Blossoming Burnt Petals

By Ayesha Raees

Chapter Twenty Eight

Uncomfortable

The opposite words

Are usually lies

But the feeling that brews

Afterwards

Tends to be the truth

Have you ever heard your heart beat when you are super nervous? Really… If you hold your breath for a while and the urge to rush to the bathroom, you will feel as though someone is impatiently knocking their fists hard on your chest. BAM BAM BAM. I know it's not biologically possible for the heart to sound like that but I could bet anything that's how my heart was beating when the two tall figures confronted me. After a black out…we all found ourselves on the roof, sharing lunches and sitting in utter silence.

Naruto and Sakura. Blond and Pink. Golden and Ruby. Bright and vibrant. Beautiful and gorgeous. I could just go on and on about how they looked sitting crossed legged on the cemented ground under the bright sun as the gentle wind played with their hair.

A funny feeling came over me as I put my chin on my knees and dazed at them across from me; they really looked good together.

BAM BAM BAM.

Oh yes. Thinking about myself for a change; I had a bad feeling about this.

Sakura was examining the bread in front of her with calculating eyes and giving envious looks at Naruto who was stuffing his third loaf. They had offered me the bread too but yeah… you can probably guess how that worked out.

Sakura stashed the bread she was holding in front of Naruto, cleared her throat and stared directly at me. I stopped breathing.

"Hinata,"

I acknowledged her with a stare.

"You probably know what we want to talk about," she mused, looking at me with calculating eyes. As I was so impressively frozen, I, again, gave her a blank look.

"Wow. She is so like that teme," Naruto suddenly broke in, leaning towards me to give me a wide-eyed look as though he hadn't seen something like me before.

Sakura whipped her head angrily at him and elbowed him painfully at his side. He jumped a little and turned towards her.

"What? She IS! I have never heard a single word from her at all!"

"That doesn't mean that she is like Sasuke!"

"EH! Sasuke doesn't talk. She doesn't talk. THEY BOTH MATCH!"

"SASUKE IS MUTE! SHE IS NOT! I HAVE HEARD HER SPEAK BEFORE!"

"SASUKE IS NOT MUTE! We actually had a decent conversation just a few days back," he said proudly as though it was some sort of honour.

Sakura gaped at him.

"What? No way. No freaking way!"

"YES WAY!"

Sakura seemed to be frozen on the spot; her mouth half open as she disbelievingly stared at Naruto. Naruto, sensing something wrong, suddenly looked panicked. Her eyes begin to water. I also panicked. A little.

"H-he… talked? To y-you? W-why?"

Her broken voice suddenly took me off guard. My colourless eyes took in her suddenly deteriorating coloured form. She was always so bright and cheerful, so confident and beautiful… was it all a façade? Her once high head had lowered and her styled hair suddenly became dishevelled and fell on her face but even I could see her clenched mouth holding back loud threatening sobs as tears rolled down her face.

"Erm… Sakura-chan? Are you…okay?" Naruto suddenly seemed guilty and uncomfortable at the sudden change of events. But I knew better. He had probably unleashed some hidden wounds that Sakura was trying to hide. I felt a knot form in my throat.

"Did you know?" Sakura heavily breathed out, "that I have been with him since forever? Since… we-we were little kids?"

Silence. Naruto seemed to be frozen. I couldn't tell much about myself.

"A-and… we have been… b-b-best friends… u-until t-that accident?"

Accident?

A sudden flash of my dream came rushing towards me and my eyes widened and my back straightened, suddenly feeling a strange vibe come through my body.

"Accident?" Naruto muttered his confusion too but Sakura was too self-observed in herself to hear him.

"That fucking accident changed everything after that! Like I didn't even matter to him!"

Her voice had become harsher and angrier. I could feel emotion after emotion pile up on her already broken form as new shed tears rolled down her face.

"He changed but still… I was with him. I was always with him. I want to be always with him!"

"Sasuke is my fiancée!"

"Stay away from him!"

I felt my heart drop fast.

"Yet… yet… he wouldn't let me. You two…. Damn," she jerked her head straight to glare angrily at us as though it was our entire fault.

"You two came to his life just a few weeks before! How come he cares about you two more then he does for me! He… found a new best friend… He… found a new," her eyes stared daggers at me and what came next was nothing but a snarl, "lover,"

L-lover?

Lover?

As in… lover?

My heart stopped right then and there. I could feel an expression of shock and fright came over my face as my eyes glazed over. I knew that Sakura and I were staring at each other, one in hurt and one in utter fright and shock.

