A Date With Destiny

As it had turned out, Hinata Hyuuga was overreacting once again. In fact, the only thing that had happened was a bad tumble down two flights of stairs that resulted in a badly sprained leg and a many painful bruises. Apparently, it was a scene from a popular crime scene show where the victim died by falling down two flights of stairs. Naruto Uzumaki could've just gone and disproved it. Ironically, the show was called 'Attempted Murder', though it was really about successful murders.

As her heartbeat slowed and the color returned to her face, she had a good laugh at herself while reading the rest of the paper. Although in a tiny corner of her heart, she felt responsibility for Naruto's accident. He was repeatedly walking up and down three flights of stairs when he tripped over a half-eaten cheeseburger left by some almost-innocent bystander. Naruto only paced when he was feeling a bit down, and then he would come over to her dorm and rant on about it. Now, she thought as she spread strawberry jam onto her toast, that option is gone…maybe I should go see him.

The proposition terrified her. What would she say? What would she do? Could she even visit him while acting like nothing had ever happened? She chewed on the toast slowly while going over it in her mind. This day wasn't exactly starting out as she anticipated.

To visit or to not visit? Someone knocked on the door. Hinata wiped off her mouth and dusted the any scattered crumbs and opened the door. There was no one. Only a small white envelope was left on the carpet outside her door. Her name was written on it with swirling pink letters. Hinata shut the door and brought the thin envelope to her table. Her fingers were trembling.

Dare she open it?

A picture fell out of the envelope. Hinata's blood turned cold when she saw it. It was her, and Naruto, standing by the lake…kissing. All of her thoughts flew away as she gazed at the picture with wide eyes. It looked...like they were a couple; it didn't look like Naruto had grabbed her out of surprise at all. On the back of the picture, it said, 'You sure like to play around, don't you, Hinata? You can run…but you can't hide from me.'

With a thud, Hinata fell onto the chair. Blackmail. Perfect. Whoever took this had every chance to hand it to the Gazette, but then they wouldn't have anything to bargain with. What did they even want? It was no mystery as to the identity of the sender; it had to be Sakura Haruno. After all, there was a trace of her personal perfume and the pink letters had to be her work. The only problem was, why?

Sasuke Uchiha was still sitting in the main lounge when he saw Haruno and her regular crew pass by. They were giggling and shifty-eyed, but Haruno had tried to glomp him on the spot. When she backed off easily when he pushed her away, he felt his eyes narrowing and felt that there was something suspicious going on.

After the giggling groupies left, he trailed them all the way back to Hinata Hyuuga's door, where he saw them put down a letter. Probably just a stupid girl prank, he shoved his hands in his pocket, and prepared to turn around when the door cracked open. Hinata stepped out and glanced around quizzically, her eyes finally settling on the envelope on the floor. Honestly, Sasuke felt like he was peeping somewhere he shouldn't. But for some reason…

He sighed and shook his head when she backed into her room and shut the door. He had to stop hanging around her place. As he was preparing to walk away, he heard a heavy thud in her room and his interest was refueled. Obviously something had happened, something important. He ducked into a closet when she came hurrying out, wiping tears from her face. Sasuke was about to call after her and tell her that her door was left half-open, but then a thought came.

Why not take a look?

After all, she had looked in his—uninvited, no less. Maybe she left something. Something interesting,

Whoa.

Sasuke stopped short.

Sasuke Uchiha. Interested in what Hyuuga Hinata was doing? Not cool. Not like him at all.

He slid down to the floor, holding his head. One minute he feels like himself, and the other, he feels like someone else; so interested in what a girl was doing. Sasuke, Sasuke, what the hell is happening to you?

Naruto stared at the milkshake. He swirled it around with a purple-striped straw, watching as the white mixed in with the brown. It was warm, on top of it all. Disgusting.

He pushed the cup away and hobbled to the sink to dump it out. It had to be the worst morning ever. First he sees a black cat (actually, it was a stuffed animal), then he falls down three flights of stairs (because of a half-eaten cheeseburger), makes the Gazette headlines (not actually flattering for a track star) and he couldn't go and whine about it to Hinata.

Hinata.

He wondered how she was doing. Although it'd only been one day, he felt like he hadn't seen Hinata in a thousand years. The separation was unbearable.

Knock.

He looked up at the door. Someone came to visit? It must be Chouji or Shikamaru.

Knock. Knock.

"Come in, come in, I didn't lock the door, y'know!"

He heard the door open. Swiveling around and staring at his empty cup, he drawled, "Ya know, you don't have to come to laugh at me. A phone call would've been enough."

"I-I don't believe I would laugh at this, Naruto…"

"Wha—"His eyes were like round plates when he saw who was standing before him. "Hinata! Oh, I'm so sorry—"

"It's…alright, Naruto." She rubbed her arms uncomfortably. "You probably won't have time for that."

