Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Author's Note: Thanks to all of you who reviewed. I am sorry this update took so long. To make it up to you this chapter is extra long. Again this is best viewed in 3/4 view.


Chapter Eleven- The Scare

"I still can't believe you managed to make it through without getting hit once," Ino exclaimed as she flopped down into the empty seat beside her.

Hinata jumped slightly in her own chair, not expecting the blonde's declaration. Actually she didn't even expect Ino to pay her any mind. She could honestly say she was surprised when Ino sat down beside her. Lifting her pale eyes from piece of paper she had been idly drawing different shapes on, she let a small smile tug at the corner of her lips as she glanced at the other girl.

"I mean look at me," Ino said tugging up the sleeve of her long sleeved shirt. "I bruised! Not only that, but there is still paint in my hair!"

Sure enough a purple and blue colored welt had bloomed on Ino's otherwise flawless skin and a green tint on a strand of her long blonde hair. Hinata's eyes widened at the sight of the bruise because it looked rather unpleasant.

"T-that l-looks like it h-hurts," she stammered.

"It does. I still can't believe they just keep popping up. I have never been more bruised in my life."

"Oh come on Ino. It's not that bad," Naruto declared loudly as he came up and leaned on her desk. Hinata momentarily gaped up at him, again startled by the sudden crowd by her desk. So two people weren't exactly a crowd but she was used to being ignored in this class. The fact that people were talking to her, and that other people in the class were actually looking her way, made her head spin.

"Oh really," Ino asked, raising a perfectly arched eyebrow as she glanced at Naruto. "Take that then," she declared as she poked a rather prominent bruise on Naruto's forearm.

"Ino," Naruto yelped as he jumped away from the desk she was seated at. He cradled his arm, a pouting expression on his face. Ino leaned back in her chair and started laughing at him. Naruto's face fell and he turned his pouting gaze on Hinata.

"Hinata, Ino is being mean to me," he whined.

She glanced up at his face, her pale gaze meeting his wide blue eyes, as he did his best to play the victim. Hinata brought her hand up to her mouth and covered it, her shoulders shaking slightly with suppressed laughter. She stole another glance up at him and noticed blue paint in his hair. It was even more obvious that the slight color in Ino's hair. This time her soft laughter escaped past her hand and floated out into the air. Again Naruto's face fell, which caused her to laugh even harder.

"Even Hinata is laughing at me now? You've corrupted her," he declared before pointing an accusatory finger and Ino.

"I did not. She just knows you're being a big baby. Plus have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror while making that face. You'd probably start laughing to if the mirror didn't break first," Ino shot back with a smirk.

"That's it. I don't have to take this. I am sitting next to Hinata. She may be laughing at me but she is still the nice one," Naruto announced as he walked around to the other side and took the empty seat beside her.

"I feel as though Hinata got the crappy end of that decision," Ino commented, earning another soft laugh from Hinata.

She remained silent as the two blondes began to bicker at one another, herself in the center. She sat there quietly, listening and smiling as they went back and forth. Although she wasn't saying a work she still felt like she was part of the conversation going on. She supposed it wasn't much of a conversation. It was actually best to describe it as hurling insults at one another, but that didn't matter to her. Glancing away from Ino and back at Naruto she paused at the thought that entered her distracted mind. All this time Naruto had been right beside her, and not once did she had to remind herself to breathe.


Ino had linked her arm with Hinata as the two exited their health class. It was all Hinata could do not to trip over her own feet as one of the school's elites drug her along. She could feel the curious stares of other students and the attention made her want to squirm nervously. She wanted to shrink back to being unnoticed but with the bold blonde beside her, it simply wasn't going to happen. Hinata was just about to protest her arm being ripped off when Ino jerked to a stop.

Hinata again nearly tripped over her own feet at the sudden change in momentum. Jerking her head up to see what had caused them to come to such a sudden stop, she saw Shikamaru standing there. He was waiting outside his classroom like he always did to walk with her to their next class. Hinata realized that her friend wasn't looking at her. His eyes were on Ino. Hinata stole a glance up at the friendly girl and noticed that her blue eyes were focused on Shikamaru. The sudden tension that shot through the air was palpable and again she had to fight the urge to squirm. It was obvious there was something there even to her. She glanced back at Shikamaru, unable to read his face to tell what he was thinking.

"Well Hinata I guess I will see you later then," Ino said dropping her arm, though her gaze never left the male standing across from her.

