Author's Note: Hello everyone, I just wanted to provide a quick update! I have heard your request for a SasuSaku focused fanfic and one is currently in the works entitled Cradle. I can't give you a release date on that story yet but do know that I am working extremely hard to get it done! In the meantime, please continue to enjoy Opposites Attract and Exorcist.

P.S.: For whatever reason, I can't write direct responses to guest reviews so I apologize for that! I know in the past that I was able to do so but they updated whenever and now I can't so, there's that.

P.S.S.: I am currently taking request for one-shots! I want to do a series of one-shots for Valentine's Day and the month of February so if you have couple you'd like to see in specific scenarios, either leave me a review or send me a message!

Last Time:

"Lady Hiyori, Master Hiashi," Umino Iruka spoke up as he stood by casually at the divide in the partition, "they're ready for you."

Hiyori nodded before standing up and taking ahold of Hiashi's hand. She gave his hand a firm squeeze and gave Hanabi one more hug before they made their way outside to the podium, questions already beginning to be hurled towards them.

"Good evening," Hiashi began, the questions calming down as they prepared to hear what he had to say, "first off, my wife and I – the Hyuuga Clan as a whole really – would like to thank the Konoha Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for all their efforts in searching for and returning our daughter back home to us."

Opposites Attract: Chapter 21 – "This is the Truth"

Hinata let out a heavy sigh as she twirled her pencil and continued to watch her professor's lecture. She had checked out a little while ago but she scribbled down random words whenever she noticed her other classmates doing the same. And every few minutes or so, she would glance at her phone in hopes of getting an update but just like the days before, there was nothing.

"Seems like our lovely queen is too good to take her own notes now," one girl whispered from the row behind Hinata's. "Poor Toneri-kun. I wish he would just realize that she's using him so she doesn't have to do any of her own work."

Hinata stopped twirling her pen and glanced over her shoulder at the girl. She must've worn a new expression because the girl seemed confused yet slightly frightened by what she saw in Hinata's eyes and on her face. But then Hinata smiled at her before turning her attention back on the teacher.

"Don't worry Hinata," Toneri spoke now, "I don't mind. I know you and your family have been going through a lot since Hanabi got home and it's not unnatural for you to zone out every once and a while."

"Mr. Outsutsuki," their teacher called, "I take it what you have to say is far more interesting than what I'm saying. Tell me, would you mind sharing with the class what you were discussing with Ms. Hyuuga?"

"Oh," Toneri turned a bit pink as everyone looked at him, "my apologies, Sensei. Please, continue. I'll be quiet."

"Thank you Mr. Outsutsuki," their teacher said this with a smile before continuing to pace and give her lecture. While she did this, she continuously eyed Hinata's section of the classroom in hopes of catching someone else and potentially embarrass them as well.

Three weeks had passed since the incident with Hanabi and things since then have been just a bit hectic for the Hyuuga. Despite Hiashi's request to give their family privacy, journalist and photographers were camped outside of the Hyuuga Compound gate the following night. And even though it wasn't unnatural for her family to be caught off guard by various journalist and photographers, the amount of them that made themselves at home outside their home was an obnoxious amount and made it nearly impossible to even walk by a window without a flash going off.

The Hyuuga had barricaded themselves in the compound the first week but after coming to the realization that the press wasn't leaving anytime soon, they had to brace themselves for their persistent onslaughts as they drove out and in every day. And it wasn't like things were better at school. Hanabi had her own problems to deal with in the middle school campus, all her classmates coming up with their own theories and ideas of what happened to Hanabi in the thirteen hours she was kidnapped. Luckily Hanabi was never one to feed into gossip so whenever she was approached by a classmate with said theories and ideas, a simple smile with something hidden behind her eyes was enough to get them to leave her alone.

Neji was lucky enough to get the short end of the stick seeing as all the university students were too busy to care and watched the news like everyone else. Not only that, they all knew Neji wasn't going to talk about anything that happened with anyone besides Tenten and even then, he might not talk to her. As for Hinata, she got the shorter end of the stick. The minute word got out she had returned to school after the accident, she was swarmed by fellow classmates who bombarded her with questions. Without Sasuke around, Hinata couldn't make hasty escapes while he intimidated the unwanted crowds. All she could do was force a smile and try and answer around their questions.

Hinata glanced down at her phone once again and tapped the screen awake. When she saw the text message notification, she immediately unlocked her phone and checked it. Once the message was read, she didn't even bother to ask for permission to leave. She simply gathered her things and while she was packing, her teacher noticed.

"Ms. Hyuuga, need I remind you that there are still thirty minutes left?" her teacher called.

"I apologize," Hinata called as she quickly put everything into her satchel and closed the latches. "There's a family emergency and I need to go immediately."

"A family emergency?" Toneri repeated as he stood with Hinata. "I can drive you to wherever you need to go."

"No, thank you though," Hinata said as she shimmied out from her row and pulled her strap over her shoulder. "I apologize for leaving so suddenly Sensei, please excuse me," she called before hurrying out of the room. Once the door was shut and she was sure the hallway was clear, she ran.

soon thereafter: Konoha Central Hospital – Private Suites

Out of breath, Hinata pushed through the double doors and ran straight into his room. Tears filled her eyes as she sat him sitting there with a bit of an exhausted expression and a small smile on his lips. He was in the middle of hugging his mother when she entered and caught sight of her.

