A/N: HI HI HI! It has been quite some time since my last update, hasn't it? I hadn't realized that this much time has passed, please forgive me, my dear readers. I hope you're still out there. Well, you better be out there! I'll be devastated if I finally update only to find that all my readers have left me (T^T)! Well, for those who have stayed and patiently waited, without further ado, here's Chapter 10!

Hinata turned onto her side and sighed.

They were coming.

Why were they coming?

Father invited them over.

Hinata sighed.

She let her eyelids close as she drifted off into a short nap.

Neji glared at the both of them. They were in his house. He wanted to leave but he couldn't.

Itachi looked indifferent while Sasuke glared back at him.

Neji turned his attention to his uncle.

"Neji, where is the kitty?"

"She is napping right now."

"Please go wake her up and tell her to make herself presentable; we have guests."

"Yes, Uncle."

Neji sent one last glare to the Uchiha brothers as he turned and walked up the stairs to Hinata-sama's room. He entered without knocking, knowing that she wouldn't answer anyways. Neji closed the door behind him and walked up to Hinata-sama's bed.

Neji couldn't help himself and let himself admire Hinata-sama's sleeping face. She was super beautiful, super angelic, and super mesmerizing. Neji prided himself on being the only male, other than his uncle, who has ever seen Hinata-sama's sleeping face.

Sasuke has never seen it.

Itachi has never seen it.

Neji's anger immediately subsided and disappeared as he gazed at Hinata-sama's sleeping form. His eyes traveled down her body from her face. He started salivating as he stared at Hinata-sama's long, pale neck. He forced his eyes to not linger upon her neck as he might not be able to resist the urge to bite her.

His eyes followed the curve of her shoulder and dipped down to the curve of her waist. They went uphill as they passed her hips and went back down as they trailed down her shapely legs. Hinata-sama was a bit on the short side, but you couldn't tell unless you were standing right next to her.

Neji bent down and allowed himself to slip his hand into Hinata-sama's long, silky, raven hair. He started massaging the back of her neck as he placed a kiss on her temple.

"Hinata-sama," Neji whispered. "Hinata-sama, please wake up; we have guests. Uncle told me to come wake you up. Hinata-sama?"

Hinata-sama slowly stirred awake as she whined a bit at being forcibly woken up from her nap. Neji could help but think of how cute she was. "Hinata-sama, please wake up."

Hinata-sama opened her eyes bit by bit before leaving them half open, refusing to wake up all the way. Neji placed a kiss on the tip of her nose and had to chuckle as she pawed his face away, closed her eyes, and turned over to her other side. Neji partially climbed into her bed as he scooped her up against her will, sat down, and placed her on his lap.

Hinata-sama's head lolled onto the front his shoulder as he held her close to him. She whined a bit more at being moved from laying down to be put into a sitting position.

Neji chuckled and began rocking the two of them back and forth as he whispered into her ear, "Hinata-sama, wake up, please. We have guests; you have to go and greet them. Their important guests." Neji sneered a bit to himself, only half of the guests were important, the other half, Neji didn't care if they fell off the face of the earth. Actually, Neji would be super elated if they did.

Neji kissed the crown of her head. "Hinata-sama," Neji coaxed.

Hinata-sama reluctantly, slowly woke up and blinked the sleepiness out of her eyes. "Shower," she mumbled.

Neji obeyed and stood up while carrying her and brought her out of her room, down the hall, and into the bathroom. He sat her up on the bathroom counter and walked over to the shower to warm up the water. As Neji held his hand under the stream of water, testing it, he felt Hinata-sama wrap her arms around his waist and lean her head against his back, no doubt trying to fall back asleep.

Once Neji got the water to the right temperature, he wiped his hands on a towel, and turned around in Hinata-sama's embrace. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders before pulling back a bit to start helping her undress.

Hinata-sama dropped her arms as Neji finished unbuttoning her uniform shirt and pulled it off her arms. He threw it onto the floor before starting to work on her skirt. He unzipped the side and let it drop to the floor.

Hinata-sama seemed to be fullly awake by the time her skirt fell to the floor. Neji could feel her eyes on him as he reached behind her and unhooked her bra and pulled it off. He was about to pull down her panties when Hinata-sama turned away and did it herself before stepping into the shower and closing the shower door.

Neji smirked to himself as he bent down to pick up Hinata-sama's discarded clothes. He brought them up to his face to take in her scent when he noticed that her shirt smelled a bit different. He sniffed it again; he smelled a mixture of Hinata-sama's scent and another familiar scent. He racked his memory, trying to place the familiar scent.