"Okay… bye," she said quietly.

Her words seemed to shake Ino from her frozen position. Ino shook her head, and with a smile that seemed painfully forced, headed off in the other direction without a backwards glance. Shikamaru watched her go, and it wasn't until Hinata took a step in the direction of their class that he made a move to follow her. Hinata normally didn't pry but for some reason her lips parted and she found herself asking Shikamaru a question.

"You a-and Ino," she started before being interrupted.

"I don't know and I want to talk about it," Shikamaru answered with a clipped tone that ended all attempts at conversation on Hinata's part. Instead they walked the rest of the way to class in silence.

When they reached the classroom, Hinata took her usual seat beside Shikamaru and promptly pulled out her things for calculus. With one hand resting on her binder and the other loosely holding onto her pencil, she thought back to the interaction between Shikamaru and Ino. She debated asking Choji about just what was going on there but again that would be prying, and she supposed if Shikamaru wanted to talk about it, he would.

Her thoughts however quickly took another direction as Sasuke walked through the door. Her pale eyes swept to him automatically as if some unknown force had drew them there. She nervously caught her lower lips between her teeth, thankful for the thick strands of hair that protected her from his piercing eyes. Her face heated up like it always did though this time she found herself still watching him, this time as his expression went from a scowl to something softer. Was it for her? She realized her own expression had shifted into a smile and it remained there as he walked past her.

That was when she noticed the blue paint in his hair. It was on the back of his head, a place he most likely hadn't noticed. It was just a small amount, but just enough to be noticeable against his jet black hair. It was all she could do not to laugh out loud. So she clamped a hand over her mouth as her shoulders shook from the effort to remain quiet. Shikamaru even lifted his head from his desk to give her a curious look before shrugging his shoulders and returning to his nap. It was then that Sasuke's voice broke her concentration and she looked back at him.

"Y-you…" She started to explain but the sound of the bell cut her off and she quickly turned around to face the front of the rom. She could still feel Sasuke's eyes on the back of her head and decided she should probably tell him about the paint. She felt a bit bad for laughing at him without an explanation. So she scribbled down a message on a piece of paper and stuck it in the pages of her book to hold up for him. She thought she heard him mutter something in response to her note but it was drowned out by the sound of Asuma's voice.


Hinata poked at her lunch, her brow furrowed deep in thought as she shut out the bustling cafeteria around her. It had been about three weeks since her paintball adventure, and now she was beginning to realize that there was no going back to the way her life had been at the beginning of the year. Today she had been on her way to lunch when a student she had never met before said hi to her. The student not only knew her name but she had been pleasant as well. This wasn't the first time since paintball that this had happened either. Suddenly people knew her name and for some reason felt compelled to say hello. Somewhere between her newly acquired seat in health between Naruto and Ino, and her seat in English class beside Sasuke, he never did move back to his old seat after their project, people had begun to learn who she was. She had gone from invisible to noticed in a matter of weeks and it was all because Sasuke and his effort to talk to her.

Suddenly she found her name swirling around rumor mill as everyone attempted to speculate just why she was suddenly in with the 'cool' crowd. It was unnerving and she found that she quite missed the relative solitude she had maintained up until now. Still though it was nice to have more friends… that was if she could call them that. She still wasn't quite sure where she stood when it came to them. They all seemed to be her friends, but really she had no idea. She liked to think Sasuke was her friend though if no one else was. He had after all been the one to reach out to her. Now though the problem became juggling the two groups of friends that that had. She was not about to abandon her friends for new ones. She knew what that felt like and she simply didn't have it in her to hurt Shikamaru or Choji like that. Hence the reason she sat at a lunch table with them despite the fact that Ino would invite her over to their table on multiple occasions. Plus Hinata really wasn't interested in sitting with the entire 'cool' crowd. While Naruto, Ino, and Sasuke had all been quite nice to her, she wasn't sure what to make of the others yet.

"What's bothering you," Shikamaru asked as he slouched down into his seat. Hinata glanced up from her tray in time to see Choji take his seat as well and immediately open a bag of potato chips.

"N-nothing. Just t-thinking," she said quietly.

"You are a terrible liar," Choji pointed out through a mouthful of chips.

"I know," she admitted quietly. She wrung her hands together somewhat nervously, debating on telling her friends the direction of her thoughts. Before she could make up her mind about telling them, the loud voice of a certain blonde male caught her attention.

