A/N: Warning: Girlxgirl kissing!

Chapter Twenty-Five-

I fall off the couch.

…Which is kinda pathetic considering that I've slept on benches for a large percentage of my life, but it could be worse. For one, I could've hit my head on the coffee table and start bleeding all over the floor and then I would have to go to the hospital and then I might be found out and then Hinata would be left all alone in my roo-

Shit, Hinata!

The clock on the wall reads 7:38 and I leap up, narrowly avoiding the coffee table and making the previously mentioned scenario a reality.

Yoshiko is already awake and in her apron scrubbing down the kitchen floor. I nearly slip walking into the kitchen and have to grab onto the doorframe to stay upright.

"Good morning, Sakura-san," Yoshiko says, looking at me strangely, "Why were you sleeping on the couch? I didn't want to wake you, but that doesn't seem to be very-"

"Ihaveaproblem!" I gasp out, rudely interrupting her.

And that is how, about a quarter of an hour later, Hinata came to be sitting at the table eating breakfast.

She leans over her bowl with her bangs covering her eyes. She's wearing my short-sleeved pajama shirt and the bandages are visible. Older scars peak out nearer to her inner arm and Yoshiko's eyes keep darting towards them and then away again. Hinata has still not said a word since I woke her up.

I shift anxiously in my seat and bit the inside of my mouth. This is not going well, I thought that if she slept on it things would be better, but everything's seemed to have gotten wors-

Hinata drops her empty bowl with a clatter and I look up, startled. She looks straight at me for the first time and I'm shocked by the look in her eyes.

She's furious.

"Why did you lie to me?" she whispers, literally shaking with anger.

I frown, "What are you-"

She smashes her fist against the table and I jump back in my seat. Yoshiko has disappeared from the room while I wasn't looking, apparently sensing that the atmosphere has gone bad.

"Even-Even you," she says, tearing up, "You know, I thought, I-so stupid- I thought that you wouldn't do a thing like that. I thought I could trust you."

A tear trails down her cheek and then another.

My throat goes dry and I open my mouth, but she won't let me speak.

" Everyone-You know, everyone always lies to me. Even my own goddamn parents. And I thought that you wou-"

"What was I supposed to say?" I ask angrily, but it's not me talking because it can't be. I wouldn't say anything like that to Hinata. Hell, I'm not even angry.

"What the fuck was I supposed to say?!" I repeat, starting to shake myself, "'Oh, by the way, I'm a fucking hobo!' That's bullshit and you know it!"

She looks just about as shocked as I feel and it hurts, but I can't stop talking.

"You-You can't just go out and say stuff like that!" I continue furiously, "You-You're the first person I've ever told, you know! Other people…other people know but I've never actually had to t-tell someone! I-I…I never had the nerve to tell someone."

I'm nearly shouting now and it's stupid, and I know it's stupid. I know that Hinata's only saying this because she's in shock. I guess I'm just really good at hiding things and lying to people-

-and myself-

-because it looks like she didn't have any suspicions. But even so, I shouldn't be yelling at her because she's really upset already, and me telling her stuff about before didn't help. Because this isn't some stupid T.V. show where two friends yell at each other and then are suddenly okay again. And more than being angry (which I'm not) or being stubborn, I really, really don't want to lose Hinata.

"Th-This isn't about you," Hinata says and she almost sound guilty, "It's about…it's about me and how I-I can't- I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-"

"No, you're right!" I say loudly in that angry tone that is killing me, "It is about you, so…so-for now- just ignore all the other stuff, okay?"

She just looks at me for awhile and doesn't seem convinced. The sound of footsteps comes from the floor above us and I look up automatically and remember that there are other people in the house. And that at least one of them has heard my tirade.

