Haunted High Chapter 14

A/N: This is a backstory chapter, since I realized I didn't explain how Hinata came to like Sasuke, it just sort of happened before. But with this chapter and the next two it should make some sense now. Thanks for reading and please review.

2ndA/N: On a side note, from now I on, I will add five hundreds words to each chapter based on the reviews that they get. One review equals 500 words and the more reviews I get the more words I add. I will still write the story without reviews it's just a way of giving back to the people following my stories.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or any of the characters or themes mentioned in this story.

….

To Hinata, it was a morning like any other, only it wasn't. Today was her first day at school at Hidden Leaf elementary, and she was a little more than giddy. She was a docile child, shy, and kind to all she knew and even people she didn't know.

She tapped her fingers together as she was driven to school by her mom, much to her father's wishes against it. He wanted her to ride to school with a chauffeur like her cousin Neji did, but her mother wouldn't allow it. She'd said her first day was special, and she wanted to see her baby take her first steps into her classroom.

Hinata was nervous, not because of her parents disagreeing, but because school had many people. And Hinata, even at the young age of five, didn't like people. They scared her, made her embarrassed, and just made her feel all over uncomfortable. She was never comfortable around people she didn't know - she was barely comfortable in her father's presence at times.

School just seemed like another barrier Hinata would have to build around her already built bubble of shyness. She'd have to avoid but at the same time not be mean to the other kids.

But, on the whole other side of the young Hyuga, she was excited to finally have friends outside of the family. Learning, she really wanted to be taught the many things that she would learn at school. Math, writing, English, and all the other subjects she'd be taught. But what she really wanted to learn, her real passion in life, was to draw.

She has many, many, many sketch books as a child. Each one filled with the characters and funny drawings upon which her imagination could create. She was only five, so there were a lot of cat and bunny pictures, since she was never allowed to have either animal.

The cat she drew was small and all white with fluffy fur. She'd wanted a cat so bad, but she had to settle for the one she drew. She named him Moon, and Moon was her best friend. She drew many different pictures of Moon, some funny, some serious, well as serious as a five year old could get, and some showed her and Moon playing games together.

"Are you excited for school, sweetie?" Hinata's mother asked.

Hinata blushed as she looked up at her mother with a smile. She nodded and didn't speak, she was still feeling too nervous and giddy all at the same time.

The car stopped pulled into a parking lot. Hinata peered out her window at the kids walking into the school with their backpacks on and parents holding their hands. She stared as they pulled to a stop.

Hinata barely noticed as her mother pulled her door open and helped her out of the car. Hinata wore a purple and white sundress that made her black hair look blue. She pulled on her backpack and smiled as her mom took hold of her hand and led her towards the large white building kids seemed to be attracted to.

The summer sun was beating down on her head when her mother stopped before they entered the building.

"Mr. Uchiha, I didn't expect to see you here." Hinata's mom said.

A tall man with long black hair and a glare turned smile stopped to talk to her mom. "Yes, well I have a little one going to school here too."

Hinata noticed a small boy about her age standing off to the side with a woman with beautiful black hair. The boy that stood beside her didn't look thrilled to be there either but he smirked over at her and she felt heat rise to her cheeks.

"Oh, little Sasuke, look how cute you are." Hinata's mom smiled at the boy who reddened and looked away.

Sasuke, Hinata said his name in her mind. He looked over at her again but not with the smirk he had before. He looked bored or mad, maybe somewhere in between. He moved closer to her mother and hugged her leg.

"Well it was nice meeting your son but we need to go meet Hinata's teacher." Hinata's mom said, "Maybe they can have a play date sometime."

Sasuke's mom smiled and looked over at Sasuke. "You'd like that wouldn't you, Sasuke?"

Sasuke reddened, "Sure, mom."

Hinata and her mother gave a small bow before walking into the building. Hinata looked at all the other kids her age running around. It was way less structured than she was used to. Two benches stood by a hall that led down towards a few rooms. Hinata could only guess that they were the classrooms.

She stuck close to her mom as they walked into one of the classrooms. The room smelled nice and had animals plastered across the walls. Kids were playing with the many assortments of toys on the ground, among them Legos. There was a coloring book on each desk in the room with a name written on each book. Hinata walked over to them but she couldn't read yet so her mom led her to her desk as she walked over to the teacher. A woman in her twenties smiled and shook her mom's hand.