Looking up and past her two friends who were seated across from her she caught sight of Naruto and Sasuke walking their way. Naruto saw her look and grinned. He waved his hand excitedly drawing far too much attention to himself. Of course he always did that but this time the attention was also hers to share. She felt the eyes of some of the other students as she offered a small wave back.

The pair of boys came to a stop at her table and Naruto made himself perfectly comfortable by sliding into the seat beside her. Sasuke naturally did the same and Hinata found herself squeezed between the two of them. Automatically her face heated up and she had to concentrate of breathing to not simply faint right there.

"So I had another awesome idea to follow up the paintball match," Naruto announced loudly. "Since Halloween is coming up I think we should all go to Valley of End this weekend!"

"V-valley of End," she stammered out.

"Yeah they have a haunted hayride, haunted house, and some sort of demon dance thing. You get a ticket and get to do all three of them. It will be awesome!"

"Wait a minute. This coming from the boy who ran out of our fifth grade class screaming because I came in dressed as a ghost for Halloween," Shikamaru asked, eyeing Naruto.

"Well you see," Naruto said starting to rub the back of his head sheepishly. "Wait that was you!?"

"Yes my mom made me wear a costume. Such a drag," Shikamaru muttered. "But you definitely ran out screaming."

"That's because your costume was scary," Naruto protested.

"I threw a white sheet over my head and cut to holes in it because it was the easiest thing to do."

"It was a scary sheet then! Besides that was a long time ago. I don't scream about stuff like that anymore."

An amused sound escaped Sasuke's lips and Hinata tilted her head up to look at him. He caught her eyes, smirked just enough to make her heart skip a beat, it really wasn't fair that he was so beautiful, and shook his head in regards to Naruto's statement.

"Anyway I wanted to invite you to come with us. You can bring Hanabi too," Naruto supplied eagerly. "You guys should come too," he said turning to look at Choji and Shikamaru. "It will be fun."

"That would be fun," Choji supplied through the chips after elbowing Shikamaru in the side to prevent him from saying no. "I say lets go."

"Awesome," Naruto said pumping a fist into the air. "What about you Hinata?"

She turned her pale gaze to Naruto and mentally screamed the word no. The idea of something haunted terrified her. She was liable to faint every time something jumped out at her. It couldn't be good for her heart. So she parted her lips to tell him perhaps some other time. Only that wasn't what came out.

"I guess I will ask Hanabi then."


It was beginning to really feel like winter was coming. There was an undeniable chill in the air that she could feel even through the jacket she wore. She hunched her shoulders slightly against the chill and shoved her hands into her pockets. Shifting her weight uneasily from one foot to the other she eyed the crowd around her with a wary eye. Crowds normally didn't bother her, but that was because she often faded into the background. However, this time was different. This time people were looking. She knew the real reason they were looking at her was because who she was with, but even that attention was unwanted. She preferred remaining unnoticed and the gazes falling on her made her want to bolt.

It was obvious why the girls were looking. She was standing next to Sasuke. The looks of disdain they cast her after they managed to tear their gazes away from him made her shrink back away from him and closer to Shikamaru. She inched over as if she could hide behind him. It didn't seem to matter though, her position in line between Sasuke and Shikamaru was earning her more attention than she cared for.

She did her best to block it out by looking at the ground and focusing on her sneakers. Even that didn't seem to work, and between the feeling of other people looking at her and the sounds of not so distant screaming, she was already about to jump out of her skin. Again she never should have agreed to this, and again, she had found herself nodding yes despite her inner reservations. Now she was paying for it. Her stomach was practically churning with nerves. She was timid enough as it was and yet she had willingly agreed to come along for this. Now she had to make it through a haunted hayride, house, and dance thing all in the next hour or so. It was terrifying. There was no other word that seemed to fit as well as that one did.

The lined moved forward again, the distance between herself and the ticket booth closing far too fast for her liking. She caught her lower lips between her teeth and bit it slightly, her gaze still locked on the ground. She could do this. None of this was real, well nothing aside from the stares. They were real. Once they got out of this line though, she could go back to being invisible. No one was going to be paying attention to her when they had chainsaw wielding monsters chasing them around.