And then she moved. I really had a feeling that she was going to slap me across the face. I embraced for it but instead, brokenly, she put her hands on my shoulders and stared at me right in the eye.

"Why?"

Why?

"Tell me,"

Why what?

She shoved me against the wall and Naruto reached forward to rescue me from her clutches but he was shunned by a harsh glare from Sakura.

"Speak damn it,"

"I-"

"P-please,"

I gulped.

"I don't… think… I am the right person to ask that from,"

She froze. Her eyes widened and I probably knew how I looked like a few minutes before in the conversation. Wide eyed and shocked… as though realization had dawned upon us.

"S-sasuke and I… are not even friends,"

My eyes were becoming a little steely and my feelings were suddenly becoming a little numb.

"Th-then why is he acting like this today?"

"Yeah," Naruto suddenly but in worriedly, "he is all cheerful and well… conversing,"

"I-I… guess that shows proof that we are… n-nothing," I tried to smile but realized that it was probably not the right moment to. Though I was surprised to see doubtful looks on both of their faces. Sakura sighed loudly and let go of me, rubbing her tear-strained face from earlier. Suddenly, I felt a little more comfortable around the current environment. Sounding a little inhuman, but Sakura broken form had eased the tension out of me a little.

"I highly doubt that," Naruto said straight-forwardly.

"No way duh," Sakura muttered.

"Did something happen?"

Sakura stopped trying to clip her hair to look at me. I could feel their big bright eyes staring at me expectantly for a tale to tell and I felt rather exposed… as though they already knew half of the things already.

I never had a friend. The only companion I ever dared to share my thoughts and concerns with was my deceased mother…which was obviously a very long time ago. The next person was Sasuke. I had dared to tell him my darkest and deepest of secrets including the rape threat from Neji which even I wanted to forget.

How can they possibly expect me to tell them so easily? I wasn't Sakura who can just spill her heart in front of a total stranger like me. Neither was I Naruto who babbled nonsense non-stop to every audience.

No. I was Hyuuga Hinata. The girl who was abused and alone.

"Nothing. Nothing happened," I whispered in a low weak voice, my thoughts piling above me.

Their expressions again told me that they knew I was lying but I was surprised to see the element of hurt on both of their faces.

"Wait. You are telling me you can't tell me after I had broken in front of you? What are you? Heartless?" Sakura snapped at me whereas Naruto patted her on her back.

Feeling taken aback to what Sakura had said, I expected something more outrageous from Naruto but surprisingly he was gentler.

"I understand that you feel what happened is your personal burden but Hinata-chan… we are all friends here. And whatever you say about it, you probably care about Sasuke more then us two,"

I could feel the denying expression on Sakura's face but my heart thudded heavily against my chest.

That was right. I cared for Sasuke.

"You care for him. It doesn't matter what relationship you have with him. You care about what he thinks and what he says. You even slapped him when he was acting all gloomy-"

"Yeah about that I wanted to kno-"

Sakura was interrupted by Naruto again who slightly poked her at the side, much to her displeasure.

"… so don't think that you have got nothing to do with him. You care about him. We care about him. And he is damn lucky to have us worrying about him," he said the last part in a slow murmur.

"So… you are not alone in this, Hinata," surprisingly it was Sakura who said those words, smiling gently at me as though I was the child in pain.

Maybe I really was one.

As their words sink in, I buried my head in my knees and blushed brightly, not wanting to let them see my emotional face and my beating heart.

And at that moment… I decided to just let it all go.


yayayaya. Another Chappie. And this one is comparatively quicker then the last one. :'3 Sorry for my inactiveness. :( So busy with exams and life. T_T Also most of you guys said that they had to read the last few chapters in order to understand whats up. I am sorry for that. I have the next chapter written and read to post and i will do so tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. So from now on... slightly quicker updates.

I was also kinda saddened to see that i lost my readers and my reviewers. :c but i guess it can't be helped because i, myself, am a lazy bum. T_T

Thanks for the amazing reviews! :D They encouraged me to write more! :) and and and... thanks for participating in my guess games. x'D But it was naruto and sakura. x'D hohoho. xD

btw. those who are wondering; Gaara and Kiba doesn't really have much of a main role. At least not Kiba. I just wanted a bully and I can't just imagine Gaara being one. x'D

Anyhow. God do i babble. :P I hope you enjoyed this chappie. :D READ AND REVIEW! :D