Then he remembered.

It was something that he was trying to forget.

It was Tenten's scent.

Neji's mind raced as he tried to think of a reason why Tenten's scent was so strong on Hinata-sama's shirt. Then he held it up and saw that it looked a bit different.

Wait a minute. This wasn't Hinata-sama's shirt. This was Tenten's.

Neji couldn't fathom why Hinata-sama had Tenten's shirt.

"Neji-nii-san," Neji heard Hinata-sama call out. "Clothes, please."

"I'll get them right away, Hinata-sama." Neji threw Hinata-sama's clothes into the hamper before leaving the bathroom to go and get Hinata-sama a change of clothes.

Hinata pulled on the pair of lacy black lingerie that Neji had left for her before pulling on the skirt and short-sleeved blouse that he had picked for her. Hinata examined her outfit in the mirror and nodded in approval; Neji had a good fashion sense.

Hinata combed through her blown-dry hair one more time before heading down to the living room. On her way down, she thought about Neji's reaction to Tenten's shirt. Just as expected.

Even though she was in the shower, she could feel him tense up. It was punishment. It was torture. It was cruel.

Hinata's chest felt tight all of a sudden. She stopped on the stairs. Why was she feeling this way? Was she feeling regret? Was she feeling remorse?

Hinata narrowed her eyes. She shouldn't be feeling any of that.

Hianta continued her way down the stairs and finally got to the living room where she saw the main Uchiha family sitting on the couches and conversing with her father, Hanabi, Satoshi, and Neji.

Hinata felt three pairs of eyes on her as soon as she entered the room. She took in all the attention and ignored them at the same time. She walked up to the Uchiha matriarch and patriarch and greeted them.

"Good evening, Mikoto-san, Fugaku-san. Excuse me for my rudeness, I should've been here to greet you as soon as you walked in."

Mikoto, the mother of the two brothers, giggled and said. "Oh no, Hinata-sama, no need for that. We shouldn't have disturbed you. You didn't have to get up."

"Oh no worries; Father wanted me to get up and greet you. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I slept through the dinner."

"Hinata-sama, how are you doing with Neji-san?" Fugaku asked as he looked over at Neji and then shifted his eyes to look at his own son.

Hinata looked over at the two of them and saw them in a glaring contest. Well, Neji was the one doing the glaring and Itachi was just looking at Neji smugly. Hinata smirked to herself before turning back to look at Fugaku. She smiled, "We are doing quite well."

Fugaku had been trying for ages to get Hinata to ditch Neji and to choose his eldest for her husband.

Hinata turned her attention to her father, who just walked back into the room after checking up on the food. "Everyone, please, come to the table. Dinner's ready."

They all made there way to the table and sat around it. Hinata and Hanabi sat on either side of their father with Neji and Satoshi next to their respective match. The Uchiha head and his wife sat across from Hiashi with their sons on either side of the two of them. Sasuke was next to Satoshi while Itachi was next to Neji. Hinata held back a giggle as she heard Neji slightly growl at him.

"Please, everyone, eat." Hiashi prompted as he picked up his own chopsticks and took the first bit of food. It was only after Hiashi took a bite did everyone else pick up their chopsticks and start eating.

Hinata quietly finished her food and remained at the table, courteously waiting for everyone else to finish. She ignored the intense look that she got from Sasuke and focused on Hanabi and Satoshi who were across from her. Hinata could tell that Sasuke was a bit discouraged from the their little talk on the rooftop and she noticed that Sasuke's look, though intense, wasn't as intense as before. She inwardly smiled.

Sasuke was a good guy and all, but Hinata just didn't see him like that and his obvious affection for her just made it awkward and made her annoyed. He needed to find someone who returned his affections. That it, after Hanabi and Satoshi were married. Until then, Sasuke wasn't allowed to have any romantic relationships.

Hinata felt another pair of eyes on her as she turned to look at whoever was looking at her. She saw the look that Itachi was giving her. She could see genuine love and longing for her in his gaze. Hinata's heart ached. She knew that she would never be with Itachi ever again, unless Neji messed up again. She knew that, he knew that.

Hinata gave him a small but sad smile and minutely shook her head.

Sadness took over his gaze as he looked at her a bit longer before averting his eyes.

She really did care about him. She knew that it was wrong of her to be with him to get back at Neji. She knew that it was wrong of her to be with him just to be with him and that it was wrong to let Itachi pretend for a bit that she was his.

But who she really wanted was Neji. And she was going to get him. She had him in the palm of her hand. After the next few days, she'll have closed her hand and kept him in place, never letting him go, ever again.

