Chapter 7

"It was you."

Sasuke spun around to face the owner of the voice and instinctively pushed Hinata behind his back. Naruto was standing in the bathroom door, leaning casually against the doorframe with one shoulder and his arms folded in front of his chest. There was something unnerving in his expression as he eyed his two dark-haired classmates.

"It was me," Sasuke answered harshly and put an arm in front of Hinata as if he wanted to protect her from the blond at all costs.

Naruto grunted and pushed himself away from the doorframe. He stepped into the bathroom and closed the door behind himself. Hinata's face blanched when she recognized the clicking sound as Naruto locked the door from the inside. Sasuke took a step back unconsciously, forcing her to do the same. She could feel the sink painfully pressing into her waist, but she didn't dare to say a word.

She didn't understand anything, but the sudden tension in the room held her back from asking questions. She unwittingly started biting her lower lip when she noticed how stiff Sasuke was in front of her. His whole posture showed he would be ready to fight Naruto if the blond took one more step closer.

Hinata cautiously peeked over Sasuke's shoulder to be able to observe Naruto's expression. The usual mischievous sparkle was gone from his gaze, and instead of the everlasting warmness in his eyes, Hinata only spotted deep pain.

"I get it now. I get why you hate me. I can remember you now."

Sasuke didn't answer. He just kept staring into the ocean blue eyes as he was trying to come up with a plan in his head to help Hinata escape in case Naruto tried to hurt the girl somehow.

Naruto caught a hint of fear in Hinata's eyes, so he tried to soften his expression. He didn't want to scare her.

"I've changed. I won't hurt any of you, don't worry," he said softly and gave them a small smile.

"Do you still have the nerve to say that to my face and smile? After all you've done?" Sasuke suddenly lost his usual calmness and dashed forward to grab Naruto's t-shirt. "I should fucking go to the police," he hissed.

"What's going on?" Hinata whispered, finally gaining enough courage to speak up. She didn't understand a thing and she desperately needed an explanation.

However, she was left with no answer as Sasuke punched Naruto in the face. Hinata screamed as the blond boy lost his balance from both the force and the unexpectedness of the blow and fell to the ground.

"Sasuke!" she rushed next to Naruto intending to help him stand up, but Sasuke grabbed her by the wrist before her hands could reach him. It hurt as he forcefully pulled her back.

"Do you see this, Hinata?" Sasuke let go of her wrist and lifted his t-shirt to show the stab wounds to Hinata again. "He did this."

"What?" Hinata gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. All of a sudden, she felt the room spinning around her.

"He fucking stabbed me with a kitchen knife 5 times in this very house when we were children. He's fucking insane," Sasuke howled.

"Is it true?" Hinata heard her own voice from a distance. She felt like she was outside of her body and was only spectating the scene unfolding in the small bathroom rather than participating in it. "Please say it's not true, Naruto-kun," she begged him with tears in her eyes.

The blond slowly stood up, supporting himself by leaning against the wall behind him. Sasuke had hit him with all his might, and Naruto couldn't feel his face now. He saw in the mirror behind Hinata that his lips had split from Sasuke's punch and he also noticed his nose bleeding a little. It wasn't broken though, he was lucky.

He quickly wiped away the blood from his face and licked his bloody lip clean. He needed to turn his gaze away from his reflection in the mirror, or he would go crazy from seeing the red liquid.

"It's true," he groaned, unable to deny the truth.

Hinata felt sick. She realized her legs were shaking, and she knew they wouldn't support her for long. Her heart was pounding in her chest, the room was spinning around her, and she felt nauseous. She couldn't breathe normally anymore and saw black spots almost everywhere.

She felt entirely disconnected from her own body.

She suddenly became aware of hands slipping under her armpits. She tilted her head back a bit to see whose hands they were, and she recognized Sasuke. She figured she had collapsed, and he had caught her.

Hinata felt her legs leaving the ground as Sasuke took her into his arms. She heard the clicking noise again when Naruto unlocked the bathroom door. She was listening to their voices but couldn't understand the meaning behind their words anymore. It sounded like she was underwater, and they were somewhere far, far away.