"I couldn't really sleep well last night," Hinata whispers, not looking at me, "I kept trying…trying to imagine it and I couldn't. I just-I should've, I should've noticed. Looking back on it, there were so many signs, but I didn't even n-notice!" Her hands shake, "I was so preoccupied with my own, selfish, stupid-"

"Don't say that!" I hiss and suddenly I really am angry, "Don't you dare say that! I'm-I wasn't…Ma-Maybe I exaggerated last night, but I was okay…mostly…"

-liar-

"Winters wer-were hard, but I was-I am alright. It wasn't as bad as you're thinking, I'm sure…"

-liar-

"I wasn't…there are people out there who are much worse than I was. I-there's people starving in other countries! I wasn't like that! I wasn't-"

-LIAR-

Hinata wants to believe me, I can tell, but she doesn't. She's looking at me with this look, this look, that I know from high school teachers that felt bad for me because I never had any friends, from Tenten sometimes, from people in the street, from workers at the agency and I want to tell her to stop it, to stop looking at me, just stop it!

"This isn't, this shouldn't be about me, because-" I don't even know what I'm saying anymore, all I know is that I have to get that goddamn look off her face, "Because…you just have to be happy, okay? There isn't-it's not, you…you just have to, alright?"

She snorts and smiles sadly at my words.

"Yeah," she says, wiping her eyes, "Sure, I-I'll try.

And it's sad, but I know that's all I'm going to get, all she can promise.

"Alright," I say and try to smile, though I think it comes out as more of a grimace.

"I hope," Hinata says with obvious hesitation, "that I'm not imposing on your…umm…"

I pause, "It's fine," I say after a while, because I realize that I don't know what to call them, "Do you need anything else…?"

"A-A shower would be nice," she says shyly.

"Sure," I say and suddenly feel lightheaded, "Though you had better hurry up before Konohamaru gets in and hogs all the hot water."

"'Konohamaru?'" she repeats, confused.

I wince, "Er…don't ask, alright?"

I borrow some stain remover from Yoshiro and attempt to wash out the stains in Hinata's sweater while she's in the shower. I mostly get them out, but there still is a slight residue left that I don't think is going to go away. Maybe a dry cleaner could get it out. Defeated, I put the sweater in the dryer and then go back upstairs again. The shower is still running, so I go back into my room, intending to read another chapter of a novel I've been working on for a few weeks while I wait.

I sit down on the bed and move the covers back to find Hinata's cell phone. She must have turned it off after calling me so I flip it open and turn it on.

There are fifty-two missed calls from 'Kiba-kun' and six from 'Neji-ni-san.' I gape. She didn't even tell Inuzuka she was here?! I imagine Inuzuka freaking out and running around in circles, and wince. I stand up to knock on the bathroom door and tell her that she should call him when she gets out, but freeze halfway through. What if she's too embarrassed to call him? I can totally see that happening and even if she's not ready to go back yet, I should at least let him know she's okay.

Making my decision, I go through her Contacts list and call him back. He answers halfway through the first ring, sounding scared and out of breath.

"Hinata!!" he gasps, "Where the hell are you? I thought you'd-"

"This isn't Hinata," I say calmly, but feel intensely awkward, "It's Haruno."

"Ha-Haruno? What are you-Where's Hinata? Why do you have her ph-"

"Hinata's at my place," I say and then suddenly realize that I don't know if Inuzuka knows.

"Why-" he starts weakly.

"She called me," I say and hope that Hinata fucking told him, 'cause otherwise I'm screwed, "at 3 o'clock in the morning and asked me to pick her up."

"Wha-What happened? Is she alright?"

He sounds exhausted. I wonder if he's been up all night.

"Do you know where she was last night?" I ask instead of answering his question.

"No, I got back from my part-time job and there was a note on the table saying that she had to do something and that she'd be back for dinner, but she never showed up, so I-"

"She told me she was at her father's house," I say wearily, "He called her and asked to see her."

"Is she okay? Did he-" His tone goes angry. "What did that bastard do to her?!"

"They yelled at each other a bit, I think. Then she left, but forgot her wallet, so she couldn't get home."

I feel a headache coming on and rub my temple absentmindedly.

"Is-She's there, right? Can I speak to her?"

"She's in the shower right now," I reply, "She doesn't know I'm calling. I wasn't sure if she would want me to call, but I figured you'd be worried."

I take a few steps back and look out my bedroom door. The bathroom door is still closed.

"Nope, she's still in the shower. But, look, Inuzuka, there's something I have to-"

It's at this point that Konohamaru pokes his head into my room, bleary-eyed and messy haired from sleep.

