Chapter 25: Group Outing Pt. 2

The silence was thick and nerving as I walked behind Uchiha-san, who seemed to be in a very bad mood at the moment. With the park packed full of people, we, mostly Uchiha-san, would occasionally bump into someone by accident. Uchiha-san never apologized and merely took to glaring at them instead. While they stood there in shock, I in turn would apologize for him before running after Uchiha-san. He walked a lot faster than I would've preferred him to, since my legs were giving out.

When he finally did come to a stop, I crashed into him from behind, hitting my nose against his back. His back? Looking up, I nearly gaped at the discovery I'd just made. He turned around to look down at me, his eyebrow raised.

"You okay?"

With my mouth still open, I nodded my head furiously. He shrugged and merely returned to walking. I continued to follow him, suddenly self-conscious for reasons I couldn't understand. Blushing, I looked back up at Uchiha-san, who now stood about a half-a-foot taller than me. What I'd failed to notice over the past two months was his sudden growth in height.

He grew taller, I thought to myself. He's taller than me now. For some reason, the very thought of it made me happy, but there was something else as well. Something I couldn't quite put my finger on. Uchiha-san just looked really different to me for some reason.

While walking, Uchiha-san finally spoke. "You didn't have to do any of that, y'know."

"Do what?"

He whirled around to face me, a dark look on his face. "You know exactly what I mean. "

Realization slapped me across the face once I realized what it was that he was talking about. My attempt at saving him had been futile. He instead had switched roles with me and had beaten them with a brutality unfitting of a boy in a girl disguise.

"I'm sorry," I apologized. "I just thought…that if you'd handled it, you might've gotten out of control and reveal yourself in front of everyone."

He snorted. "If you didn't notice, I handled it just fine. It's not like I was gonna suddenly pull off this stupid wig and go crazy on them."

"But…you kind of did," I squeaked. They'd been bloody by the time we'd left. I was surprised that no one had bothered to call the police on us.

He huffed in response, scowling. "Well, it serves them right! Hitting on me is one thing, but hitting on you is-" he stopped midway and muttered something to himself before saying, "Never mind."

"Huh?" I asked, curious to hear him finish the rest of what he had to say.

Uchiha-san growled at this. "Look, just…if other guys start coming up to you like that, and you don't like it, then get as far away from them as possible. "

"Like what?" I blinked. What was he talking about?

Uchiha-san heaved a sigh. "Forget it."

As we passed by several game booths, Uchiha-san grabbed hold of my hand, walking faster as he led me towards God-knows-where. The second our hands touched, however, had been like a spark of electricity through my entire right arm, numbing it completely. My heart began to speed up for reasons I couldn't comprehend, while a hazy-white cloud began to obscure my field-of-vision. My blush worsened as he tightened his hold on my hand, our fingers lacing over each other's as we walked by people.

Uchiha-san may have not noticed, but their stares hadn't gone unnoticed by my eyes. My face felt as though it were practically on fire. How strange we must've looked to all of them, a tall girl leading a boy somewhere by hand.

Speaking of which… "Ano, Uchiha-san, wh-where are we going?"

"Ferris wheel," he answered. "I…I have something to tell you."

My heart began to pick up even more speed as we power-walked towards our destination.

"WHERE ARE THEY?!?!?!?" Haku cried, pulling at his hair in frustration. Tears were streaming down his face by this point as he shook his head. "It's enough that they sleep in the same room together, but if Sasuke's with Hinata-chan any longer, he might see how cute she REALLY is!"

Sakura fought back the urge to twitch at his words. The pink-haired beauty clenched her fists at her sides. Emotions she hadn't thought possible swirled deep within her entire being. The strongest was her fear. She had no idea why, but her sixth sense told her to find the other two soon. If not, something was bound to happen.

And though she wouldn't admit it, it would not please her in the least bit.

"There's one place we didn't check yet," Sakura said, her voice even despite the strange turmoil she felt.

Haku blinked at her. "Where?"

The second Sakura pointed at the large Ferris wheel, Haku ran like mad towards it, pulling Sakura after him.

Just as the operator was about to help me up onto the gondola, Uchiha-san shoved away the man's hand, giving him a spine-chilling glare before helping me up himself. As Uchiha-san climbed in after me, the man muttered to Uchiha-san "Enjoy the ride, miss," before shutting the door. As soon as the locks clicked in place, we were on our way up, coming to a stop as the gondola below us came to a halt for the next set of passengers.

Uchiha-san sat across from me, one leg over the other as he leaned back with his arms crossed, staring out the window.

I fidgeted nervously in my seat, glancing up at him every once-in-awhile from my lap. What was it that he wanted to tell me? And if he wanted to tell me something, then why wasn't he saying anything? I honestly couldn't stand the silence and decided to speak up first.

