Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

--

12: The Waiting Game

"You're really considering this?" Gaara asked tonelessly. "Isn't one threat enough?"

"Sasuke can shove it up his ass," Kiba retorted bitterly, half-concentrating on their project. "Besides, Hinata's not his girl. She's not anyone's yet. I really like her and I think she likes me…"

Gaara stared at him blankly, considering what his friend said. "I guess you're right. And she seems nice enough…"

"She's really nice. You have no idea," Kiba all but cried. "And…" He paused, a sly smile on his face. "I'm anxious to find out what she's hiding under her jacket. There's got to be more to it. But she seemed really upset when I cancelled our date the first time I asked her out. I bet that if I tried again, she'd agree to go somewhere with me."

"Where are you going to go?" Gaara inquired, finally starting to let some emotion slip.

"Wherever she wants that I can afford," Kiba confirmed with a grin.

"Aren't you worried about her sisters?" Gaara questioned, looking down at their project to try and figure out what Kiba was doing.

"No…Should I be?" he replied, watching his friend curiously.

"I guess not. It's just…" Gaara hesitated, not looking up. "Ten-Ten's having issues with Neji and –"

Kiba scoffed. "That's not a big surprise. Neji's an asshole. If she's brave enough to date him, then that's her doom."

Gaara snapped his head up, staring at him. "What?"

"Yeah, you figured most of it out," Kiba muttered, getting confused by Gaara's concern. "He just likes messing with girls. He'll lead them on and then dump them just when they think that he's serious about them. He's dated almost every girl in the school, same with his brothers. The only ones they haven't dated yet are new girls and transfers. Girls are just toys to those guys."

Gaara went back to staring at their project. He took a marker and started writing information as he said, "Anyway, I was going to say: and her sisters seem really pissed about her dating him."

"You think they'll be mad at me too?" Kiba asked, picking out a marker.

"Maybe…They might just have a personal grudge against the Uchiha's. It wouldn't surprise me either, if what I'm hearing is true," Gaara verified distractedly.

Kiba nodded, writing something down as he mumbled, "Yeah, well…the Uchiha's are all asses…"

--

Hinata walked to the elementary school's playground. It'd been awhile since she'd swung on monkey bars – or, rather, fallen off monkey bars. She walked up to the main play area and climbed up to the highest platform. It wasn't that high up, but she felt like she was on top of the world. She spread her arms and let the wind pick at her. After a moment of freedom, she put her arms down and leaned on a railing, looking over the empty playground. Well, almost empty. Naruto sat on a swing, slowly swinging back and forth, as if extremely sad. She watched him curiously for a moment before pulling the note out of her pocket. She still didn't understand the butterflies she got when she read those three simple words. She was in love with Kiba, after all. She'd decided that before she found the note after Kiba had asked her out. But the butterflies were still there, making her stomach lurch and bringing a content smile to her lips.

She slipped from the playground and hesitantly walked over to stand in front of Naruto. They stared at each other in silence for a minute before Hinata finally choked out, "I'm so sorry, Naruto."

Naruto looked away, betrayal burning in his eyes. "About what? Getting me suspended? I don't give a fuck, okay? You got your stupid revenge and got your stupid little way, just like a child. What more do you want?"

Hinata shook her head, guilt starting to make her sick. "No, not about that. I'm sorry that I know how you feel. I'm dating Kiba now." The words stung her tongue. It hurt to be saying something that sounded so cruel. The wind picked up a little, making the other swings creak as they rocked back and forth. Her lower lip trembled. She felt so bad now. "I'm so, so sorry, Naruto."

"If you didn't want to know, you could have told me before," Naruto snapped, standing up and taking the note from her shaking hands. She gasped in surprise. "I didn't know what kind of response I'd get – at most I thought you'd turn me down and say that you didn't like me back. But to hear you say that you didn't want to know?"

Hinata looked away, feeling worse than before. "I'm sorry," she whispered wishing she could say more. Suddenly, she felt Naruto's hand under her chin, slowly directing her face back to him. He leaned down and gently kissed her. She savored the moment, getting more and more confused as the seconds ticked by. She yanked away from him abruptly, leaving a wounded Naruto. "I love Kiba!" she cried desperately, turning and running away. This was too confusing.