She swallowed a lump in her throat and briefly thought back to a few hours ago when she had worked up the nerve to check out the website for this place. The first thing that had happened was some bloodied, monstrous face had popped up on her screen and gave her a heart attack. Then the site's eerie music had started, and she was forced to turn off her sound before she could even look at the page. Scrolling through the reviews and other information hadn't made her feel any better either. They could touch you in this place, the actors were allowed to grab you. She would no doubt faint the moment one lay a hand on her. This was going to be absolutely awful. She thought about asking to go wait in the car but Hanabi had drove and she was pretty sure her sister wasn't going to let her get out of this. Besides she seemed distracted talking to Naruto anyway.

In the end the group had consisted of herself, Hanabi, Ino, Naruto, Sasuke, Kiba, Shikamaru, and Choji. Shikamaru looked like he was miserable and he kept stealing glances in Ino's direction. Choji was trying to get Shikamaru to relax a little and have a good time, and Ino was alternating between talking to Kiba and Hanabi, though she too seemed tense and was. It left her standing there quietly with Sasuke, who alternated between looking bored and somewhat amused by either herself or something Naruto said. Of course his amusement was barely more than a slight twitch of his lips but at least it was something. The line moved again and she had to fight the urge to flee. This was adding up to one big disaster.


Naruto had suggested the hayride first. It was fine by him though he wasn't relishing the idea of sitting in a bunch of itchy hay. He would deal with it. The first person that threw it at him though was going to get hell. The wagon pulled up in front of their group and everyone began to climb on board. Naruto , being Naruto of course, insisted they take the back because it was the scariest place to be. It was amusing to watch how everyone arranged themselves when they sat down. Naruto followed Hanabi around like a lost puppy and immediately proceeded to sit down right beside her. Ino dragged Hinata over and wedged her between herself and Hanabi. Shikamaru ended up beside Naruto and Choji beside him. Kiba ended up between a blonde and a brunette with no regard for his friends. So Sasuke ended up beside Ino.

He listened to her rambling on about being scared to Hinata who was sitting down and shaking like a leaf. She was curled in on herself, her petite frame looking even smaller. He noticed her hands were clenched and her knuckles were white. She was absolutely terrified, and yet she sat there and told Ino that she would be okay. He wondered if he would ever begin to understand her.

The rest of the wagon loaded up, and the tractor pulling it started forward. The talking turned to hushed whispers and people began to cling to one another in anticipation. Sasuke simply peered ahead into the darkness and watched as a worn gate slowly swung open, the hinges groaning as they drove past it. It groaned again as the gate swung shut and when he heard the heavy click as it shut completely, he knew the fun had just begun. A siren suddenly rang through the darkness and faded into a police broadcast on escaped patients from the criminally insane ward of Valley Mental Hospital. The sound faded away and for a moment it was quiet. Then out of nowhere an actor threw himself at the back of the wagon, crazed laughter ringing from his mouth as he attempted to climb on the back of the wagon near where Naruto was.

Now Sasuke had been friends with Naruto for more years than he cared to remember, but in all that time, Sasuke had never once heard him scream quite like he did in that moment. Sure Naruto had screamed before, he was a complete baby about anything supernatural, but this was so high pitched that for a moment Sasuke hadn't thought it was him. But sure enough the high-pitched scream came from no one other than Naruto, who proceeded to nearly squish Hinata's sister as he threw himself on top of her. Hanabi was screaming too, only her scream, along with mostly everyone else's had been drowned out by Naruto's.

The actor grabbed onto the side of the wagon and hoisted himself up, sending Hanabi and Naruto both crawling away towards the center of the wagon in a tangle of limbs. Choji and Shikamaru both seemed more amused by this than scared by the actor. Choji was openly laughing at the two and offering Shikamaru some of the kettle corn he had just bought. With Naruto and Hanabi gone, the actor pulled himself up into the wagon and began to crawl after them. He stopped though in front of Ino and Hinata only to reach out for Ino.

Ino screamed and ducked under his arm, scurrying directly across the wagon to the first sign of safety that presented itself between Choji and Shikamaru. Throwing herself between the two of them she clutched onto Choji's arm only to scream again as another actor popped out. His gaze shifted back to Hinata who was now completely alone, and the sole focus of the first actor's attention. He noticed that behind the thick strands of indigo hair she looked even paler than she normally did. Despite the fact that she had yet to move or scream she was still shaking. She looked like she was going to pass out. Her eyes were squeezed shut as she attempted to block out the actor. She turned her head to the side then to look away. Her wide eyes, full of terror met his own, calm and controlled. For a brief second their eyes held and then suddenly she launched herself into his arms. He had no choice but to fold them around her.