Hinata reached into her purple backpack and pulled out a set of colored pencils. She opened the book and immediately went for the first picture to have a cat in it. She found and it was soon coloring the carpet in the center of the picture.

Hinata was so content coloring that she barely noticed the person sitting next to her in class. She looked over to see the boy she'd met earlier looking at the picture that she was coloring. She gave him a shy nod and smile.

"What are you coloring?" he asked.

Hinata pulled out a blue colored pencil. "I-I'm coloring the book we we're given. Y-you have one t-too."

The boy looked from her to his own coloring book in front of him. He opened it and stared at the picture with a weird look. "Why is my first page different?"

"T-this isn't the first page," Hinata said as her cheeks grew red again with him looking at her.

"Why are you not coloring the first page?"

"I-I like c-cats so I found the page with a cat on it a-and started coloring it instead."

The boy seemed to ponder what she said. He started to flip through the pages until he found the one she was on. "I think my cat Song would like to be in this cat's place, a nice rug to lie on in front of the fire. All he does all day is jump around in my room and swipe at my hair when I leave."

"You have a cat?" Hinata asked, with a small smile.

"Yeah, he's black and white. I had to earn him from dad. I did like two weeks' worth of chores and then Itachi brought him home for me." He said.

"I wish I had a cat." Hinata looked down at the picture and dropped her smile.

"You like cats but you don't have one?" The boy asked, and he saw her eyes appear to water. "You can come over to my house and play with my cat if you want. He likes everyone."

Hinata's face brightened as she looked at the boy with a gleam in her eyes. "Really, are you sure it wouldn't be too much trouble?"

"Nah, my parents say I need to make friends anyway. I'm Sasuke by the way."

"H-Hinata," she introduced herself and smiled at him again.

...

Hinata stared out the window of mom's car once again as they drove from her home to a place she'd never been to before. They were going to Uchiha's house for a dinner and a business agreement or something work related that her father had to do. She had to be on her best behavior she was told.

She was a good and respectful little girl. She never got into any kinds of trouble. Her cousin was the same exact way except much more stern. He was nice to her, but at the same time he always gave her mean looks.

Hinata didn't know who the Uchiha were, but they had a kid her age so she had to come to keep them company. She's already made two friends since she started school. Ino and Sakura were her two best friends, but they were mean to each other sometimes. And then she had her other friend, Sasuke. He was nice enough even if he didn't like the blonde kid that sat in front of them.

The kid was named Naruto. He was loud and always competing with Sasuke, and never winning. It was funny to watch them fight though. She could tell they were going to be friends.

"We're here," Hinata's mom said as she was once again opening Hinata's door for her.

Hinata smiled and climbed out of the back seat of the car and looked at the nice two story house in front of her. Her house was a little bigger but the garden outside of theirs was much pretty and smelled so sweet. She wanted to run through the flowers but she wasn't allowed to since she had to be on her best behavior.

She followed closely behind her parents and was quiet as they knocked on the door. The door opened to a woman with beautiful black hair who looked like Hinata had seen her somewhere before.

"Hello and welcome to our house Mr. and Mrs. Hyuga. " The woman looked down at Hinata and said, "You brought Hinata, Sasuke will be happy."

Hinata followed her parents into the house and watched as the parents walked away leaving her in the living room with someone coming from down the hall.

"Hinata," Sasuke raised a brow at her. "What are you doing here?"

"Hello, Sasuke, I didn't know you lived here." Hinata said and bowed slightly to him.

"Did you just walk into random houses to find me?" Sasuke asked.

"N-no, that would be s-silly. My parents are having dinner with your parents."

"That would be silly." Sasuke looked over Hinata, "So do you want to see my cat?"

Hinata smiled and nodded vigorously. Hinata followed Sasuke down the hall passed two rooms before stopping at the one at the end of the hall. He pushed the door open and a cat jumped up from its spot next to the dresser and began to curl up against his leg.

Hinata smiled and her eyes gleamed as the cat walked over to her and began to do the same thing to her. She almost squealed as she pet the back of his soft neck.

"I think he likes you." Sasuke said as he pet the cat's tail.

"I've never touched a cat before. He's so soft and friendly."

