A/N: uhh…here's the next chapter… I hope you like it! Apology for the wrong grammar, misspelled words and lacking words… and Thank You to those who had left a review on the last update :D
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, not even Jack Frost nor Sandman.
.
.
.
HEARTBEAT
Chapter 7
When Sasuke knew that Hinata have his brother's heart, the young man had not talked to his mother. Mikoto had been ignored by her youngest son for the last two days, she doesn't know what to do anymore to make it up with Sasuke and the teen Uchiha had been acting stubborn. The Uchiha matriarch sighed as she approached Sasuke's door, she knocked and called out to him.
"Sasu-chan, I'm going to the bookstore do you have any book you want me to get for you." Mikoto asked while leaning on the door, when no answer came from Sasuke a frown marred her face. She turned and walked out the huge Uchiha residence.
.
.
.
Mikoto had been searching for a baking book when somebody- no, not just somebody, it was someone by the name Hyuuga Hinata, had bumped her. The Hyuuga heiress was busy looking through the recipe books when she stepped into someone.
"O-oh, I'm s-sorry I wasn't looking my way." Hinata apologized to the Uchiha matriarch with her head bowed low.
"Don't worry, child. I wasn't hurt." Mikoto told her and tapped the young lady's shoulder. "Are you not hurt?" asked the Uchiha.
Hinata looked up to the woman she had bumped. She shook her head to answer the tall and beautiful woman standing before her. 'She's so beautiful,' Hinata thought. 'And she reminds me of my okaa-san.'
Mikoto had a small smile plastered on her face and when she saw the young lady. Her eyes widened a little and her smile grew warm. She reached out for the Hyuuga's hand and held it tight.
"You must be, Hyuuga Hinata?" The lady Uchiha asked.
Hinata nodded her head in affirmation. "Y-yes," she stuttered. "I'm not sure if I know you, miss."
"Oh, I'm your father's friend." Mikoto smiled to her more and squeezed Hinata's hand. "I was on your party but we haven't had the chance to meet. My name is Uchiha Mikoto." the older woman told the Hyuuga with mirth lacing her voice while she let go of her hand.
The younger lady's eyes widened. 'She's an Uchiha?!' she said in her mind.
"A-are you in anyway related to S-sasuke?" Hinata asked nervously.
"Well, technically speaking I'm his mother." Mikoto was amused by the heiress' reaction when her small hand flew to her mouth and gasped.
"I-I'm s-sorry, I d-didn't know." Hinata bowed again in apology.
"It's alright, Hina-chan. You haven't seen me yet so you don't have to apologize." The Uchiha matriarch smiled in reassure Hinata and that she doesn't have to worry for not knowing Sasuke's mother.
"Do you mind if we have a chat for a while?" Mikoto queried the young lady. "I want to get to know the girl my son likes a lot." she winked to Hinata which earned the Uchiha a deep blush from the girl.
"I w-won't mind." Hinata ducked her head in embarassment.
.
.
.
The Uchiha matriarch had brought the Hyuuga heiress in a coffee shop across the bookstore they were in previously.
"You're on a first name basis with my son, so that means something." Mikoto said in a statement than a question.
"H-he wanted me c-call him just by his n-name w-without the formalities." Hinata blushed as she answered.
'That's odd,' the Uchiha thought to herself. 'Sasu-chan doesn't usually mind if people call him with formalities.' She then grinned when something clicked on her mind. 'My baby really likes Hina-chan.' Mikoto had an evil laugh on her mind.
"You really look like your mother, you know that?" She told the heiress who looked up to her with a small blush present on the Hyuuga's face.
"T-thank you, Uchiha-san." Hinata smiled demurely at the Uchiha. "So I have been told."
"It's been a while the first time I saw you, by then you were really small and cute and you were like a chibi replica of your mother." Said the older woman as she took a sip from her coffee.
"We've m-met before?" Pearl eyes looked up to meet glittery onyx eyes inquisitively.
"Well, yes. You were around three years old, I think?" Mikoto had her eyes closed while she reminisced the moment she first met the young heiress.
.
.
.
Two raven-haired children were playing by the shore. The younger one who was celebrating his fourth birthday had a plastic shovel on his hand and a small bucket full of white sand.
"Aniki, aren't we going to build sand castles yet?" asked the cute boy with hair that of a chicken's butt.
The older boy, around 10 years of age, flicked his brother's forehead and smiled. "Be patient, little brother." He took the bucket of sand, turned it upside down and let the wet sand form a cyclindrical shape of the bucket. "Dig more sand and we'll finish your castle, Sasu-chan."
Sasuke took the bucket from his older brother and began shoveling the wet sand. "Do I have to dig more, Itachi-nii?" he asked.
