- Chapter 9 -

~ Hinata's POV ~

I took in a deep breath before composing myself. "You'll have to excuse me for just now, let just say this was the last place I'd expected to see you again. But then again-" I clenched my fist. "I never planned on seeing you again Sasuke Uchiha."

I immediately turned to Neji, with sudden anger boiling as I quickly looked for answers, though he simply sat there staring down at his lap. "Well? Say something." He looked up at me but said nothing, though the look in his eyes said everything I needed to know, as I balled up my fists, looking back once more at the guy from my past, before running out the door, with the sound of Tenten yelling my name.

~ Tenten's POV ~

"Hinata!" I yelled as I watched her run out the door. I quickly turned to Neji who simply sat there staring into his cup. "Hey! Mind telling us what the hell just happened!?" Though instead of a response from Neji I got one from Oji.

"Well, it's sure has been a while hasn't it Sasuke? Gotta say the last time I saw you was probably when you and Hinata were still on speaking terms. Well, when all of you guys were still on speaking terms. And the last time I ever heard your name come out of her mouth was probably when Hinata was expelled." Oji's expression darkened. "Yeah, right after you bastards stabbed my little sister in the back."

The room was quiet and the atmosphere was heavy. No one dared to say a word as we watched both Sasuke and Oji stare daggers at one another.

Oji's never looked so serious, I don't even think Tenko has ever seen him like this.

Suddenly the guy moved as he headed out the door, but not without Oji following behind him. "Hey, bastard were the hell do you think you're going-" Neji quickly stopped him before he could go any further. "Now what the hell do you want!?"

"She needs this."

"Like hell she does! It's their fault! If she was never expelled then maybe, just maybe she..." His voice was beginning to creak, and we all heard it. Oji didn't say another word as he left the kitchen, slamming the basement door. Tenko gave me a sympathetic look before running after Oji.

I looked back at Ino and Temari, who looked just as concerned as I did. The only thing we truly got out of all of this was probably the fact that we really didn't know Hinata as well as we thought we did.

~ No POV ~

She ran all the way out of the woods and once she was on that grovel path she was already out of breath. This didn't make any sense, she could run for hours without breathing this hard, but why after such a sort run did her heartbeat this fast.

This made absolutely no sense.

Her chest was burning, her head pounding and her thoughts racing. Damn this was really not her day. She flinched when she heard the sound of footsteps coming from behind her. Though before she could do anything, Sasuke was already gripping her wrist and pulling her along.

"Hey! Let go of me!"

Sasuke looked back at Hinata for a second as he then continued to pull her along the groove path.

Hinata's eyebrow twitched at his sudden actions. "How is anyone suppose to know what you want when you don't say anything." Though of course, she knew exactly what he wanted. He wanted to talk but she couldn't help but hesitate.

She could easily break away from his grasp, though unsure whether to go back or follow this boy, which she had no intention of reconnecting with,...she stayed.

She took a deep breath. "You know the least you could do is tell me where the hell we're going?"

His actions were her answer as he stopped, causing her to roughly bump into him, though before she could complain she followed his gaze which lookup at the enormous dorm her and the others saw yesterday. He took a seat on the edge of the grassy hill, as he looked up at her and patted the spot next to him.

When she sat down he began to talk. "You grew out your hair."

Hinata fiddled with the end of it before responding. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

"You used to always keep it short because of that weird rumour that I liked girls with long hair. You were probably the only girl in our grade who had short hair, but then again you didn't want that idiot to get the wrong idea, right?"

Hinata chuckled as her cheeks began to turn a light shade of pink. "I still don't get how Naruto didn't notice I liked him. I was the only one who ever made him chocolates for valentine's and they were heartshaped and everything!" Sasuke laughed. "Damn, but I got a say when you stole his first kiss in third grade I was pretty jealous~!"

Sasuke's smile took a one 80, as Hinata began to burst out laughing. "The moppy prince returns!" Sasuke pulled out some grass as he tossed it at her. "Hey! It wasn't funny when Naruto said and it isn't funny now!"

"Yeah, it wasn't funny...because it was hilarious!"

Hinata's continues laughter must have been contagious because Sasuke soon began to laugh too.

When they both finally calmed down, a silence fell upon them as Hinata looked out at the campus before her. Sasuke watched her, watched her hair flow in the wind revealing the real reason Hinata grew out her hair, as the scars from the past still remained.

They let the silence between them overtake the moment and for their memories of the past to come fluttering back.

| 4 Years Ago |

That day was warm and the wind was blowing ever so softly. It felt as though nothing could have ruined that day. Well, almost nothing.

She was breathing heavily. She could move, but she didn't want to. Her body ached with the fresh wounds she just received. Bruises on her porcelain skin, cuts on her face, and bumps on her head.

She was hurt, couldn't they see? Why didn't they stop?

"You're disgusting, Hinata! You don't deserve to be friends with Sasuke and Naruto! You don't deserve to have friends at all!" A girl yelled as she kicked dirt at her face.

Another girl kneeled down as she pulled at Hinata's short hair. "Listen up Hyuga, because we're only going to say this once. There is a rumour that your the one who ripped up Sasuke's photograph of his parents. Sasuke didn't make a big deal out of it before he left for his trip with the Uzumkis, but we all know that that was the only picture that survived the fire that killed them both 2 years ago." The girl proceeded to slam Hinata's face in the grass. "Now confess! It's your fault! You're the only person they allow in the Uzumaki mansion! It can only be your fault!"

"Okay, that's enough Aika, I think she gets it now."

The girl holding Hinata's head down stopped when she heard the sound of someone new. "Shion? Is that you? What the hell are you doing here? Don't tell me you're actually planning on helping your loser cousin."

