn't realize in t-time. I'm s-sorry." she said in a quick manner.

She didn't notice that he wasn't even looking at her because she had her head down. He was just staring at Naruto freaking out that Orochimaru was here and Shikamaru calling Naruto troublesome.

After Hinata calmed down a bit, she noticed the path of Gaara's gaze and looked in the same direction as well. She couldn't help but lightly chuckle at the argument that the other two were having as it seemed quite comical with Naruto's exaggerated movements and Shikamaru's tendency to be uncaring. They seemed to be arguing as to whether or not Naruto would have gotten his butt kicked by the snake like man.

Gaara glanced over at Hinata after hearing her giggle. He was confused as to why she would laugh just after she had her life threatened. Hinata noticed his stare and turned her head with a smile.

"Thank you for helping me." she said without a single stutter.

Strangely enough, Hinata felt quite comfortable around him even though she didn't really know him. Maybe it was because he wasn't like Orochimaru with evil seeping off of him and so her nerves were eased after being around pure evil. Hinata didn't notice that Gaara was confused and surprised by her actions.

'How can she be so cheery?' he thought to himself but did nod in response to her thank you.

"Are you okay?" Naruto asked Hinata since the duo seemed to be done arguing.

She looked over at Naruto, her face possessing a look of surprise.

"Y-yes! I'm f-fine." she said with her stuttering having returned.

"But you're bleeding!" Naruto said with an exaggerated sad look as he pointed at the small cut on her neck.

"It's fine, really." said Hinata with a small smile as she lightly touched her neck where the scratch was.

Naruto nodded; satisfied with the answer she gave him.

"I don't know about you guys but I'm going home." said Shikamaru. "And I'm not going on walks with you anymore, Naruto, it's too troublesome."

Hinata couldn't help but chuckle at Naruto as he said or really yelled "What?! What do you mean troublesome?!"

Gaara spoke which was a surprise as he was being rather quiet.

"See you later, Naruto." was all he had said.

Naruto stopped bickering with Shikamaru since he was walking away anyways and looked over at Gaara who was also now walking away.

"See ya!" said Naruto as he waved to both of them.

Once they were out of sight, he looked over at Hinata.

"I guess it's time to go home, huh? You probably want to relax after all of that, right?" he asked with his silly grin on his face.

Hinata nodded and began walking with him towards the house. The walk was silent but short as they were soon back home.

Hinata walked in first not noticing as to how watchful Naruto had been the whole time, keeping an eye out for any sign of Orochimaru.

"We're home!" he said in a loud voice after they both stepped through the door.

Hinata could smell food being cooked in the kitchen and walked in to see Sakura and Sasuke in aprons. Sakura seemed to be watching Sasuke intently with dreamy eyes as he cut up vegetables in a quick and skilled manner.

"Haha! Sasuke's quite the little housewife, isn't he, Hinata?" said Naruto as he gently poked her side with his elbow.

"At least I'm a better cook than you. All you know how to make are cup ramen." retorted Sasuke.

Hinata couldn't help but chuckle at the two who always seemed to have a need to bicker.

"Stupid Naruto! Leave Sasuke alone!" yelled Sakura as she punched Naruto on the head…again.

The first couple of times Hinata saw Sakura do that, she was surprised but realized Naruto had a pretty hard head since he seemed to recuperate after getting hit. She felt really bad for him since he seemed to really like Sakura who in turn, seemed to adore Sasuke who in turn, didn't seem to care. Kakashi seemed to notice as well but didn't say anything, just shook his head at the adolescents' consistent conflicts.

It was now after supper and once Hinata helped do the dishes, which she insisted on, she excused herself for bed as it was getting to be quite late. She lay on the soft sheets of the bed in a long white, cute nightgown lent to her by Sakura. She was a close size to Hinata and since she was without money and clothes, Sakura would lend her the necessities with clothing and Kakashi had purchased anything else Hinata needed which was not much since she hated spending other peoples money.

The gown was not one of those 'sexy' types but higher cut and comfortable with a slight poof to the short sleeves. Sakura said she never wore it since she couldn't attempt to seduce Sasuke in that type of nightgown but Sakura said it looked really cute on Hinata. The sheets weren't made from silk but Hinata felt very comfortable in them nonetheless. The coziness kind of reminded her of home.

Hinata was happy to be in the care of such kind people. A slight rain began to fall outside, causing a rhythmic tapping on the window which made Hinata look in that direction. She watched the rain fall against the window pains and became sleepier by the moment with the sound of rain lulling her towards sleep. Her eyes were half shut when she heard a familiar voice come from the darkest corner of the room.

"Did you miss me?"