"Can I put her there?"

"Yeah."

Hinata felt her body landing on something very soft. Was it… a bed? She believed her eyes were still open, but she couldn't see anything. She tried blinking a few times to gain back her vision, but it didn't help. She suddenly realized that a pair of blue and a pair of black eyes were above her head, inspecting her. She flinched slightly as a hand was gently put on her forehead.

"Stay with us, Hinata-chan, don't close your eyes," she heard a voice. She loved this voice.

She lifted her right hand to touch the face of the blue-eyed boy, but he pulled his head away and disappeared from her sight. Where did he go? She couldn't tell, but the other boy was still there with her. She felt air being blown rhythmically in her face. Was he… fanning her face with his hands?

The blond boy came back. There was something in his hand, but she couldn't tell what it was exactly as she felt her consciousness slowly fading away.

"Oi, don't close your eyes!"

She mentally sighed. These boys didn't understand what she was feeling. The sweet nothingness was calling for her and she happily gave in.

-x-x-x-x-

At first, Hinata only heard distorted voices when she felt her consciousness lazily flowing back to her mind. She wanted to open her eyes to show the owners of the voices that she was awake, but her eyes didn't react to her intention. She then tried to command other parts of her body to move, but none of them obeyed.

She surrendered and was just listening to the voices speaking above her head for a while. She recognized the voice she loved among them, which urged her to give a sign that she was feeling better now.

She managed to blink twice. Her vision was still a bit blurry, but she could see the outlines of someone with blue eyes and blond hair leaning close to her.

"Naruto-kun?" she breathed out. It was hard to talk, her mouth was extremely dry.

"Close enough," the face above her smiled as it leaned back. It wasn't the voice she loved but it was also a pleasant one to listen to. "She's awake. Kushina will stay with her until she feels strong enough to go home. Until then, you two are coming with me."

Hinata felt the bed move a little as the man stood up and his weight left the mattress. She watched him leaving the room with two boys following him. Where was she? Who were these people? Her body was now awake, but she couldn't say the same about her mind. She turned her head to look at the red-haired woman standing next to her.

"You don't have to worry, Hinata-chan. Everything will be fine," she smiled at her reassuringly as she sat down on the bed.

-x-x-x-x-

Naruto plopped himself down in a chair in his father's office. He massaged his head which was pounding from all the alcohol he had drunk tonight. This was definitely not how he had planned for this party to go.

Everything was fine at first, a lot of people came, they all had fun. He remembered hooking up with one of his schoolmates. He was already sobering up and honestly, he kind of regretted doing that. Until that particular event, the night was a real blast, but everything just seemed to go downhill from there.

When he went back to the house to join the party again, he bumped into his annoying distant cousin, Karin and her even more annoying boyfriend, Suigetsu. They started teasing Naruto about being a heartbreaker. It took serious self-discipline not to let Kurama take over his mind and kill them right then and there in front of everyone. Naruto even wondered why he had invited them in the first place.

Karin told him with a giggle that she had seen him with Shion, and Suigetsu explained he had spotted a very, very heartbroken girl in a lavender-colored dress when he had gone to the kitchen to drink something. Karin and Suigetsu had put one and one together and figured the girl would be open for switching places with Shion anytime.

Naruto just rolled his eyes hearing this nonsense but went to find Hinata anyway. He couldn't find her anywhere even after long minutes of searching, he even thought she had gone home already. He decided to check upstairs too, just in case.

He didn't even reach the top of the stairs when he noticed her kissing Sasuke passionately in the bathroom as they hadn't closed the door. He couldn't explain the exact reason, but he felt a little jealousy rising inside him while watching them.

Kurama advised to get rid of Sasuke right then and there but Naruto made it clear to him that he wouldn't hurt his friends. Or the boyfriend of his friend, as he didn't exactly consider Sasuke a friend.

And it happened then. Naruto saw Hinata lifting Sasuke's t-shirt and the stab wounds on his body captured his attention. It clicked almost immediately, all the odd feelings about him knowing the raven-haired boy from somewhere. Sasuke was his childhood friend. His friend whom he had tried to kill to please Kurama.