Hinata and Sasuke continued to play with the cat until the door open and the cat jumped onto Sasuke's bed. He curled into a ball and fell asleep. A boy stood in the doorway of his room, and Hinata knew she's seen him a few times during school.

"Hey, Sasuke, I didn't know you had company. Sorry to intrude but I need my book back. I already finished the other ones and need to start that one." The boy said.

"Okay, it's on shelf, Itachi." Sasuke pointed and his brother grabbed the book before ducking out of the room.

Hinata watched with a look of amazement painting her expression. "I didn't know you could read."

"Yeah, I've been able to read since I was three. I learned from Itachi." Sasuke said.

"That's so cool." Hinata said.

...

Three Years Later

Hinata sat on the black top with Ino, her blonde best friend, and Tenten, her new friend. The two girls were talking back and forth about something that didn't interest her at the moment. She colored in the chalk drawing they were doing before they started their conversation.

Hinata finished the drawing of the cat she'd been outlining against the black ground. She started to draw white on its chest and tail to resemble Song. After she was done she admired her work as the other two girls finished their talk.

Ino turned to Hinata. "So, Hinata, who do you like?"

Hinata grew red as she dropped her chalk. "W-What do you mean?"

"Oh come on you don't like any of the boys here?" Ino asked as she added some wings to Hinata's cat drawing.

"I-I-I don't like anyone like that," Hinata said and looked down at her feet.

"No one at all?" Tenten asked.

Ino turned to Tenten. "Who do you like then?"

Tenten pressed a finger to her chin. "I kind of like Neji I guess."

Hinata gasped and dropped her chalk again. "You have a c-crush on my cousin?"

"Neji's your cousin?" Tenten asked.

"It kind of makes sense. They kind of look the same, and have the same eyes." Ino said as she finished the wings.

Hinata scratched her head as she thought about her cousin being nice to anyone but her, especially another girl. Seeing him walk away from Tenten without a word kept popping up in Hinata's head, he was so mad all the time.

"So who do-"

Hinata waited for her friend's question but it never came. She looked up to see her looking over at a group of boys walking across the black top, among them Sasuke, Shikamaru, and Naruto, with Sakura walking beside them. They were walking towards the benches that Hinata and her friends were next to.

"Sasuke is so cute," Hinata could hear Sakura say as she sat down with the girls. The boys sat on the bench behind them.

Sasuke cute? He was kind of, Hinata thought. That thought had never crossed her mind before, maybe because she wasn't thinking about him in that kind of way. She looked back at him as he talked to Naruto about something. His black hair perfectly framed his face and black eyes. They looked great against his complexion and skin tone. He was cute, Hinata had decided.

"Why were you hanging out with them?" Ino asked Sakura.

"I wanted to, why else?" Sakura ran her hands through her hair. "So what were you talking about before I came over here?"

"Hinata's crush," Tenten said with a smile.

"Oh, who do you like, Hinata?"

Hinata didn't hear their words before she spoke. "Sasuke,"

"Sasuke?" Sakura asked.

Hinata shook her head. "W-What about S-Sasuke?"

Sakura looked over the boys sitting on the table behind them. She seemed to be staring at Sasuke for a long while before turning back to Hinata. "Do you like Sasuke?"

Hinata grew red as she raised her hands to deny it. She waved them back and forth and shook her head in a similar fashion. "N-No, no, I don't like him like that. We're just friends, really."

"Then who do you like?" Ino asked.

Hinata didn't know what kind of answer they wanted. She didn't like any of the boys like that. She didn't even hang out with them really. The only two she saw regularly were Sasuke and Neji but less from Sasuke lately.

She stared at their expecting faces as a bead of sweat dropped down her brow. She wiped at it furiously but still felt their eyes watching her. "Um, I like Naruto."

They all pulled back and looked at each other. "Naruto really?" They all asked in unison.

"Yes, h-he's s-sweet."

The truth was Hinata didn't have feeling for any of them but she had to say someone. Someone that wouldn't get her in a fight with Sakura over the only boy she called friend. Naruto was a sweet, kind, and funny guy but she'd only talked to him once in the past three years.

"I didn't expect that," Ino said but smiled. "So do you want to hear who I like?"

Hinata smiled at her friend as the bell rang.

...