Itachi shifted his gaze from the sand castle to his little brother. "Just a little bit and you'll have your castle." He gave Sasuke a smile before returning to his work.
A few more minutes of digging and putting up sand, and the Uchiha's sand castle had been finished.
"Uwaaah~ thank you, aniki!" Sasuke chirped in delight as he hugged his brother's bare torso.
"Anytime, Sasu-cha-!" Itachi didn't finished his sentence when he was suddenly tackled by his cousin, Shisui, knocking them both on Sasuke's sand castle.
"Noooooo! My castle!" The little raven head chased after his cousin who had ruined the castle made by his beloved brother. Shisui kept running by the washing waves on the shore.
"Ne, Sasu-chan I didn't mean to wreck your castle!" Shisui screamed while running away from the little monster with shovel and bucket after him. "Come on! I'll make you another one! Just please spare me!" He continued to scream and run.
The two Uchiha's were on a running spree while Itachi watched them with mirth and then his little brother, Sasuke, let out a painful cry. Shisui stopped on his track and turned to the young Uchiha crouched on the beach behind him and Itachi came to his brother's aid.
"Sasuke!" his aniki called out. "Are you alright?" Itachi asked.
"My foot!" the little one cried pointing to his left foot. "It hurts." Tears began to fall from the younger Uchiha's dark eyes.
Shisui and Itachi looked at the injured foot and saw a sea urchin had punctured Sasuke's foot. Itachi carried his brother on a piggy back and ran their way back to the beach house.
Mikoto saw the three Uchiha children coming and noticed a weeping Sasuke. She rushed to them and took the crying little Uchiha in her arms. "What happened to Sasu-chan?" She asked the two pre-pubescent youngsters with concern in her voice.
"Sasu-chan, had stepped on a sea urchin." Shisui told his aunt.
"Oh my..." Mikoto was starting to panic and looked to his son's injured foot. "Itachi, go get your father and have the car ready we'll take your brother to the nearest clinic or hospital." The Uchiha matriarch commanded.
Itachi was on the near the doorway when Fugaku came in with the Hyuuga's in tow. Hyuuga Hiashi along with his wife and only daughter had entered the Uchiha's beach house.
"Hold it," Fugaku held Itachi's shoulder. "What's with the rush, Itachi?" He asked, an eyebrow raised reaching his hairline.
"Sasu-chan had stepped on a sea urchin and Mom is in a panic." Itachi answered his father.
Just as Fugaku was about to look for his wife, Mikoto came into view carrying a crying Sasuke.
"Honey! There you are. We need to get Sasu-chan to a-" The Uchiha matriarch was silenced by her friend who had her daughter in her arms.
"No need to panic, Miko-nee." The Hyuuga smiled to her friend. She looked to her husband and Hiashi took the little Hinata from his wife's hold.
"Aoi-chan, good thing you're here!" Mikoto sighed in relief.
"Let me see what had gotten on Sasu-chan's foot." Hyuuga Aoi, wife of Hyuuga Hiashi and a resident physician, wiped the young Uchiha's tear-stained face and ruffled his head before she looked at the injured foot.
"Looks like there is still a sea urchin spine." The Hyuuga said as she examined the injury. "I need a tweezers and a bowl of hot water." Aoi commanded when she heard no movement, she turned to the Uchiha men and glared to them. "Aren't you going to move or you want me to kick your butt? A child is in pain here." Fugaku, Itachi and Shisui started moving to get the thing needed.
Meanwhile, Mikoto took a seat while Sasuke was seated on her lap, the young Uchiha had stopped crying when he saw the Hyuuga doctor.
"Ne, Aoi-chan, how old is your daughter now?" Mikoto asked her kouhai in high school.
Aoi turned to her husband and a squirming Hinata wanting to he put down. "She's three." She smiled when the little heiress came to her and to Mikoto. "She'll be turning four on December."
"Oh, Sasu-chan's is only a few months old!" Mikoto giggled when she noticed Hinata staring to her and to Sasuke. "Hello, Hina-chan." she smiled at the pearl eyed heiress.
"Hina-chan, this Miko-oba and Sasu-chan." Aoi told her daughter. Hinata smiled shyly to the Uchiha matriarch.
"She looks like you! She's like your mini replica." The Uchiha lady squealed in delight.
"Yes, everybody who sees her also say that." Aoi smiled widely.
"Okaa-chan, why is he crying?" Hinata whispered to her mother's ear.
"Sasu-chan is in pain. He got stung by a sea urchin." The Hyuuga said in a hushed tone.
Hinata's eyes widened and turn to the young Uchiha sulking on his mother's arm.
"Sasu-chan, don't worry you'll be fine." Hinata smiled and handed him a shell she got from the beach with her father. It was a moon snail shell with a tinge of purple on its moon like color. "Just hold it and it will take your pain away." the heiress mumbled to him and Sasuke only looked to her pearl white eyes and nodded.