--

Shikamaru and Sasuke stood by the fence of the elementary school, watching Naruto stand there numbly as Hinata ran off with tears streaking her face. Guilt finally weaseled its way into Sasuke's chest and he stared at the sidewalk blankly. "Shikamaru…" He glanced up but his brother was already thundering down the street the way they had just come. He gritted his teeth in frustration. Now what? He was so confused. Girls were just toys, something to play with until he was bored. But here were four girls who presented a real problem for him and his brothers. Real love. His heart pounded faster at this realization. He was in love and he couldn't be. It was against everything he believed.

But what if there could be one girl who was different than all the others? He stared after Hinata, his thoughts on Sakura. She was the one girl who was making him feel anything more than lust. He wanted to hate her, though he really couldn't. He had no experience with these feelings that he harbored. He'd never let himself get so wrapped up in one toy. Why did there have to be someone different? He clenched his fists and hit the fence in front of him, startling Naruto out of his stupor. He turned on his heel and started walking aimlessly away. He really wanted to hate Sakura. Too bad that she didn't make that easier. He sighed in defeat and mumbled to himself, "Guess I'll just have to go with what I feel..." What a suck ass alternative.

--

Sakura felt bad for her sister, Hinata. She'd fallen into some sort of love almost-circle thing. Kiba loved her, Naruto loved her and she loved them both. Well, in Sakura's eyes she did. And Sakura knew a lot about this sort of thing. The endless possibilities…! She'd watched enough soap operas to know that the confused girl would always fall in love with the underdog. And Naruto was the underdog. But first, Kiba needed to go away and stop messing with Hinata's emotions. Oh yes, Sakura could be worrying about her own love life – after all, only an hour ago, Sasuke had shown up on her doorstep with the most beautiful flowers she'd ever seen. Perhaps that was the reason she was so intent on interrupting someone else's love life.

Kiba needed to vanish, of course. But how to do that? Hinata would never flat out tell him that she didn't like him. She'd be roundabout. Same with Naruto. She'd never write a note that said, "I love you". That was too risky. What else could Sakura do? Well, there was always the possibility of manipulating her sister into seeing things her way. Hinata always listened to her. She'd believe anything – even, "Kiba's bad for you. He's like a drug and you totally need to quit."

Yeah, Sakura always got her way.

--

Where was her knight in shining armor now? Probably lounging around somewhere. She felt guilty for being so rude to Shikamaru earlier. But Ino hadn't really known what to do. What her brother had done was something she didn't really like talking about and she hadn't really known how to react. He should have known! His older brother had done shit just like hers. It didn't justify how she had acted though and she knew it. She loved Shikamaru, really she did. But she'd never loved anyone like this. She wasn't sure how things were supposed to go. She knew that there weren't supposed to be secrets involved, that's why she was writing this letter anyway. She needed him to understand where she was coming from, how she felt. She wanted him to know her.

--

Itachi sat on the cot of his cell, perched elegantly and seemingly serenely. This wasn't really a place to fear now. This was more of a second home. He rocked back so he was putting all his weight on his hands. His eyes closed and he smiled one of those rare, sinister smiles. One that anyone passing would know meant that he wasn't planning on staying for long. He heard a scream from a few cells down but didn't even flinch. Probably another one of those prisoners who'd been locked up for too long and were getting shipped away to the local asylum. He was kind of curious as to why he hadn't been locked up there yet. He thought he'd done a fine job at scaring the guards. But maybe that's why he was still sitting in that damn cell.

"Ah, damn. I'm sorry, Itachi," Kisame whispered from the window and Itachi looked over at him calmly. "But it's so you're fault. You didn't even tell me what you were up to. And killing Sasori? What are you, crazy?"

"Funny, I'd just been thinking the same thing moments ago," Itachi murmured, seemingly to himself. "I do hope you have a way to get me out of here."

Kisame shivered. "Yeah." He disappeared, leaving Itachi to wait. It was something he did often and was pretty good at now. So he waited.

--

This story's weighing me down people. I want it to be over and I can still write out five more chapters if I just took the time. Sorry this is so short. It bothers me that I can't think of anything good to write now. Do we lose interest in things to get tortured? I have to think more on that.