Kurama cheered inside Naruto's head. He excitedly announced they could finish what they had started all those years ago. And the worst? Naruto truly considered it for a moment.

His memories were a bit blurry after this point. He clearly remembered Sasuke's punch though. Even if he didn't, it was enough to look in a mirror, and his split lip and somewhat swelled nose would immediately bring his memories back.

He could also firmly recall fighting Kurama constantly in his head. That bastard truly desired to kill, or at least hurt Sasuke, but Naruto was strong-willed enough this time to ignore his other personality's tempting.

Another thing he had a vivid memory about was Hinata collapsing. He remembered unlocking the closest room to the bathroom to lay Hinata down there. It was the spare bedroom they never used. He also remembered Sasuke shouting at him to do something. Naruto called his parents and asked them to come home immediately because he didn't know what else to do. They came fairly fast and sent everyone home.

And now he was here in his father's office at 2 AM, with his childhood buddy, Sasuke. Who, of course, wasn't too happy to be reunited with Naruto, and as Naruto watched his father's face, he wasn't happy either.

"What happened to your face, Naruto?" was the first thing Minato asked. He was sitting at his desk with his chin propped on his hands and his eyes squinted at his son's visibly injured face.

Naruto glanced at Sasuke with a smirk before saying, "Sasuke gave me a birthday present."

Sasuke stiffened in his seat. He wanted to punch Naruto again, but he held himself back. He had to avoid getting into more trouble if he wanted to get away from this house once and for all.

"I see. Could any of you explain what happened exactly? I'm not sure I understood Naruto well enough on the phone."

"Well," Naruto cleared his throat. "I invited Hinata-chan and her boyfriend to the party, she's the girl upstairs. The boyfriend happens to be Sasuke. Who happens to be my friend who… you know. But I didn't know that! But then I saw his wounds and… well… things escalated quickly."

Naruto was rubbing the back of his neck to hide how uncomfortable he was, but in fact, he just gave it away with that subconscious movement. Sasuke was undoubtedly upset with the situation too, as he was holding onto the armrest of his chair so hard his knuckles turned white.

Minato pinched the bridge of his nose in distress. He couldn't believe this unlucky turn of events. He had promised Sasuke's parents that Naruto wouldn't go near their son ever again, and yet, he was here, sitting right next to him.

"We are classmates," Sasuke noted and Minato's eyes widened in shock. "I didn't tell about it to my parents. Don't worry," Sasuke added, seeing the older blond's slightly fearful expression.

Minato wanted to punch himself for his stupid mistake. He hadn't checked the list of students before picking a suitable high school for Naruto in Konoha. An amateur mistake, the exact kind that he wasn't used to making. If Sasuke's parents heard a word about this, they would go to the police without a doubt.

"So, why didn't you?" Minato looked at Sasuke with question in his eyes. He would understand if the boy felt threatened by Naruto's presence.

"Sir, with respect, I know you saved my life. I could easily be dead if you weren't there that day, but I just don't want to do anything with you or your family anymore. I can tolerate Naruto being my classmate as long as he keeps his distance from me or Hinata. That's all I want."

Minato nodded. Understandable. He was kind of grateful for the young boy for how he handled this unfortunate situation.

"He will do just that," Minato held up his hand to stop Naruto from answering as he could see his son was about to disagree. "And you don't have to worry about something like… that happening again. He's on medication and goes to therapy regularly."

Naruto drew in a sharp breath in surprise. His father had never used the word therapy before in front of him.

"As I said, I don't care. I just want him to leave us alone," Sasuke stood up from his seat. "I'm going to check up on Hinata and we're going home," he stated and walked out the room without saying goodbye.

"Dad, I –"

"Why didn't you tell me about Sasuke before?" Minato sounded terrifyingly serious.

"I told you, I didn't know it was him. I didn't recognize him," Naruto looked at the ground. He didn't want to see that expression on his father's face.

Minato sighed. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to bring Naruto back to Konoha. However, he was here now anyway, so Minato had to manage this situation the best he could.