"Nee-san, is that your friend in the shower? 'Cause Okaa-san's in the kitchen and Ojii-san's still sleepin-"

"Shhh!!" I hiss, holding a finger to my lips and pressing the speaker against my chest, "I'll talk to you later!"

Konohamaru scowls, but totters off down the hall. I press the phone back to my ear again and sigh.

"Sorry about that, that was…" I shut the door of my room and sit down on the bed, "Look, Inuzuka, there's something you need to know. I really, really don't want to tell you this and I'm hoping you already know, but if I have to, I will."

I hear him sigh on the other end of the line, "She cut herself, didn't she?"

All the tension goes out of my shoulders and I slump against the wall. He knows. Good.

"Yeah," I say, "That's-you know, that's…that's good. She told you then."

"What are you talking about?" he asks sounding suddenly suspicious, "Are you saying that you knew-"

"I've known since February. You'll remember we were roommates on our class trip."

I hear a quick intake of breath on the other line, "Inuzuka? You okay?"

"I-Yeah, I'm fine. I just- I didn't know that she…" He gasps and I wonder for a second if he's crying, "And it's all…it's all the bastard's fault. He's one of the few people who if I ever met in a dark alley…shit!"

"Where's your place?" he asks after a long pause in which I shift my weight from foot to foot and hope Hinata doesn't come out of the shower, "I'll come and pick her up."

"Look, I can take her to the train station," I say, because there's no way I'm letting him come here, "But lemme ask her first, I'm not sure if she's ready, you know. I mean, I just-"

"Yeah, I know," he says, sounding tired again, "I understand. Just could you…could you have her call me. I-If she wants to, of course."

"Of course."

"Thanks, Haruno."

"No problem," I reply and flip the phone closed.

I lean over and cradle my head in my hands. I stay like that until Hinata opens the door, still wearing my pajamas.

"Sakura-san?" she says questioningly, "Are you feeling alrig…" she trails off as she recognizes her cell phone in my hand and her face goes expressionless.

"What do you want to do?" I ask, staring at the wooden floor of my room.

"I wouldn't want to impose," she says without emotion.

My head jerks up and I turn to look at her, "That wasn't what I meant."

The hard look on her face fades and she sighs. Hinata comes forward to sit next to me on the bed.

"What did he say?" she asks quietly.

"He was really scared." My voice is shaking and I don't really know why. I mean, after all, it's just Inuzuka. But…but I've never heard him so serious before. I've always known him as this insensitive, loudmouthed guy. And hearing him talk like that-so desperately, so hopelessly-makes me feel like there really isn't anything I can do for Hinata. Like I should have told someone ages ago instead of keeping it a secret.

Because if I don't do something, maybe I'll regret it for the rest of my life. And the fact of the matter is that I already have too many regrets. There was a time in my life that I told myself that I'd never regret anything, no matter how bad things got, but that's easier said than done.

"Really, really, scared," I say again.

Hinata turns her head away from me and starts blinking furiously.

"He wanted to see you, but I told him I'd have to ask you first."

Hinata takes a shaky breath and then another. She seems to be on the verge of tears, but is forcing them back.

"…You should probably call him."

"Yeah," she gasps out, "I'll do that."

I hand her the phone and leave the room, closing the door behind me. I go downstairs to find Konohamaru, Yoshiko, and Sarutobi waiting for me.

"I'm…I'm really, really sorry," I start before they can say anything, "I-She called me really early in the morning, right when I got back from work, and she had no way to get home, so I-"

"Whoa, calm down," Sarutobi says, holding up his hands, "I'm not mad. I was just going to ask whether…" he pauses and glances at Yoshiko, "whether she's alright. I understand that she was…injured."

I open my mouth quickly, but then close it, rethinking what I was about to say.

"Okaa-san said she cut herself," Konohamaru says in his usual tactless way, leaning forward to take in my reaction.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Yoshiko wince.

"Yes," I say slowly after a bit, "She…she does that. Sometimes."

"So…uh…" Konohamaru mumbles, sounding almost embarrassed. I frown, what's with this reaction? Did he not believe his mother? "She really…tried to kill herself?"