Her warm breath tickled his bare skin as she curled herself into him. Her head was pressed against his shoulder, her mouth at the base of his neck. Every time she took a breath the warmth of it would caress his skin and cause his body to tense in reaction. She was small against him, his arms easily entwining themselves around her. Even still she was incredibly soft and warm. Unconsciously he brought her closer to him. She didn't seem to mind though. In fact if anything she pressed closer to him


Hinata couldn't breathe. That wasn't true. She could breathe, it was just that her breathing was quick and shallow, her heart racing a mile a minute. She jumped when the gate had opened for crying out loud. Ino had laughed at her too for jumping out of her skin. She felt foolish but that paled in comparison to the terror she felt. Her pale eyes darted wildly back and forth in the darkness as she tried to spot things trying to scare her. Her chest felt tight from the panic that was bubbling up within her. So when the first actor came out of nowhere and launched himself up onto the wagon while maniacally laughing, she froze. Everyone else darted away and there she was too scared to even move.

It was as if she was watching herself through a looking glass. Every instinct told her to flee from the actor with the stage makeup that made him look deformed. Yet despite this instinct she couldn't bring herself to move. She was pretty certain at that point she had stopped breathing as well. The pressure in her chest seemed to build up even more rapidly as she squeezed her eyes shut and willed the source of her fright to go away. She knew however, that even with his eyes closed, he was still there and watching her. She turned her head to the side and let her eyes open up, still forgetting how to breathe. She saw Sasuke then, watching her and looking as calm as ever. Apparently none of this affected him. She wasn't sure what possessed her to do what she did next but perhaps it was because he represented the closest thing to safety.

When the actor made his move to lean in towards her, she threw herself at Sasuke. The way her head collided with his shoulder was anything but graceful, but when his arms wrapped themselves around her, she felt safe. She remembered to breathe then and gasped for air. She clung to him, her hands fisted in his t-shirt as she squeezed her eyes shut tight and waited for the nightmare to be over. She was too scared to even care about the intimate position she was now in.

She took steady breaths, taking in the familiar scent of Sasuke like a calming drug. His body was hard but surprisingly warm and she snuggled closer. Around her she could still hear the other people on the wagon screaming but Sasuke didn't move a muscle. He didn't jump even when the chainsaw wielders came barreling out and started smashing their chainsaws into the wagon. He remained completely unmoved and she was grateful. Wrapped protectively in his arms she found it easier to breathe and by the end of the ride she was peeking out from behind her curtain of bangs and managing to laugh at the noises that escaped from Naruto every time something popped out at him. In fact by the time the wagon pulled to a stop she would even go as far as to say she was enjoying herself. That was however when reality came back to her and she realized she was clinging to Sasuke still.

The look Naruto was giving the two of them indicated that he had noticed and Hinata sat up abruptly, her face going from ghostly pale to bright red in record time. Sasuke's arms slipped from around her and she felt him shift behind her. She turned slightly to see him stand and before she could follow suit, a hand was offered to her. Somewhat nervously she grasped his hand, and a slight gasp escaped her lips as he lifted her up to her feet. She steadied herself and brushed some of the hay from her clothes. She glanced up at Sasuke and noticed him doing the same. She also noticed a lone strand of hay that had made its way into his hair. Sheepishly she stood on her tip toes and reached up to tug the piece from his hair. She held it up for him to see and a smirk crossed his otherwise impassive features. He reached forward and tugged a strand out of her hair as well. She look at him with her lips parted slightly in slight awe and he shook his head at her. With another smirk that made her already rapidly beating heart flutter, he put his hand on her lower arm and steered her out of the wagon.


As much as he didn't want to admit it, he felt colder without her pressed against him. As they waited in line to get into the haunted house, he could feel the sudden loss of warmth. He noticed, with some pleasure, that she had stayed close to his side since they had gotten off the wagon. She didn't seem to be willing to move too far away from him. Still the fact that she was so close kept forcing him to think about reaching out and simply pulling her in towards him again, just so he could feel her against him again. The feeling left him frustrated like some hormone driven teen with only one agenda. He was a teenage male but he liked to consider himself past all of that. Ignoring the nagging feeling to pull her close, he instead focused on the line as they moved closer to the front.

