Yeah… guess I deserved that. Still, thanks to watchingtherain1 for reviewing, it honestly means a lot.

A little chapter to commemorate the anniversary of when I first published this story! Hopefully I'll get out more than 10 chapters over the next 12 months... Some GaarHina interaction in this chapter. Should be able to start doing a lot more of that in the near future. Woo!


Chapter 10 – a casualty of idiocy

It didn't take a lot of effort to find out that the only place Hinata was allowed to go was the uni. And from there, the Uchiha were able to get me a username and password so I could access uni computers.

"What did you study?"

"Mechanical engineering."

"Why?"

"Was useful for the army."

"Why haven't you brought it up until now?"

"I didn't finish the degree. Seemed unnecessary."

"Why are you at the uni now?"

"My apartment has no internet and the uni does."

"Good."

And so, on the Saturday, when Hinata left to go to the uni, I made sure I was there too.

It's all about right place. I knew where Neji would bring Hinata in – or, at least, I knew where I'd bring her in if I was him – and so I got a computer close to it. Not too close; not obvious. Just close enough so that it looks like I stumbled in early this morning and grabbed the closest free computer. Large take-away long black gone cold in the cardboard cup next to me, baggy clothes and an old hoody. Headphones plugged in. Hood down, of course. I want to blend in, but not too much. If I wanted to properly blend in I'd be trying to kill her, and while that is the ultimate goal, I don't want them knowing that.

Plus, I need to get her shadows away from her long enough to strike the killing blow. There's no point in trying to kill Hinata again if I only hit Neji. Then they'll lock her away forever and I'll never get my shot.

Besides, I feel like I'd be breaking some kind of universal law if I killed Neji before his timer was up.

The meant-to-be-subtle-but-stand-out-like-a-sore-thumb guards dotted around the place start getting jittery, and I know immediately that Hinata is close. I keep my breathing steady, and focus on the web-page I'm mindlessly surfing. Try to ignore the ghostly apparitions floating above the heads of everyone in the room.

Mostly I try to ignore the fact that over half of the guards have just under four months rolling over their heads. My gut tells me that something is going to go down. Maybe a war between the Uchiha and Hyuuga. Maybe incited by my killing of Hinata. It doesn't bother me, though. Fugaku would have thought about this being a consequence. You can't kill your enemy's heir without a fallout. But more than that, my bones will be turning to dust in a shallow, unmarked grave by the time this war rolls around.

And then, there she is, dragging me out of my reverie. Flanked by an antsy Tenten and a constipated Neji, she looks calm as she approaches the front doors. I follow her with my peripherals, and when she's in a good spot, I let out an exaggerated, fake yawn, scratching the hair at the base of my neck. Then I go back to looking at the computer. All for show. All so that she'll see me. But make it look like an accident on my part. That's the intention, anyway.

I can see that she's stopped, and I can feel her eyes on me. And I don't even have to look at her to know what emotions will be playing over her face.

Not that I know her well enough to, mind. Just that I've studied the ever-loving shit out of this girl and if I didn't know what emotions were playing out on her face then I wouldn't be doing my job right.

"Gaara!" she calls out, and I look at her with tired, faux-surprised eyes.

I lift a tired hand in a wave of acknowledgement while dislodging one of my earphones with the other. There's no sound playing, but they don't need to know that. She immediately starts to walk over to me, but Neji stops her and says something to her in a low voice. I can't exactly make out what he's saying, but I can hazard a wild guess that he's telling her to keep moving. Don't come over here. Too risky. Blah blah blah. She narrows her eyes at him, but agrees, if her nodding her head is any indication. She turns on her heel and follows Tenten further into the library, a final wave directed at me with a pretty smile on her face. I give her a half smile back, then look back at my computer, playing a role, and pretend I can't feel Neji stalking towards me.

He pulls a chair up next to me, and I give him a brief look before turning back to the computer. "Hi," I offer, but he doesn't take it.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" he hisses, his voice soft so no one else can hear us. I can detect a not-so-subtle threat in his voice, but pretend I don't.

Play the role.

"Just stealing some internet," I say. "My apartment doesn't have any."

Neji narrows his eyes at me and looks at the page I'm on: youtube. "What are you watching?"

I shrug. "Couldn't tell you. I clicked on some videos and now I'm on the weird part of youtube. Some kinda animal thing, I reckon." I can feel his trained eyes sweeping over me, looking for hidden weapons, anything that might suggest I'm here for any other reason. But he can't find one.

"How did you log in?" he asks, hoping I'll slip up. But I don't. I've played a thousand roles in my lifetime, and I'm not about to fuck this one up.

"I went to uni about… a year and a half ago? Did mechanical engineering for six months for the army, but ended up dropping it."

"And your username and password still work?"

"Yeah, somehow."

Neji doesn't quite buy it, the suspicious prick. "What uni did you go to?" he asks, and I get fed up.

"Look, I don't know what to tell you. Bun-bun over there already grilled me for three hours the other day, I'm really not in the mood to get grilled again. Check my enrolments if you want, I went here. I don't care that you don't believe me, but I'm tired and it's my day off, so if you could just piss off, that'd be great, thanks." I turn back to my screen, wondering if I laid it on a bit too thick. But honestly, I am tired, and sick of being grilled. I know I can't draw Hinata's attention without gaining the attention of her shadows, but shit they're annoying.

Neji glares at me a few moments longer before getting up to leave without saying another word to me, and I let out a sigh of relief.


