Chapter 11

When Sasuke and Kaoru returned to their dorm, the two were honestly surprised to find it almost completely clean. Naruto was still running around the room, his hair pulled back from his face with a head band and cleaning with all his might. He looked u to smile at the two but continued what he was doing. Sasuke saw Kaoru fiddling with something in his pocket before Naruto's wallet was produced. "You left this at the cafeteria."

He tossed it across the room to Naruto, who caught the wallet with a surprised look. "Thank you!" And he was back to cleaning, shoving the money-holder into his pocket as he did so. Kaoru only shook his head before walking over to the stairs and going up. A few minutes later, he came down carrying a bag and some shoes.

Without saying anything, he walked out, leaving Sasuke in shock. "Where are you going?!"

"He trains every night. Don't expect him back for a while." Naruto picked up the last of the things before standing up with a smile. "I'm done. See you tomorrow." And he grabbed his own bag and a blanket and walked out of the room, leaving Sasuke alone.

"Where are you going?!"

"You said I had to sleep on the couch in the main dorm room. Bye." And Naruto was out of the dorm.

Sasuke only looked around the empty dorm before sighing. "Aren't you not supposed to leave the person who just left the hospital alone? What's this?" But he only shook his head before wheeling over to his bed and changing from the chair to there, finding it much more comfortable than the bed in the hospital. Grabbing a nearby book, he leaned back and started reading. This is much more comfortable… But what is Kaoru doing?

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Kaoru was drenched in sweat but glaring at the stopwatch in his hand. "Why am I getting slower?!"

"Because you've been running around the track for the past two hours almost non-stop. Take a break. Relax. You're just tiring yourself out." Neji strolled down the steps to the track and field. "Drink some of this." He held a bottle of red liquid out to Kaoru, but the younger boy only stared at it. Neji chuckled. "It's just Gatorade. Drink it."

"Thanks." Knowing what it was now, Kaoru grabbed the bottle and opened it, drinking half the thing in one gulp. "How long have you been watching?"

"I passed by when you were first starting and came past again an hour ago. Since you were still running, I figured I'd give you an hour to leave before I came. You're still here. I'm guessing you haven't left in that time." Kaoru sat down on a bench after Neji did so, shaking his head. "You're not going to get anywhere by just running for hours straight."

"I take breaks…" But Kaoru sighed. "I'm just trying to build up my endurance."

"Then run carrying weights. With how you do things now, you're used to running for three or more hours. It won't do anything more. You have to change it up." Neji leaned back on the bench to look at the stars. "Or you can just do what you've been doing and not listen to the person you've already beaten so many times."

"But you've been getting faster," Kaoru whispered, almost to himself, as he thought. "How much weight should I start with?"

"Whatever is comfortable." Neji sat up quickly suddenly, startling Kaoru. "But I didn't come here planning on telling you about running…"

"Why'd you come here then? Did you want to train or something?" Kaoru saw Neji shaking his head and became more curious. "Then why?"

"Remember when you asked about my cousin?" Kaoru nodded to Neji, slightly confused that he was suddenly bring up Hinata. Me. "I thought I should tell you more about that."

"Oh, um…" The topic Neji was talking about surprised Kaoru, and he was even more surprised that Neji was coming to him to tell more about it without Kaoru saying anything more. "Why?"

"I thought you should probably know. I wasn't the nicest in telling you that it was none of your business, but you were really interested in finding out about her. It's been so long that," Neji didn't have to say more, Kaoru already knew what was coming, but the Hyuuga continued, "she most likely isn't coming back. I felt you should know more about her."

Kaoru didn't really know what to say to that, but it was fine, as Neji continued. "She actually sort of looked like you. Not saying you look like a girl or she looks like a guy, you two just look similar. And she was always caring about others, sort of like you, I guess. Hinata was never one to hurt a fly. But my uncle, her father, since he is a leader of Konoha, he was really strict with her. It wasn't his choice, but the choice of the others he worked with." Neji looked at the younger boy, who only nodded, not wanting to ruin the mood of Neji's tale by talking. "She was going to be married off, even though she was only your age. Hiashi didn't really want it, but he didn't have a choice. And neither did Hinata. She disappeared as everything was being finalized. I guess it is for the better that she is gone, since she doesn't have to go through the life she would have had to live if she had been married off. I have a feeling she is fine now, living her life how she would have wanted to." How right you are, Neji. How right you are. Neji chuckled slightly, shaking his head. "I can't believe I'm telling you all this. It probably doesn't matter to you, since you didn't even know Hinata. I just had to tell somebody, and you were a lot like her." Neji shook his head again before standing up from the bench. "I'm sorry for bothering you with all this. I probably made no sense."