"What are you talking about?! I'm not dying or—"

"No," she sat down on a chair beside him and sighed, "but the idiotic thing you did yesterday have landed both of us in major trouble."

"What? How? Hey," he reached for her bandaged hand, but she pulled back sharply, "what happened?"

"I-I, um", she bit her lip, not wanting to say anything about her fainting spell with Sasuke, "broke a vase and cut my hand on it. It's nothing, really."

"You sure?"

"Hai, I'm fine." Her eyes were suddenly serious. "I'm not…blaming you for what you did yesterday, although it was amazingly, possibly the most idiotic thing you have ever done in your life. But someone saw it. We're in big trouble."

"So?" He shrugged, not finding anything wrong with it. If everyone thought that he and Hinata were dating, then it would be alright with him. Hell, it might even force her to actually date him and then she might actually return his feelings!

"The problem is," Hinata took a shaky breath and tried to calm down her thumping heart, "I'm not interested in a…relationship. I'm so sorry, Naruto…it's just that—I can't think of you as anything more than a friend. Can we just be regular friends? Please?"

Naruto fiddled with the empty cup. He knew as much. Of course she had already made her opinion clear the day before, but he couldn't stop the ache of his throbbing heart. He didn't look at her as he mumbled, "Have you ever tried?"

"Tried what?"

"Looking at me as more than just a friend?"

"I…" Hinata looked at her best friend and tried to remember how they used to get along. How they would always go to the beach in the summer and he would go shirtless in the hot sun and how girls would ogle at the perfect six-pack he sported. How his hair would glisten with water droplets after swimming and how his eyes seemed to perfectly match the clear blue sky. She searched her feeling for any sign of romantic attraction. None. Zip. Nada. Only friendly affection was there, an overwhelming love for a brother. "I can't, Naruto. You're my best friend, like a brother. Dating you would literally be like incest for me! It's not that you're not attractive, you are—you probably know that already. But can't you at least…understand a bit of my feelings?"

"Can't you just try?"

"Like a trial run?"

"Sorta."

"Uh…." Hinata had no idea how to respond.

"Just kidding," he laughed, but it sounded forced as it bounced weirdly off the walls of his room. "You know I would never force you to do something like that, right?"

"Hai…" She took a deep breath. "Which is why we have to fix this problem, I-I can't stand it that someone knows!"

"Do ya know who?"

"Hai," Hinata stared at her feet, "I-I think it's probably Sakura Haruno-san. You know, from the pink writing."

"Hmmm," Naruto tapped his chin in a guise of thoughtfulness, "Maybe someone is trying to frame her, y'know? I mean, she is gorgeous and every other girl should be jealous. 'Cept for you, I mean."

"But somehow…I don't think so…" Hinata thought back to how Haruno tried to push all the blame of randomly picking Sasuke Uchiha on her and how bitter she was, "I just have the strangest feeling it's because of the King of Hearts ball. Because of Sasuke." She said the last part in a small voice, though Naruto picked it up immediately. His blue eyes were sad as he muttered, "'Cause of him, huh? Why does everything seem to be about him these days?"

"Not everything, "she punched him playfully on the shoulder, although she knew just how fake that was. To tell the truth, these days, everything had been about Uchiha Sasuke. "So, what should we do?"

"I dunno, you're the one with the good grades," he gestured to her brain, "You should know, instead of talking to poor old me."

"But I'm clueless when it comes to vengeful girls…besides, shouldn't boys be better at these things?"

"Not me, "he smiled crookedly, "I'm only an expert about one girl. And that's the one who won't love me."

"I believe…I can help."

They both turned around. Sasuke Uchiha was looking incredibly uncomfortable with his hands tucked into the pocket of his designer jeans. His face still held the arrogant smirk, as always.

"How—"

"What the fuck—"

"Uzumaki, you should lock your door more." Sasuke gestured to the open door. Naruto snorted.

"I don't have any stalkers, unlike Hinata, who apparently does."

"I—"Hinata's face flushed and she glared at Sasuke venomously. He didn't take any notice of it. He cleared his throat.

"I believe that you said you needed a little help with Haruno?"

They nodded helplessly, though Naruto showed signs of protesting. Sasuke pulled a chair over and closed the door. He put a hand on the desk and a wide smile spread on his face, "I believe that I am an expert when it comes to these things as long as you're willing to play along."

Hinata looked at Naruto desperately before nodding softly, which Naruto followed with a grunt. Sasuke smiled curtly.

"Perfect."

Author's Note: Oh my…almost a month after my last update. My sincere apologies to you all. My ban from the internet has been lifted and school is over (FINALLY), so I hope to finish up the story before the end of July. Time (in the story) will go on a bit quicker from now. Sorry for the late update. And just a note…I'm changing my penname from 'moonlight haku' to 'moonhaku'. Sorry if it's inconvenient! Plz review.

-moonhaku