"Okaa-chan," Naruto spoke softly, his voice a bit raspy as he gently patted his mother back and felt her let go. He smiled at her before looking at Hinata. "Aren't you supposed to be in class?"

Hinata began to cry as she nodded and dropped her bag. She ran over to him and hugged him tight, his arm wrapping around him and holding her as close as he could. She laced her fingers into his hair as she sobbed into his shoulder.

"I'm so glad you're awake," Hinata cried.

"I'm sorry," Naruto apologized. "I'm so sorry."

Kushina stood by and watched their reunion, her heart swelling at the familiar scene. She wiped away her own tears and when she heard the door swing open, she saw Minato had rushed in. Hinata had turned as well and stepped away from Naruto to not only wipe away her tears but allow Minato to hug his son. And he did.

"Thank goodness," Minato breathed as he held Naruto tight and kissed her forehead repeatedly. He lifted Naruto's face so that they were eye to eye, the two of them having tears in their eyes. "You have no idea how happy I am that you're awake."

"I'm sorry," Naruto apologized. "I should've listened to you."

Minato shook his head as he hugged Naruto again and shushed him. "No, it's my fault. I should've gotten you involved much sooner and all of this could've been avoided. You would've been better trained. You would've known what to do. It's my fault. I'm so sorry."

"What about Sasuke?" Naruto questioned as he looked at his father. "Where is he? Is he okay? And Sakura-chan? Hanabi-chan?"

"Everyone is perfectly fine," Minato answered. "Sasuke woke up last week and after a few more evaluations, he should be able to go home this weekend. Sakura-chan is doing just fine and so is Hanabi-chan. Everyone is perfectly fine."

Naruto let out a sigh of relief, "Thank goodness."

Hinata smiled at the sight of the two of them seeing as she came in multiple times to find Minato sitting by Naruto's bedside with his work in his lap but his eyes fixed on Naruto. Their reunion was short however as Minato's phone rang but as it ran, several young men and a woman came rushing in, all of them trying to shove the other out of the way as they practically dove for Naruto. She was a bit caught off guard by the lot of them and their emotional outbursts but Naruto seemed completely unfazed and merely laughed at them as they hugged him.

"Work?" Kushina questioned and watched as Minato nodded.

"I was kind of in the middle of a location meeting when you text me," Minato told her with a slight shrug before kissing her cheek and answering his phone. "Namikaze speaking," he said before smiling and waving at Hinata and quickly stepping out of the room.

After a while, Hinata watched as more people came into the room and made beelines for Naruto, all of them appearing to be relieved and overjoyed that Naruto was awake. She recognized many of Naruto's guests since she had seen them around the city but there were many others where she couldn't place their face at all. But Naruto handled wave after wave of guests like it was nothing.

Hinata took a seat on the couch by the window and merely observed those who came in. Almost all of them made sure to come over towards her and introduce themselves to her before they left and after a while, Hinata struggled to place names with faces because of just how many there were. Kushina came and sat beside Hinata soon after the waves began but didn't say anything, she only sat and watched much like Hinata.

It wasn't until a couple of hours had passed and the volume of guests seemed to had dwindled before Kushina stood again and made her way to Naruto's bedside.

"You look tired," Kushina observed as she brushed some of Naruto's hair from out in front of his forehead. "You know, with your hair this long, you really look like your dad."

"Do I?" Naruto questioned. "A lot of the others said the same thing. Yahiko even called me a 'Mini Minato' when he was in here earlier," Naruto told her.

Kushina smiled. "It's true though. We used to call you that all the time once you were born because of the blonde hair and blue eyes. Not only that, Minato would never put you down and seemed to carry you around like a doll for the first couple of months," she giggled a bit at the memory. "He used to get grumpy if someone ever held you for a little too long and he would tell them to put you down so you could move around on your own but then he would pick you right back up. He did that plenty of times to Master Jiraiya."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Honestly."

Kushina giggled again before kissing his cheek. "I'm going to go ahead and head home. Plus," she began to whisper, "it looks like there may be a few things you need to talk to Hinata about."

Naruto looked at Kushina with a look of confusion before looking at Hinata. He saw the conflicted expression on her face but saw she tried to hide it behind a smile.

"Don't stay up too late, okay?" Kushina warned before kissing Naruto's forehead before putting her jacket on and picking up her purse. "And Hinata-chan," she looked over at her as Hinata stood, "make sure you don't stay here too late, okay?"

"Yes ma'am," Hinata said as Kushina came over and hugged her. Hinata was caught a bit off guard by the affection but appreciated it nonetheless.

"Good night," Kushina called to the both of them before leaving the room and closing the door behind her.

Naruto let out a heavy sigh of relief as he laid back against his bed before looking at Hinata and giving her a tired smile. He waved her over and watched as Hinata made her way to him and carefully sat on the edge of his bed. He took ahold of her hand and laced his fingers with hers. "I'll be sure to make up for lost time and write you three weeks' worth of letters."