"Um, Uchiha-san?"

He lazily turned his head around in my direction. "Hn?"

"Y-You said that you had something you w-wanted to tell me?"

He sighed and looked out the window again. "Oh yeah, that." Straightening his position properly this time so that he faced me, Uchiha-san leaned forward, elbows on his knees, chin resting on his overlapped hands. My body tensed at the serious look on his face. There were a few times where he'd been serious, but never like this. Uchiha-san was…incredibly different. There was something about him that made my heart pound even more than necessary. The feeling was strange, but…I kind of liked it.

"Hinata," he began, his voice deeper than normal, contradicting the way he was currently dressed.

"Y-Yes?"

He sighed. "The truth is…I've wanted to tell you this for awhile, but…I never really got a chance to bring it up until now."

"W-What is it?" My heart began to pick up speed for the third time that day.

He looked away before continuing. "That is…the real reason me and Haku are posing as girls at your school."

"Oh, I-I see." A sense of disappointment lingered momentarily. Exactly what was it that I had been expecting? Suddenly interested, I gulped and decided to focus on Uchiha-san, hoping that it wasn't anything crime-related.

"My stupid brother loves to gamble."

"Eh?"

"And because of his stupid addiction, he, along with the transvestite's stupid uncle decided to go-all-out with a yakuza group. Of all the people to associate with-" he growled, kicking at the gondola. Raking a hand through his hair in frustration, Uchiha-san sighed. "Point is-he lost everything. From the savings our parents had left us to the house we used to live in, the idiot…Lost. Everything. So now that the yakuza are after them, I think they're called the Akatsuki or something, it figures that they'd be after us too. And since my brother just happened to be a good acquaintance of the headmistress at your school, she agreed to let the two of us hide there while the other two ran off somewhere else, doing God-knows-what." Uchiha-san rolled his eyes. "So yeah, that's our story as far as I'm aware of. Did that idiot transvestite tell you anything else aside from what I just said?"

I shook my head. "I only remember the one time where Haku-san had said that the reason was embarrassing."

Uchiha-san flushed red as I said this. After clearing his throat, the blush disappeared as fast as it had come. "Well, yeah, it actually is embarrassing now that I think about it."

I smiled. Uchiha-san could be so cute sometimes. "There's nothing to be embarrassed about. In fact, if it weren't for your brother, we never would've met at all."

Uchiha-san blushed at this and frowned. "You have a bad habit for saying weird things."

"Eh? D-Do I really?"

From the smirk on his face, he seemed to enjoy my reaction. "There's nothing wrong with that though, I guess." His smirk was replaced with a small smile. "I kind of like it."

The blood rushed to my head the second the word 'like' came from his mouth. He noticed my blush and returned to blushing as well. "Er…I don't mean it like-I mean…we're friends, right?"

I nodded my head and forced a smile on my face. "Y-Yes, of course we are." Once the words left my mouth, our gondola came to a halt at the very top of the ride. I got up from my seat to look out the window, amazed at the view we were provided with. A sense of déjà vu overcame me then and I was reminded of my first date here with Sai-san. Blushing, I glanced over at Uchiha-san who stared at me, his gaze fixed with my own. My heart sped up and I turned away, returning my eyes to the amusement park below.

What's wrong with me? Why do I suddenly feel so self-conscious around Uchiha-san?

As I continued to look out the window, I caught sight of two people in the gondola next to ours waving their arms around frantically. I pressed my face against the glass to get a better look at them. Upon realizing who the two were, I broke out into a smile and turned to Uchiha-san.

"Uchiha-san, look! Sakura and Haku-san are on the Ferris wheel too!"

Meanwhile:

"SASUKE, YOU BASTARD!!!!" Haku cried, pressing his face up against the glass window as well. Tears streamed down his face as he caught sight of his angel in the gondola above him, smiling down at both him and Sakura. The Uchiha was without-a-doubt beside her, rolling his eyes.

Sakura on the other hand cracked her knuckles, several veins popping near her forehead.

A/N: Wow, it's been so long since I've updated this story. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I lost interest in it or anything, the writer's block just happened to attack me at the wrong time. I still love this story as well as the rest. And I plan on updating the rest of those soon too, just not sure when.

About Sasuke's sudden revelation, like I said, it wasn't anything too serious. I actually had their reason planned out from the beginning, but with the excitement of typing everything up, I forgot to add it in around chapter 4 or so. So sorry about that!

Anyways, please review! Those of you who've stuck with me this far, I cannot thank you enough. I really appreciate the reviews you leave for me. You know who you guys are!

Oh, and about Hinata's fever, I don't know what it was that I was thinking when I put down 117 degrees. I must've high or something when I did that, but yeah, being the idiot that I am, please ignore that small mistake.