"No!" I say vehemently, "She wouldn'…"

But as I start to think about it, how would I know if she did? I'm not just thinking about last night, because there definitely wasn't enough blood for that. But what if she has before and didn't tell me about it? Because if she did that then she really needs more help than I'll ever be able to give her. I feel my chest go cold and my throat dry. This can't be true. This can't be-

I close my mouth, turn around, and make for the stairs.

"That's not true, Konohamaru," Yoshiko says sharply.

I turn back and stare at the odd expression on her face.

"If she wanted to kill herself she would have to cut down her wrist," she closes her eyes and sighs audibly, "and her cuts were across."

The silence that follows is long and awkward, and the only possible thing that could make it worse would be if Hinata chose to enter the room at this point. She doesn't, fortunately, but the mere contemplation of the idea is bad enough.

Yoshiko gathers up the dishes and takes them to the sink, while we all stand there uncertain about what to do.

I escape the room shortly after and make my way up the stairs. Hinata is sitting on my bed and gives me a watery smile.

"He's taking the next train out here," she says, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue, "It'll be at the Konoha Station at 10:37 (1)."

"That's good," I say and resist the temptation to stare at her scarred arms, "I'll get your clothes."

About an hour and a half later, Hinata and I leave the house and take the bus to the train station. She fidgets in her seat and wrings her hands nervously, staring out the window at the buildings and cars as they go by. Inuzuka is waiting when she exits the bus and he grabs her and hugs her right there for a long time. While in the process of looking away and pretending I don't know them, I realize that I've slept outside this station when I was younger more times than I can count.

…Great.

Fortunately, our parting conversation is brief; consisting of me reminding Hinata to call her cousin and then escaping because the lovey-doveyness is making me sick to my stomach.

It also makes me feel kind of depressed and wonder what a certain Yamanaka Ino is doing at the moment…but then I steer away from those thought because I'm on a public bus right now and…yeah.

I don't really feel like going back now, so instead I take the bus to the library. I take out some books on the life and work of Al-Kindi (2) with my newly required library card and sit in a coffee shop in the downtown area for several hours.

At about 4:30 Konohamaru calls like the paranoid brat that he is and I make my way back.

The house is really quiet when I get back. Sarutobi and Yoshiko have gone out to meet up with some old family friends, so I end up studying in my room a bit until Konohamaru drags me downstairs to play his stupid videogames with him. We eat leftovers for dinner and then I do some research on the internet and resist looking up lesbian porn. I know it's there; Jiraiya certainly talks about it enough.

At eight-thirty, I grab my clothes and go off to work, frustrated for reasons I don't understand.

--

"What do you mean, he won't talk to you!?" Temari demands of the unknown person she's talking to on her cell phone, "I don't care if he's embarrassed about you walking in on him and his girlfriend…Don't give me that!"

"Who's she talking to?" I mutter to Suigestsu, who merely shrugs his shoulders.

Annoyed at his unhelpfulness, I turn away and stick my hands in my pockets. My fingers brush the handle of my switchblade and try to resist stabbing him. Annoying bastard.

"Oh, I cannot believe I'm saying this, Gaara, but you need to stop being so goddamn nice!" Temari groans and I think it's only because my hands were on my knife, but I freeze up and everything clicks into place.

She must have said that name a hundred times, but I never recognized it until now.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," she says, "Just figure it out, I hate when you two fight, you know…Bye."

I wait until Suigetsu leaves the room before turning to her, "Who were you talking to?" I ask, trying to sound casual, but my insides feel like they're slowly freezing. This can't be happening to me. This can't be-

"My little brother Gaara," she replies, putting her cell phone back in her purse, "He's still in high school. I'm sure I mentioned him once or twi…" she trails off at the look on my face. "What's wrong?"

"Sa…Sabaku no Gaara?" I ask, my voice barely above a whisper.

She closes her eyes and then opens them, tensing up.

"You've heard of him then," she says dully.

More than heard of him, I think, but I just say: "Yeah."

"He-He's your brother?" is my next question.

"Yes."

Neither of us say anything for a few seconds.