The attendant collecting tickets only let part of their group through. Naruto and Hanabi walked in first, followed by Hinata and himself when the attendant held up the line despite Ino's protest. Immediately Naruto and Hanabi set forward, Hanabi tormenting Naruto by making him jump with every other step. The pair seemed to be swallowed up by the darkness of the building and soon enough Sasuke couldn't even see them ahead of him. That was then he felt a familiar warmth pressed up against his back as Hinata clutched his shirt and pressed her cheek against his back. The smirk that slid its way across his features was lost to everyone in the dark, but he felt it and it made him almost nervous. She was getting to him.

Moving forward, he made sure to keep his pace slow as to not trip over anything in the dark. Winding his way down a long dark hall, he could hear the shouts and screams not too far from them. Behind him, a nervous Hinata began to quiver. She stayed with him though. Part of his thought her fear was foolish, but then again this was something that obviously terrified her, and she was facing it. Even if it was at the cost of his shirt, he was rather certain her hands were going to leave permanent wrinkles, it was rather admirable.

They slipped into the first room and were greeted by a mad cook and brandishing a butchers knife. A carved up 'corpse' lay across the table and 'blood' was spattered about the room. He felt Hinata shudder behind him as she pressed herself closer to his back and turned her head away from the grisly scene. Sasuke kept moving forward but the cook went around behind them and tugged at a strand of Hinata's hair, informing them how tasty of a meal she would make. He heard her startled 'eep' as she squirmed away from the cook and came around in front of him to hide away from the other guy. Sasuke turned around, his own onyx eyes narrowed in a threatening manner at the cook. With 'back the hell off' written all over his face, the actor actually shrank back away from the pair. Satisfied, Sasuke turned around only to find Hinata beaming up at him, clearly glad that he had made the actor get lost. He found the threatening look fading quickly from his face as it was replaced by something softer. Before he let it go further he stepped back around and in front of her set to lead the way through the rest of the haunted house.

The sound of loud cackling and a chanted spell actually caused Sasuke to tense. He was hoping he was wrong, but when they stepped into yet another room, it was filled with witches. Now the idea of witches wasn't what scared him. None of this 'haunted' stuff did, but when said witches turned their eyes on him, he knew he was in for it. It was like watching a thirsty man look at a glass of water. He absolutely hated fan girls, and if the cackles that had changed into delighted giggles were any indication, than these witches were just the sort. The worst part about it was that while this place allowed the actors to touch the guests. There was a strict policy about the guests touching the actors. Not that he planned on hitting fan girls, it was simply the fact that he now even lacked the ability to pry them off of him. He hadn't realized he had actually come to a stop until Hinata leaned her head around and blinked up at him.

"W-wh-what's wrong," she whispered before stealing a nervous glance at the room in front of him.

"Fan girls," Sasuke mumbled back as the chorus of voices began calling him over to them. He visibly winced and was debating on just pushing through the room as quickly as he could when he felt a small hand slide into his own. Looking down at his hand, he followed the slender arm up to a shoulder and then Hinata's face. Behind her hair, her face was set in a determined expression. She drew in a shaky breath and to his surprise, stepped in front of him. In a matter of a moment she placed her fear second to his own and began to bravely start forward. Though he imagined an intimidating face from Hinata would resemble an angry kitten, the fan girls kept their distance. Perhaps it was her hand in his that kept them at bay or that fact that he suddenly couldn't take his eyes off her, wondering if he was getting in over his head.


Ino was more than a little annoyed when the attendant cut her off from Sasuke, Naruto, Hanabi, and Hinata. Out of the group she had come with they were the four she talked to. Granted she talked to Kiba as well but he was too busy still chatting it up with the girls from the hayride. She didn't want to think about the hayride either. She had made a complete fool of herself by throwing herself between Shikamaru and Choji. Of all the things she could have done she had to have done that. Still she couldn't deny the comforting feeling she had felt sandwiched between the two of them nor could she deny the pleasant surprise of the subtle definition of muscle that she had felt under Shikamaru's jacket. Since when did Shikamaru work out? For a guy who was asleep in school for more time than he was awake, it was hard to believe that he wasn't all soft. She had to resist the urge not to wrap her hand around his bicep and squeeze it just to really make sure she wasn't imagining it.