Within an hour, most of the bodyguards in the computer room have left, presumably to start checking the whole library. I've finished my cold coffee, and am feeling a little desperate for another, to be honest. And a smoke. A smoke would be good. Not that I smoke that often, mind, it's just nice to feel the poison trickle through my lungs every once in a while.

I start looking around for a coffee machine, when someone sits in the seat next to me.

"Look, Neji, how many times do I have to -" I begin, before I actually look at the person, and realise that – of all the people – Hinata is sitting next to me.

"Hey," she says, and lets a cheeky smile grace her face.

I'm dumbfounded for a moment, for once completely lost for words, and it must show on my face because she lets out a quiet laugh.

"Don't even ask how I got away," she says, and pulls the baggy hoody that she's wearing further over her face. "Because I'm not quite certain myself, to be honest. I don't have long, though. Neji will find out I'm gone pretty soon."

I nod, and look back at my computer screen in an attempt to not draw attention. I wonder if it's possible to kill her here and now. I glance at her from the corner of my eye. She's pulled her chair in up close next to mine and is nervously peering around the room, eyes wide, her fingers laced in front of her face. But no, the numbers above her head say she still has three weeks left, and my gut tells me that if I tried now, I'd fail. I learned to trust my gut a long time ago.

"What're you doing here?" I whisper out of the corner of my mouth, and she turns those pretty eyes of hers back to me.

"Isn't it obvious? I wanted to come say hi without you having a gun shoved in your face."

I can tell this won't end well – will end in a world of trouble for us both. And though I can't even begin to fathom her moronic reasoning, I go along with it. "Hi," I offer, and she smiles again, and I decide that I don't mind seeing her smile. She has a nice smile.

"How are you?" she asks me, hitching her chair a little closer.

"Tired," I say, letting out another – genuine, this time – yawn. "Was just about to go get another coffee. You?"

"Coffee sounds so good right now," she sighs. "Neji won't let me drink it anymore. Says it's too easy for someone to poison it."

"I'm pretty sure withholding coffee is illegal," I tell her, and wonder if I just made a joke. No, I don't joke.

"If it's not, it should be," she agrees. "Coffee aside though, I'm alright. My temple hurts, but, like, that's to be expected, right?" She glances around the room again, and tugs at her hoodie. "I'm glad it's cold in here, this jacket is so hot."

I let out the briefest chuckle, amused. She can be pretty funny sometimes. "How are you going… after that?" I shouldn't ask, I know, but curiosity is gnawing at me. Or maybe I'm just a glutton for punishment.

Her flinch is so subtle I wouldn't have noticed if I wasn't watching so carefully. But it's there, accompanied by a slight hesitation in her answer. "I'm going alright," she says, a smile back on her face and a lie in her voice. "A bit shaken up, but who wouldn't be? Just, you know, taking it slow. Trying not to be scared of everything." She releases a soft laugh to mask the meaning behind her words.

"Must be weird knowing there's someone out there who wants to kill you," I say, and I guess I mean it. I feel bad for her. It's not her fault that her father is Hiashi Hyuuga. She's been caught up in a war that she should never have been a part of – a casualty of her father's idiocy. It won't stop me from killing her, but I do pity her.

"They keep telling me I'm safe, whatever that means," she says, looking back at me. "I don't know if I believe them, though. I mean, I managed to sneak out here without Neji or Tenten noticing, so surely I can't be that safe."

"I wonder how long it'll take them to notice you're gone?" I muse. "You'll have to tell me how you got out some time. I'm interested to know."

"I think they'll notice in the next two minutes, and it'll take them another two to find me."

"If it takes Neji and Tenten a full two minutes to find you then they're worse at their job than I thought," I tell her.

"Yeah, but I'm wearing a disguise," she defends, playing with the rim of her hoodie, like it's the world's most brilliant illusion. "What do you think? Do you think we could make it out of the library before they notice?"

"I think if I tried Neji would turn my insides into my outsides," I tell her, and she winces.

"Fair point," she agrees. "You'll probably get in trouble for this too," she tells me. "You can blame this on me. I don't mind."

I roll my eyes at her. "Of course I'm blaming this on you. I'm the victim here."

"Oh poor, helpless Gaara," she giggles, and pushes her shoulder against mine. I push back.

"Pretty sure every time you do something stupid I'm the one who gets in trouble," I tell her.

"If I buy you another coffee can we call it even?" she asks, a smile on her lips.

"You owe me about a dozen coffees, then," I tell her, and she's about to reply before a yell reverberates through the room.

"Found her!"

It's Tenten, sprinting like a madman through the library towards Hinata. Neji appears a moment later and is hot on her heels. I groan and put my head in my hands. Fuck.

"Hinata, what the fuck are you doing?" Tenten demands, screeching to a halt next to us. "Are you insane? Are you trying to get yourself killed? What is wrong with you?" Neji draws up alongside Tenten then, and I quickly raise my hands in the air.

"This was all her," I tell him. "I had nothing to do with it."

"Save it, Sabaku," Neji spits at me, loathing in his eyes. "I'll deal with you later." He grabs Hinata under the arm and drags her away.

Sorry, she mouths at me, a sheepish smile on her face, hoodie having fallen down. I roll my eyes again, dreading the lecture I'm sure to face.


So I've planned up to chapter 22, so fingers crossed I've gotten my mojo back. Updates will be infrequent at least until the 9th of November, just because it's my final two weeks of uni. But after that I'm free!

Thanks for reading guys. If this happens to find its way onto anyone's favourite list, it would mean the world to me if you could drop off a little review. But reviews are always appreciated anyway ;)

Much love, Alia xoxo