"Look, Sakura," she says tiredly, even more so than when she told me about how she had to drop out of high school, "I don't know what you've heard about my little brother, but he's different now. I'm not going to deny what he did, because all those rumors are probably true anyway, but he's changed. It took him getting really hurt to do it, but-"

My mouth goes dry.

"-he's not the same person he was four years ago. Okay?"

She looks at me pleadingly, as if my opinion matters more than anyone's to her and I want to agree with her, but I can't-

"What are two doing in here?" Sai asks, poking his head inside, "It's almost nine. Hurry up."

He leaves and I grab my clothes.

"I have to change," I tell her and purposefully avoid looking at the hurt look on her face.

--

Waiting tables is as usual; I dodge getting my ass pinched several time, but generally okay. This time, however, something happens that is pretty unusual. I get hit on. By a girl.

"Anything else?" I ask over the music, taking orders for a large group of people sitting really close to the band and it's hurting my ears.

"I dunno," a girl about my age says. She's sitting the closest to me at the end of the table and is using it as a footrest. Though it's hard to tell with all the colored lights everywhere, I think that half her hair is dyed purple.

"Your number?" she asks leaning over and giving me a comprehensive view of her cleavage.

The people around her find this very funny for some reason and don't hold back their laughter. My face goes bright red and I glance warily over to the other side of the room where Temari is handing out drinks.

"Sorry," I say wryly, "Anything within reason?"

"Oooh! Rejected!" someone yells and I look down at my pad of paper in embarrassment.

"Oh, c'mon, don't be like that," she says, looping an arm around my waist and pulling me closer. This happens to me a lot, dammit. Maybe I should yell instead of standing within arm reach of people sitting in booths.

"Er…" I say eloquently, "Sorry, I'm not allowed to get involved with customers. Company policy."

That is such a lie, and even if it wasn't, no one would ever follow it (coughSuigetsucough.)

"Oh, that's a shame," she says and I nearly agree with her, because, after all, she is kinda cute, "Well, come back soon!"

And she releases me, but not before kissing me on the cheek, which causes my face to flare red all over again.

I walk off to the sound of laughter, catcalls, and whistles.

"You okay?" Sai asks while we're waiting for Suigetsu to get the drinks.

Am I? I smile ironically and brush my bangs back.

"Yeah," I say, more to myself than him, and I mean it.

Well, I thought that would be the end of the entire affair, and I was okay with that. It's kinda depressing that my entire mood would improve just because some girl showed interest in me. But whatever, she was hot.

At one I escape to the backroom to take off my makeup and also to avoid Temari drafting me to help throw any stragglers out with Suigetsu and Sai. I'm horrible with makeup remover, so by the time I come out the entire place is empty and I assume everyone has gone home. In my haste, I forgot my street clothes and I pick them up to go back into the bathroom.

Behind me I hear the door that connects the backroom and the main room creak open and the sound causes the hair on the back of my neck to rise. I grab my switchblade from the pocket of my jeans and spin around, clicking it open.

The purple-haired girl from before stands there, leaning against the doorframe in a sultry way that should be illegal.

"Shit!" I interject, clicking the knife shut, "What the hell are you still doing here?"

"Waiting for you," she says, totally blasé and it kinda turns me on.

"Y-You really shouldn't be back here," I say stupidly.

She smiles slyly and I feel my heart skip a beat. Crap…

"That's a nice knife you have there," she says, though she's not looking anywhere near it, but instead is focusing on the miniskirt I'm wearing.

"Err…"

"Bet you have to use it a lot to scare the guys around here off you," she says, smiling and sliding closer.

"Well," I say, trying to keep cool and failing miserably, "Maybe once or twice."

"Wow," she says, lifting her hand and feeling the design on my knife, "Very pretty."

"Are you drunk?" I ask suspiciously, but my squeaks halfway through when her hand finds my hip.

"Do I look drunk?" she teases.

"Maybe a little tipsy," I reply, as I've become a connoisseur of drunkenness. They could use me instead of those fucking blood tests on drunk drivers.

I open my mouth to say I don't know what, but thankfully she leans in and shuts me up.