She shook her head, scattering her dangerous thoughts. With an annoyed look clear on her face, she waited for the attendant to let them by. After what seemed like ages, though in reality it was only about a minute, the attendant let them through. Ino pushed her way in only to come to a stop and let Shikamaru and Choji move past her. There was no way she was about to go first. Falling into place behind them and in front of Kiba she put on a brave face and moved down the darkened hallway.

Three rooms in and she was wishing she had an arm to cling to. Her blue eyes were darting around frantically and she was ready to jump out of her skin. She was half-tempted to turn around and give Kiba a mouthful for being unable to keep it in his pants just once. She could use him right now. Folding her arms over her chest and tossing her head slightly so that her bangs fell away from her eyes, she walked forward into the next room only to be confronted by a 'knife' wielding actor who took to playing with her ponytail. He draped his arm around her and drug his knife against her throat, causing her to squirm against him. Laughing in her ear, he didn't let her go instead holding onto her as the rest of her group moved on. Kiba laughed at her as he walked by, but as soon as he and his two newest friends vanished, Ino realized it was anything but funny.

She was alone in a dark room with some guy she didn't know, and she wasn't feeling very comfortable about it. Her eyes widened slightly as she felt his hand slide down her leg. Her own hand reflexively closed over his to pull it away from her. She wanted away from this guy and out of this room now. Panic that hadn't been there moments ago bubbled up in the back of her throat. She could feel a scream rising up but she knew a scream would mean nothing in a haunted house. Still it was about to tear its way from her throat when suddenly she wasn't being held in place anymore. The actor had stepped away and sucked in a ragged and relieved breath. Her blue eyes looked up and to her surprise a pissed off looking Shikamaru was standing there with his arms folded over his chest. His eyes were narrowed in the direction of the actor. She was speechless until his eyes shifted towards her.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah," she said stepping forwards towards her. He nodded and turned around, leaving her to stare at his back as they walked out of the room. Over and over her mind reminded her that for some reason he had come back for her.


The music was loud and the lights were an array of color flashing in the make-shift club setting that had been set up. There were black lights and a dance floor set up with people scattered about, some dancing and others watching. Currently she was one of the people watching. She was standing near one of the walls, watching through the flashing lights as the people moved around the building. The people working there had neon paint on their faces in ghoulish designs. The paint glowed in the black light and the rest of their bodies and clothes were also splattered with paint. The girls had neon bands in their hair and two of them were up dancing on individual platforms.

She nervously wrung her hands together in front of her as she felt completely out of place. This was not her scene nor would it ever be. She felt nervous though admittedly she was nowhere near as panicked as she had been when she was on the hayride and in the house. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Naruto dragging Hanabi to the dance floor. Her sister was laughing and attempting to pull away but Naruto wouldn't have any of it. Much to her surprise Ino was with Shikamaru and Choji, chatting away with the latter about something. Of course Kiba was dancing with one of the paint covered girls, which once again left her standing there with Sasuke.

He hadn't said anything since they had gotten out of the haunted house and she wondered if he was annoyed at her for clinging to him like a scared little girl. She supposed she couldn't blame him. She stole a glance at him from the corner of her eye but he didn't seem annoyed, just impassive like he usually appeared. She opened her mouth to say something, something like an apology for how she had acted earlier and a thanks for how he had been rather kind to her. Her words died at her lips though. She wasn't sure how to talk to Sasuke or even if he wanted her to. No that wasn't it. Well it was part of it, but the underlying fact of the matter was that she was afraid. She was always afraid. She mentally berated herself and all of the irrational fears that she had when Sasuke's voice cut into her inner tirade.

"Do you want to dance?"

"W-what," she sputtered out.

"Do. You. Want. To. Dance," he said practically spelling it out for her.

"I can't," she blurted out, to which he gave her a disbelieving look.

"I've seen you dance," he pointed out.

"Not w-with someone," she said playing with her hands again.

"It's not hard," he said reaching out a hand towards her.

She eyed his hand for a moment, unsure of what she wanted to do. She glanced at his face, which while still impassive had a patient look to it. She looked back to his hand and after one last moment of hesitation, she slipped her hand into his. She felt like she was falling.


A/N: So the next chapter will be the much anticipated makeover chapter. So anticipate more fluff and the onset of drama. Sakura will come back into the picture and things will start to be shaken up. I realized the other day while writing that I have kept you all waiting for the last ten chapters for things to pick up. I hope I haven't been disappointing any of you. Thanks again for reading and hope you enjoyed the chapter.