Hinata looked up at the familiar face. Long light blond hair, pale beautiful skin, and a pair of dazzling lavender eyes. She was the most popular girl in school and everyone wanted to be her friend. Hinata knew that she could never compete with Shion, but the fact remained that Naruto was friends with Hinata and would never even give Shion the time of day.

But was Shion actually here to save her? Is a teacher coming? And here she thought Shion always hated her.

Suddenly Shion began to laugh. "Oh, God no. Why would I do something stupid like that? I just thought we might have a little bit more fun with this." Shion held a cigarette to lips as she flicked on a lighter, setting it aflame. "Cuts and bruises can always heal, but if you really want to teach someone a lesson, then it has to be permanent."

That day, screams could be heard from afar, though Hinata wouldn't be found until evening. She never confessed who the culprit was, she never forgot the very permanent lesson she was taught that day, the 5 dotted prints on the back of her neck will always remind her.

And the worst part about it was that she would never see her friends after that day.

| Present |

"Hinata?"

"What?"

"What are you thinking about?"

"How annoying that question just was."

Hinata sighed as she looked at the boy sitting next to her, the one trying to make small talk when all she wanted was to go back to the others. She could feel the tension between them, and she knew just by watching him, the way he clenched his fist and his jaw tense, that he wasn't going to last much longer.

He was about to burst.

"Hinata I don't understand how the hell can you just sit there and act like what happened back then doesn't matter? We know everything that happened to you back then, the cuts the bruises...the burns. Not a day goes by that we don't regret what happened to you! What we could have done, if only-"

It took Susake a couple of seconds to confess his regrets of the past and it took Hinata even less to give him a punch that would send him flying.

Hinata walked over to Sasuke who laid still in the grass, his cheek throbbing, as he stared up at the sky. "You finally calmed down, pal?" Sasuke nodded. "Good. Now listen, no one can change the past, you can only make up for it. But in this case, you don't have to. Naruto and you were never my knights in shining armour, yeah I guess the whole reason it happened was basically because of you but I never blamed you for it."

"If you never blamed us for it then why did you act the way you did this morning?"

Hinata's eyebrow twitched. "Do you really have to ask me such an obvious question!? It's because you bastards never called! My parents dragged me out of that school and out of the country before you guys came back from that trip! Do you know how long I waited by the phone, just waiting for your bloody call! It to top it all off, you bastards changed your number!"

Sasuke quickly sat up. "What the hell are you spouting Hyuga!? When we came back and found out what happened the first thing we did was go to see you! But when we got there the only person there was your stupid grandpa!" Hinata's eyes widened. "He wouldn't tell us where you went, let alone your current number. Though of course that idiot Naruto didn't give up. He went every day for 6 whole months before he stopped."

Hinata looked away as she began to pounder. 'Why didn't grandfather mention any of this to me?' Suddenly an image of him appeared in her head as his cold Hyuga eyes stared down at her sending shivers down her spine. 'Then again, I might know why.'

Hinata blinked several times before realizing something. "Hey Sasuke, we keep talking about Naruto, but where is he? Was he placed in a different dorm? Does he even go to this school?"

Sasuke faked a laugh. "Ha, wouldn't you like to know."

"And what the hell is that suppose to mean?"

"Do you really have to ask me that? It because you still love him of course." Hinata felt a sudden tung in her chest, one she didn't expect, as Sasuke continued. "Lucky for you, that idiot goes to this school too, but just like you, Naruto isn't the same person you knew four years ago." Hinata watched Sasuke's expression darken as he glared at that enormous building. "I bet if you saw him again, you wouldn't even recognize him."

"Sasuke?"

"A lot has happened since you've been gone. Unlike before, Naruto's basically idolized by just about everyone here, and there's not a thing that happens here that isn't reported to him. He runs this school with an iron fist and with some pretty troublesome people to boot. Not to mention that he has a pretty annoying guard dog that followed him all the way from Japan."

"Shion's here too?"

Sasuke solely nodded. "He's a stickler for the rules, break them and there'll be hell to pay, and just by browsing throw you and your friend's records that might be a bit hard for you."

Hinata crossed her arms. "The situation is what it is, but it's not like we can't control our tempers." Sasuke arched his brow at her. "Hey, it's not like we're animals, we don't just pick a fight with anything that moves. We're just sweet little girls who just got tired of everyone else's bullshit."

Sasuke laughed.

"Laugh it up pretty boy, but I'm serious. We're going to graduate from this school with honours. We're capable of just about anything if we put our minds to."

He smiled. "I don't doubt it. But knowing Shion, she's probably going to do everything in her power to break you and your friends, you especially."

"And I don't doubt that. But you can just leave Shion to me." Hinata beamed at Sasuke as he simply shook his head, as he turned back to staring at that enormous building. "So I'm guessing that's were he staying right?"

Sasuke simply nodded.

"Then can I ask you this, why are you living in a dorm full of outcasts? You'd think Sasuke Uchiha would be the one standing next to Naruto through all this. Did something happened between you two?"

"You could say that, but it's a bit more complicated than that. Naruto and I always had our fights, but a year ago there was one we just couldn't agree on. And before I knew it Neji, Choji, me, and that guy you just met today were all sent to live at Nana, far away from the rest of the other students."

"What was the fight about?"

Sasuke didn't say anything.

"Well, I guess we do have two years together so when you're ready to talk about it, I'll be here. But for now-" Hinata stood up as she dusted her self off. "The plan we've set hasn't changed, and I don't know about you, but I'm starving!"

As Hinata and Sasuke made their way back to the dorm, Hinata cheerfully spoke of the breakfast that awaited them, as Sasuke quietly listened, but not without a heavy thought in mind. 'Sorry, Hinata I wish I could tell you everything that's about to happen and I hope you don't hate Naruto for it.'

- End Of Chapter -