In the meantime, to my reviewers:

From: Tentenperson-Kshikamarugal

sorry dude i had ice cream but anyway... SWEET!

To: Tentenperson-Kshikamarugal

Ice cream? I want ice cream. And a bit of irony in your comment: ice cream is sweet and now my story is sweet. (It sounded so much cooler in my head…)

From: HellsPastry

Alright, I've waited until reading all chapters to review. At first I was skeptical because well...these school fics are almost ALWAYS bad. It captured my interest for a bit but I found myself skim reading the last two chapters (sorry but I couldn't help it). It seems like everyone else is getting with their respective pairings but Naruto seems to be floating away from his pairing to be replaced by someone else. Now I may be wrong about that after all I skimmed through the last bits. In all it wasn't bad, but I'm not sure if I'll continue reading any new releases as I've gotten somewhat bored with the story. No worries though, fair read mate.

To: HellsPastry

If you have chosen to read more: Touché. God, this story's boring to me and I'm writing it.

Well, you're sort of right. Everyone is definitely thinking about who their supposed to be with (ex: Sakura and Sasuke) but they haven't really reached friendship level – unless you count Shikamaru and Ino into that. And then they're falling apart and yeah, Naruto is sort of getting replaced by Kiba. Not bad for skimming the last two chapters, man.

And, yes, what we read and what we don't read – for whatever reason – is very fair. Peace.

From: TStar14

Yeah! Update plz!

To: TStar14

Now I know that I will find a new way to say "update".

Thanks for your support. And thanks for having no red misspelled line under your name. Hope you enjoyed this chapter.

From: Apple Bubblegum

I feel so happy and redlineless.

Extended story = AWESOME for readers; troublesome for writer, n'est ce pas?

DEIDEI =

To: Apple Bubblegum

What's n'est ce pas?

Deidei is fucking awesome. And so is Sori no Danna and Hidan-sempai. : )

From: Artic Fox7856

YATTA THANK YOU PLEASE UPDATE MORE PLEASE OR KYUUBI GET OVER HERE UPDATE!
Artic Fox7856 out

To: Artic Fox7856

…KYUUBI NO SCARE ME! I'VE GOT…the other demon…oh yeah! I'VE GOT SHUKAKU!! HAHAHAHA! NOW I CAN TAKE FOOOOORRRRREEEEEEVVVVVEEEEEEERRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!

From: lil and spring

lil:OMG I LUV UR STORY ITS WICKED
spring:yea,AND I LUV THE NEW HINATA
lil:-high5s spring- oh yea shes dinamite, if only she was like that n the show/manga -rubs hands evily- then we'd b getting somewhere
spring:lol, update plz
both:peace and happy Halloween

To: lil and spring

Do you have a multiple personality disorder or are there two people there? (Dude, I know I looked at your profile, but I've seen so many lately, I forgot if you mentioned anything about your penname…)

From: NeonAlchemist

Good chapter! i can't wait till the next one. It's kinda sad seeing everyone falling apart.

To: NeonAlchemist

It's fun. Making everyone fall apart, I mean.

Glad you like, my oh so faithful reader/reviewer/person/thing…

From: TwilightRaver

I love this story so much. Poor everyone. :(
i can't wait for the next chapter to come out!
Keep writing!

-TwilightRaver

To: TwilightRaver

Thanks. Uh…Yeah…Poor everyone. –walks away and laughs evilly before coming back with a smile–

: )

Working on it…

From: X ANTI NARUxSAKU X

GOD DAMNIT YOU JUST LIKE ENDED IT. OMG PLEASE UPDATE PLEASE PLASE PLEASE!

To: X ANTI NARUxSAKU X

I wish I'd ended it…

Thanks for being supportive. : )

Thanks, all my fantabulous readers! (Holy crap! Is fantabulous really a word?! Shit! I didn't know that...) Thanks for the support. Did you know, that if you all had stopped pestering me, the story probably would have been discontinued by now? I wish it was... But this is the most popular of all my stories (sad as it is, it's true), so for you, my faithful readers, I will try hard to complete this story.

See ya 'round! And please review.