As he started to walk off, Kaoru looked at the older boy. "Neji!" He stopped and turned to look over his shoulder at Kaoru. "Tomorrow, can you tell me more about her?"

Neji smiled a little. "Sure. I'll come a little earlier." Kaoru smiled as he waved to his senior as Neji left. I look forward to that, brother.

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"I'm going food shopping." Kaoru started to leave the dorm, pulling a hat on his head as he opened the door.

"Alone?"

"I'll be fine. You don't have to worry about me, Sasuke." Kaoru chuckled, but paused to look at Sasuke. "I promise."

"Last time you did something alone, I was being stuffed in a police car with you." Seeing Kaoru about to argue with him, he held his hands up in surrender. "Get tomatoes when you go."

"Have that written down. I'll be back before you have to leave." And he left, walking towards the main gate of the school to leave.

"Where are you going?" Kaoru froze mid-step and turned around to face whoever was talking to him.

"Why am I always being asked that? I'm going food shopping. Naruto ate everything in my dorm." He glanced at Neji, surprised to see the older boy in anything other than the school uniform or training clothes. "Where are you going?"

He shrugged. "I just felt like getting out. Want me to go with you?"

"If you want…" Neji nodded and caught up to where Kaoru was. The two started walking in silence for a while, before Kaoru finally broke it once again. "Why are you coming with me?"

Neji shrugged. "I have nothing better to do. I just wanted to leave the campus. And I guess now I can help you." Kaoru only nodded and they fell back into an awkward silence. Why is Neji being like this?

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"I brought food." Kaoru closed the door to Sasuke's hospital room behind him with his foot as he entered.

"Give me." Sasuke reached out for the bag that Kaoru handed him, quickly pulling out the many trays and containers and placing them on the table over his bed.

"Sometimes I feel like you only like me coming here because I bring you food." Kaoru sat down in a chair and pulled out another small container, his own food. By the time he opened it and started to eat, Sasuke was already digging in.

"You're also good for entertainment."

"Thanks." Kaoru said it sarcastically, but smiled, knowing it was all in good humor. They ate in silence for a few minutes before Sasuke broke it with a random question.

"Remember when you were buying food after Naruto ate all that was in our dorm?" Sasuke glanced to Kaoru, who nodded. "Did he ever pay you back for that?"

"Sort of… Remember when I caught him after you kicked him in the cafeteria? I took his wallet. When I gave it back in our dorm, I'd taken some money to pay back for it." Kaoru gave a little smile as he spoke of the time, still not quite believing he got away with it. "But he never noticed."

"Doesn't surprise me. He always carries a lot of money around. You could take hundreds from him and he wouldn't know."

"Kind of like you?" Kaoru gave Sasuke a teasing smile. "You were going to pay my bail with cash from your own account. Why do you guys have so much money?"

"You still haven't figured out the secret of KAA?" Kaoru shook his head and Sasuke chuckled a little. "Everyone is either rich or a prodigy in a sport, or both. You're the only kid that doesn't have money, no offense but you know it is true, and most of us are signed so we get even more." Sasuke shrugged at Kaoru, who didn't seem to take any offense to the comment on his money status. "It shouldn't be long until you get signed with how good you are. Then you'll be swimming in cash like Naruto."

"He's been signed to a company?"

"Promotions. He's sort of a sport model, I guess. But he's good too." Sasuke looked down at the empty trays of food in front of him. "Thanks for the food."

"Sure…" Kaoru took one last bite from his own before holding it out to Sasuke, who he knew was just waiting for it. The Uchiha wasted no time in taking the container and devouring Kaoru's food as well. "So, have you done any of the work?"

"Yeah. I'm almost finished with it all." Sasuke pointed to the piles of work from school with his chopsticks for Kaoru to get it. "I just have English left."

"You need help on it, don't you?" Sasuke went to refuse Kaoru, but the younger boy turned his notebook around to show random drawings that Sasuke had made while trying to figure out the lesson and not understanding it. "Do you know the alphabet at least?"

Sasuke's silence answered him and Kaoru could only sigh. "How did you get this far in English without knowing the alphabet?"

"It's my first year taking it. We only have to take two years of a foreign language and I'm taking it this year and next." Sasuke tried to defend himself, but it didn't do much. "You should know by now most of our classes are just on paper so that we can pass high school and be athletes."

"You should at least know basics. I've known English since elementary school. We even had classes on it."

"…I took Chinese…"

"You're helpless." But Kaoru still flipped to a new page in the notebook and wrote the whole alphabet, making each letter three lines tall. "This," he pointed to the first letter, "is 'a.'" He said it without any accent at all. "Say it."

"'A.'" Sasuke, on the other hand, was barely understandable with his accent. "Was that right?"

"We'll work on it…"