Neji was hers. And she was going to keep it like that.

She didn't care who she hurt. She wanted to show Neji that he couldn't ever get away from her. And she was going to do just that.

Hinata contemplated, she'll find someone suitable for Itachi after she made sure that Neji was hers and only hers.

She smiled to herself, it was the only way for her to repay Itachi for all that he's done for her. Through thick and thin, he stayed with her and loved her for everything she was; even when he knew that he could never be hers and that Neji will always be the one that she chose.

Hinata peeked one last look at Itachi before turning away.

She knew that he was happy during those times when she was with him. Her smile disappeared as she frowned. It was short-lived happiness. It was false. It was fake. Like a fairytale. She wasn't his 'happily ever after'.

She couldn't be his happily ever after.

Everyone settled themselves back in the living room as Hiashi and Mikoto disappeared into his bedroom, and as Fugaku disappeared into the shrine room to pay respects to his late master. Mikoto was Hiashi's servant and Fugaku was Hinata's mother's servant. Servants were usually of opposite sex of their masters so that it wouldn't be awkward if the master wanted to feed from their servant; which was actually quite rare between master and servant. Masters usually kept to their matches.

Hinata felt Itachi's gaze on her. She could also feel that it was a reluctant gaze. He didn't want to let himself look at her but he couldn't help it. Hinata refused to turn and meet his eyes. That'll only hurt him even more.

She leaned her head against Neji's arm and closed her eyes as she felt Neji bring his arm up to wrap around her shoulders. She was waiting for Hiashi and Mikoto to be done with their business and for Fugaku to finish paying his respects, so that the Uchiha family could leave.

Ten minutes later, all three adults simultaneously entered the living room as Itachi and Sasuke stood up. Not a second later, Hanabi and Satoshi stood up while Hinata and Neji stayed seated. It was only after the farewells and when the Uchiha family was being lead to the door did Hinata stand up and Neji stood up after her, his arm falling to his side.

Hinata said smiled courteously as all of the Uchiha family bowed deeply to her and as she bowed shallowly back to them. It was only polite of her to bow back, even the slightest bit. She was not above bowing to those of lower rank than her.

As soon as the door closed, the main Hyuuga family disbursed to their respective rooms. Hiashi went back to his room, Satoshi followed Hanabi to hers, and Hinata walked off to her own room, with Neji close behind. She knew that he wanted to ask why she had Tenten's shirt.

Throughout the whole dinner, Neji couldn't stop thinking about Hinata-sama having Tenten's shirt. There was absolutely no logical reason why she would have it. As he followed Hinata-sama up to her room, he thought of a way to word his question. He needed to know the answer.

He needed to know if Hinata-sama threatened Tenten for her shirt, just to torture him with Tenten's scent.

He needed to know if Hinata-sama went as far as to steal Tenten's shirt just to punish him. It was completely absurd but he couldn't rule it out as a possibility. He knew that Hinata-sama would do anything to chastise him for what he's done.

He needed to know if anything out of the ordinary happened to Hinata-sama to cause her to have to change her shirt.

And he needed to know why in the world Tenten would offer her shirt to the cousin of the one who broke her heart.

Neji's chest tightened. He had to stop thinking about Tenten. It'll only make things worse. It was only just a little bit over a day since he broke up with her and the wound on his heart was still fresh and it was still bleeding.

He needed to stop the bleeding to let it heal so that he can focus all of this attention on Hinata-sama.

He vowed to himself, after he found out why Hinata-sama had Tenten's shirt, he'll erase Tenten's existence out of his heart and mind, completely.

He can't keep going on like this, like an incomplete person with only half a heart to give and only half a mind to commit.

He had to stop this.

A/N: And Chapter 10 is over! Sorry folks, but that's all for now. Tune in to the next update for more! I seriously didn't realize that it's already be over a month since my last update, hehe.

Well, I'm super satisfied with the number of reviews that I got this time around; much better than last time! But the content of a few of the reviews annoyed the hell out of me. Please understand that this is a fanfic and I can do what I want with the characters! So chill out if Hinata isn't all shy and submissive! That's the beauty of my story! *Sigh* I've let out most of my pent up anger; I got it so long ago that I kind of got over it already, but I still had to say something about it.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please review! The more reviews I get, the faster I'll update; or in my case, the more I'll remember to update..hehe...my bad...I seriously didn't mean to leave you guys hanging for over a month. It just slipped my mind...

Updated – 1/17/2012

Oh shizznit, it's already 2012...the last time I updated it was still 2011...