"You know, I had an arrangement with Sasuke's parents in order to protect you from possibly going to juvenile prison. I vowed to them that they would never see you again and you would never go near their son, ever again. They also know about your condition. It was hard to convince them even with that reasoning, but I did everything I could to protect you. You might have figured already, but this is why you had to move to Suna with your mother so suddenly. You should be grateful to Sasuke for not telling about you to his parents."

Naruto's eyes twitched. He suspected the whole moving-to-Suna thing had something to do with the events of his 10th birthday party, but it was different only suspecting and knowing it for sure. He felt his heart ache. He caused so much suffering for his parents.

"I want you to respect Sasuke's wishes and keep your distance from both him and the girl."

"But Dad –" Naruto jumped up from his seat, trying to object.

"No buts, Naruto," Minato's voice was stern. "Please try to understand the situation you're in."

Naruto felt like someone poured ice-cold water on him. He understood the reason behind keeping his distance from Sasuke. In fact, he would do that even without his father asking him, but he didn't want to cut ties with Hinata. They grew to be quite close friends. Also, deep down he wished she would stop whatever she had going on with Sasuke and maybe… try something with him instead. But he wouldn't say that out loud for sure.

Naruto had noticed how beautiful Hinata was today. The dress she wore looked perfect on her figure, and her hair… He noticed the make-up also, but he didn't care much about that. She was beautiful even without all that. He hated to admit it, but he was thinking about Hinata even while kissing Shion.

He clenched his fists and nodded. He ignored Kurama screaming in his head.

-x-x-x-x-

Hinata thanked Naruto's mom for everything and apologized for the trouble. Kushina just laughed and waved them goodbye. Hinata bowed deeply and got in Sasuke's car so he could take her home as he had promised to her father.

"Do you understand now?" he asked suddenly after a long silence.

Hinata glanced at him. She still felt a bit dizzy, but she was aware that all that had happened tonight weren't just some drunken dream, unfortunately.

"I do," she whispered.

She really did and felt her heart ache for Sasuke. However, at the same time, she felt her heart ache for Naruto, too. Kushina had briefly told Hinata about Naruto's condition and she had explained that he was taking meds and attending therapy. She had also asked Hinata not to tell anyone about this so Naruto could live a normal life. She had agreed.

Hinata wondered if she was a bad person for not taking Sasuke's side in the matter unequivocally. She just couldn't see Naruto as someone evil in this story. He had a mental illness, but he was working on suppressing his other personality. He just needed friends and an opportunity to live a normal life, and she knew she wanted to stand beside him to help him.

They didn't say any other word during the car ride home. Hinata was thankful that Sasuke didn't bring up their kiss because she wasn't ready to talk about that at all.

When they arrived at the Hyuuga residence, Hinata swiftly thanked Sasuke for taking her home before getting out of the car and said a quick goodbye. Sasuke gestured her to go inside, and she did just that. She only heard Sasuke speeding off when she was already inside the house.

It was silent, but it was natural as it was almost 3 AM. She tiptoed to her room and took a long shower in her bathroom. She cleaned her face and undid her hair, then changed to her pajamas and climbed into her bed.

She tried to sleep but she couldn't. There was just too much on her mind and she didn't want to be alone. She sighed and climbed out of her bed. She made her way toward Hanabi's room. She was standing in front of the door uncertainly for a while, but she eventually decided to go in.

Hanabi immediately woke up as she heard the cracks of her door while it was being opened. She sleepily looked at the dark figure in her room.

"Onee-chan, is that you? What are you doing here? Is everything okay? What time is it?"

Hinata didn't answer, just closed the door behind herself and climbed into her sister's bed. She slipped close to her and hugged Hanabi tightly.

"Can I stay here for a bit?" she whispered into her hair.

Hanabi was stunned but nodded anyway. She sensed something had happened at the party, but she didn't want to ask. She would talk to her older sister in the morning.

Author's Note: This chapter was so much harder to write than I initially thought. I literally wrote this two times because I didn't like the first version, lol.

Thank you abbyk1114, sloppykisses1, and my kind guest readers for the reviews! It's always so good to see your reactions, so thanks a lot!