Soon, the Uchiha men came with the things needed. Aoi dipped Sasuke's injured foot in the hot water for an hour and a half. She then removed the sea urchin spine with a tweezers and washed his foot with antibacterial soap and water. The Hyuuga doctor also provided them an antibacterial ointment for the little Uchiha's injury.
"If it doesn't get better just see me." Aoi informed the Uchiha's. She and her husband along with their daughter went home after a few hours they had spent on the Uchiha's beach house.
.
.
.
"Do you still remember that time at the beach when you were three?" Mikoto asked the heiress.
Hinata had her eyebrows knit together to remember that time but shook her. "N-no, I don't." she answered shyly.
"Don't worry, it's alright. You were too young to remember such event." The Uchiha replied. 'And that was also the first time you met my son,' she thought in mind.
"B-by the way, Uchiha-san, How is Sasuke doing?" Hinata asked now more comfortable with Mikoto and slowly halts her stuttering. "He hasn't called me these past days." The Hyuuga now had a sad look in her eyes.
It had been three days since the festival and three days since Sasuke had known that Hinata had his brother's hearts. Three days since he had his doubts if what the heiress felt for him was true and real and not just because she had Itachi's heart. Sasuke had been mad and confused that was why he tried to avoid the heiress and his mother. He doesn't know what to expect and what to do when time comes and the truth prevails. The young man had been afraid of the outcome that Hinata will reject him and leave him.
Mikoto was disturbed when she saw the heiress' sullen look. "Maybe something came up with school but don't worry I'll go and talk to him." She reassured the Hyuuga with a squeeze of her hand.
"Uhm, I guess I spent too much time outside, Father must be looking for me now." Hinata glanced on her wrist watch. "I must get going. Thank you so much for the time, Uchiha-san, I have fun talking with you." Hinata smiled warmly and bowed.
"It's a pleasure, Hina-chan." Mikoto returned the smile and embraced the pearl-eyed beauty. Hinata was a bit shocked but returned the gesture and hugged the Uchiha tightly missing her own mother's embrace.
"Take care." Mikoto whispered and ruffled Hinata hair.
.
.
.
The Uchiha matriarch finally reached the huge residence and was greeted by her enthusiastic grandson who was currently playing with his uncle on the living room floor. As soon as Sasuke saw his mother, he stood from his lying position on the carpeted floor and made his way to the stairs but Mikoto stopped him with her words.
"You shouldn't be avoiding her." his mother said in a glum voice. "She doesn't know anything about the transplant." Sasuke stopped on his tracks but didn't say anything.
"Hina-chan has been worried, you haven't called her since the festival and she's sad that you she hasn't heard anything from you." Mikoto spilled the tears that had formed in her eyes.
"Baa-chan?" Yuki looked up to see his grandmother crying. "Don't cry." The little Itachi cooed.
Sasuke had stiffened when he heard the little boy's comforting words and his mother's soft sobs.
"I'm fine, Yuki-chan." Mikoto told the boy and gathered him in her arms. "I'm sorry, Sasu-chan. I didn't mean to hide it from you." The Uchiha lady continued to sob.
"I'm sorry... I'm very sorry..." She repeatedly apologized.
Sasuke walked up the stairs and felt tears sting his own eyes. He didn't mean to make his mother cry. He didn't mean to get mad at her. It wasn't her fault that Itachi's heart had been given to Hinata, right? and he didn't mean to avoid the Hyuuga, the first girl who made his heart leap and made him nervous but he just couldn't stop himself from feeling slight anger that they- especially his mother- hadn't told him about Itachi giving his heart for donation and the girl he starts to fall for had been the one to receive it.
He was confused, he didn't know what to feel- what to expect. He was afraid that what Hinata feels for him might not be what he assumed it is. He was afraid of rejection. He was afraid of everything but he must face it- his fears, rejection and every emotions he felt. And so, he took out his phone and typed in his message.
To: Hinata
We need to talk.
He had wiped the tears that were cascading down his face until he had seen the message had been sent. He had to stop this before he could have his heart shattered into pieces again.
.
.
.
End of Chapter 7.
.
.
.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Soooo, what do you think? Good? Bad? Worse? Let me hear your beautiful voice, ahem, thoughts!
I'm sorry for the short story and late update. I've got loads to do at school and it keeps me from writing the next chapters… I hate this semester there're just too many major subject and I'm not doing well because I'm still in adjustment period since I've been moved to another section and I don't have old classmates for the past five semesters. I know I can make it, I know I will. I'll just have to try, do my best and believe! Ugh, sorry for the rumbling… I hope you enjoy this holiday season :D
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAVE A PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!