Hinata smiled. "You don't have to do that."

"I know," he said as he carefully shimmied himself over to one side of the bed and pat the space beside him.

Hinata wore a bit of a puzzled look before lying beside him, a slight blush coming onto her cheek as she lay face to face with him. "This is a bit embarrassing."

"But it's nice," he added, his own cheeks a bit before as he looked down at their hands. "You're curious about how I know all those people, right? I saw the look on our face."

Hinata was silent for a bit before nodding. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"I want to tell you," Naruto admitted to her as he looked at her. "Are you familiar with the saying, 'The Light cannot exist without castings its Shadow?' It's supposed to serve as an analogy for this unspoken system that the City of Konoha – and many others – run on."

"I'm vaguely familiar with it," Hinata answered. "It was something my uncle used to say a lot when referring to the Branch Family's role and importance to the Main Family. Something about how the Branch Family supports the Main Family and makes it so that the Main Family isn't faced with any sort of adversity or scandals."

Naruto nodded. "Right. Well my family," Naruto paused for a moment as he tried to think of the right way to word the rest of his statement. "My family can be considered the Shadow for The City of Konoha."

"How so?" Hinata asked.

"You've heard of the Whirlwind Yakuza, haven't you?" Naruto questioned and saw Hinata nod. "Well, I'm – not just me, my whole family – is associated with the Whirlwind Yakuza," he said, slightly flustered. "Well, not associated, we are the Whirlwind Yakuza."

Hinata was silent for a bit but she didn't let go of Naruto's hand.

"All those people you saw come in today, all of them are also members of Whirlwind and I practically consider them my family because they've been around me my whole life," Naruto began to explain. "Otou-san considers us to be like a network of people who work towards the safety of the City of Konoha and its citizen. I know that may sound a bit weird considering the reputation yakuza's have but I promise, my family is nothing like that. Well, I mean…"

"So that's what it was," Hinata muttered as she held Naruto's hand a bit tighter. "I knew you were keeping something from me all this time and I had tried to figure it out but I'll have to admit that I never would've thought you were a part of a yakuza."

"Otou-san and Okaa-chan founded Whirlwind," Naruto told her. "And because they founded it, that basically puts me next in line when it comes to running it so I'm not just a part of a yakuza, I'll be running a yakuza eventually."

"Oh." Hinata's grip loosened a bit. "I see."

"And everything with Hanabi," Naruto sighed as he looked at her, "that was my fault. The man who took her, he was targeting my family and trying to get my father to out himself and our family to the public and practically ruin us so he could have Konoha. He knew that you were special to me and figured that if he took someone you care about that it would be enough to cause my family to bend and break and therefore give him everything he wanted."

"It's okay," Hinata said as she looked at him. "Hanabi told me a little bit about what had happened once Master Minato had come to get her…she told me what Sakura had done and what you and Sasuke-kun and some others had gone through to get her and Sakura-chan back."

"Hanabi did?" Naruto asked and saw Hinata nod.

"You kept your promise," Hinata said as she placed a gentle cheek on his hand. "You swore to keep my little sister safe so long as you're breathing and you did everything you could to uphold that promise. Despite how dangerous the situation seemed to have appeared, you still went out of your way to uphold your promise to her."

"Hinata." Naruto watched as Hinata sat up a bit and kiss his forehead.

"Thank you for saving my sister," she told him before moving so their eyes met. She smiled at him before bringing her lips to his. It was gentle and sweet, Hinata's love for Naruto seeming to be poured into the kiss.

It was innocent in the beginning but it didn't take long for it to turn into something more. Naruto sat up a bit and rested his hand against her lower back, his fingers carefully sliding themselves into the back of her skirt. His hand was almost in her skirt before they both heard rapid beeping. Hinata pulled away wearing a confused look while Naruto turned completely red.

"Naruto-kun?" she questioned.

The door to Naruto's room swung open and just as the nurse entered, Hinata was already off the bed and scrambling through her bad looking for nothing in particular while Naruto was left staring at the ceiling.

"Mr. Uzumaki?" the nurse quickly went to his side. "Are you all right? Your heart rate suddenly spiked?"

"I'm fine," Naruto said with a nervous laugh. "I guess I got a bit too excited at the thought of finally being up and having everything return back to normal."

"Oh," the nurse looked at him for a moment before looking at Hinata who still had her back turned. "Well, make sure to keep our heart rate down at a normal pace, okay? We still have a lot of test to run and we won't be entirely sure of all the damages until then. So, like I said, relax."

"Right," Naruto nodded. "Relax. Got it."

"Well, good night then," the nurse said. "Lady Hyuuga, our visiting hours will be ending soon. Will you be spending the night here with Mr. Uzumaki? If you are, I'm going to need you fill out an overnight form for me."

"No," Hinata said as she looked at the nurse. "I'll stay just until visiting hours are over before heading out, thank you though."

"Of course," the nurse said with a smile before bowing and leaving the room.

Hinata and Naruto both let out sighs of relief before looking at one another and smiling.

"Damn heart monitor," Naruto complained as he looked at it. "I can't wait until I'm out of here."

To Be Continued…