She's wearing lip gloss that tastes like overly sweetened grapes, which is one of the weirdest tastes in the world. I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing, but I put my hands on her shoulders and kiss her back. The girl slides her hands down my back and then back up again into my hair, deepening the kiss.

"So…" she asks, drawing back to take a breath, "What's your name?"

"It's written on my name tag," I say, trying to be coy. I'm not exactly sure if it's working.

"Oh, 'Sakura,' is it?" she says and pushes up my right breast, pretending to inspect it more closely, "I like it. I'm Haku."

She kisses me again but this time with tongue-which I initially thought was gross, but now is pretty fucking awesome-and then proceeds to grope me again.

"Who is it?" she mutters between kisses, "The girl you like?"

I stiffen in shock and she draws back, still smiling, "It's okay, me too, so I can kinda tell."

I sigh and just go with it because this night cannot get any weirder, "Old school friend," I reply.

"Family friend for me. He's way older, though."

I raise an eyebrow, "'He?'"

"Oh, don't worry," Haku says laughingly, "I'm not experimenting with you, I'm bi."

I roll my eyes and kiss her, hesitantly moving my hands down to her waist.

"You have nice breasts," she whispers in my ear and then kisses there too.

I try to laugh, but it comes out more as a moan, "Why would you say that?" I ask, because let's be truthful here; she's way bigger than I am.

"Yeah, but yours are natural." I blink as she draws back and the expression on her face is serious, "I'm transsexual."

I think I would have been more freaked out except for the look in her eyes. Haku smiles, but I can tell that she's told people before and it hasn't gone well. It reminds me of how I felt when I came out to Konohamaru and was worried about what he would say.

"Wow," I say, "I never would've guessed. You're really pretty!"

She smiles and leans in again when the door opens.

"Oh, Haruno," Suigetsu says, "I left my cell and why are you still…"

He gapes and I wince.

"Oh, dear," Haku says teasingly, brushing her long hair back, "It looks like we've been caught!" She gives me a not-so chaste kiss and turns to grin at Suigetsu, who is still staring.

"I'll show myself out then," she says and waves to me at the last second, "See you around, Sakura-san!"

"What. The. Fuck." Suigetsu exclaims, the second she leaves, "Were you-"

"Shut up," I advise him, surprisingly not embarrassed about the whole thing, "You're sleeping with my friend, so you have no right to talk."

This, of course, has nothing to do with anything, but it certainly shuts him up and it's something I've been wanting to say for a while.

"Here's your cell phone, by the way," I say picking it up off the counter.

I throw it to him and he seems to regain his ability to speak, "Screw you," he says.

"No thanks," I reply throwing my street clothes in my bag, "I don't like men."

I flip him off and exit before he can say anything more. I quickly pull my jeans and coat on in the alley next to the Gama Sennin and walk to the bus stop in an incredibly good mood.

"What are you so happy about?" Konohamaru asks me the next morning.

I tell him. In excruciating detail. The look on his face pretty much makes my life.

(1) I will take this opportunity to state that Japanese trains are ridiculously on time. Unlike me.

(2) Al-Kindi (full name: Abū Yūsuf Yaʻqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Kindī) was one of the founders of cryptology. Among a gigantic list of other things that I don't feel like copying from Wikipedia.

A/N: Haha….ha…ha…ha…

…

Okay, I'm just going to say it: I have absolutely NO reason for why this is so late. I had Writer's Block on some of my other fics and I hate doing things out of order being anal and all… And yeah.

So that's how almost four months went by. God, that's depressing. I would say I hope that this chapter makes up for the long wait, but there was no Ino in it, so… (though I thought the Haku/Sakura was amusing.)

And I have to ask: Did the Haku part surprise you? It totally surprised me. At first I just had it as some random girl, but then I decided that was boring and I couldn't find any other Naruto females that I hadn't used already or don't have plans for in the future. So yeah…

Anyway, I wish I could promise that the next chapter will be out soon, but I've been so busy lately, so I doubt that's going to happen. But I definitely will continue to write MNIHS. It just might take longer than usual (which is possible, this chapter being a case in point.)

And, wow, it's been more than two years since I started this. That's crazy.

So, I hope you continue to read MNIHS and please review (if only to complain how long it took me to post this…)