Thank y'all for all the reviews and favorites/follows! I've been really surprised at the reception this story has gotten and it makes me happy that you are liking it so far!

Not really any humor in this chapter, but it's about Hinata's rough night so I figure that's to be expected. Hope you enjoy it anyway!

Chapter Four

Hinata was not feeling great. Lunch had been good, and she was thankful for the shower and coffee that Sasuke had provided. However, she had never actually gotten drunk before and her body was not used to handling hangovers. So, not only was her hangover still pretty rough, but she was starting to regret that she had agreed to wear Sasuke's clothes.

At first it had seemed the lesser of two evils - that dress being the worst - and she didn't even want to think what everyone would start saying if she was seen walking home this late in the day wearing clothes that were obviously from the night before. She had heard about some kind of "walk of shame" before and had no interest in participating.

Unfortunately, she was starting to think that wearing Sasuke's clothes was going to do the same thing. And it didn't help that she hadn't been able to wear a bra with that dress her sister had blackmailed her into wearing the night before. So now, she was attempting to make her way home in the middle of the day, hungover, while wearing men's clothes without a bra.

The heiress hugged herself. She felt positively indecent. And to make matters worse, it was taking her longer to get home because she had gone the less populated route in order to try to avoid as many people as possible. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but the longer she was out looking so indecent, the more worried she became that she would run into someone.

She was starting to wonder why she had even gone to Sasuke's last night in the first place. Scratch that. She knew why. All of their friends were aware of her feelings for Naruto and everyone always tiptoed around her because of them. They treated her like she was fragile, like she would break should they say the wrong thing, but perhaps her actions the night before had proven them right.

Flashback

Hinata was out with their friends, enjoying spending some time with the girls whom she hadn't seen much the past couple of weeks. Sakura had been on a medical mission to the daimyo, TenTen had been out on a mission with Lee, and Ino had been preoccupied with her new boyfriend, Sai.

The heiress had been talking to them and trying to ignore the fact that there were girls hanging all over Naruto. It had been hard to find him alone ever since the war ended.

He was still rather clueless in the love department and didn't seem to realize that his fangirls were constantly flirting with him. And, being the nice guy he was, he had a hard time rebuffing them because he didn't want to hurt their feelings. Unfortunately for her, this meant there were usually some hanging around him whenever she ran across him.

It made it hard to be around him. It's not that she wasn't happy for him, because she was glad he was finally getting the recognition she'd always thought he deserved, but it started to solidify her belief that he'd never been interested in her and now he would never be. After all, with so many girls to choose from, why would he pick the one he thought was plain, dark, and weird?

"Hey Sakura!" Naruto called to get his teammate's attention from where she sat at the bar with Ino, Hinata, and TenTen.

Sakura turned around and waved.

"Do you want to come dance with me?"

Sakura glanced at the girls for a split second before looking back at him and saying, "No thanks, Naruto, I was on my feet all day at the hospital and I'd rather not. Why don't you ask Hinata? She'd be a great dance partner."

The Hyuga blushed and her friend snuck her a wink.

He shook his head. "No, it has to be you."

Sakura's eyes narrowed, "And why does it have to be me?"

Naruto stopped and thought for a minute, looking like he was trying to figure out how to say something. Finally, he said, "Hinata won't work, it has to be you."

Hinata felt like the wind had been knocked out of her. She tried to put up a brave face for the girls who were looking at her with concern, but she knew she wasn't convincing.

The pinkette grew angry and started scolding Naruto for saying something so rude, which he didn't seem to understand. Meanwhile, Ino and TenTen shared worried looks and tried to distract the bluenette with a change of subject.

When that didn't seem to work, they offered to buy Hinata a couple of drinks. They were surprised, and even more concerned, when Hinata actually took them up on their offer.

An hour later, a tipsy Hinata was on her way to the bathroom when she saw Kiba taking Naruto aside.

She was concerned. She knew that Kiba had heard what happened and she wanted to make sure he didn't do anything bad to her crush. It wasn't his fault he didn't have those feelings for her and she didn't want her teammate to beat him up for it.

So, she followed them. When she heard Kiba's ask how Naruto felt about her, however, she stopped in her tracks. The heiress knew she shouldn't eavesdrop, but the alcohol was dulling her reasoning and her curiosity won out.

When Kiba asked how he felt about her compared to how he felt about Sakura, Hinata held her breath. This was it.

His response made her wish she hadn't listened in. Sure, she finally had her answer, but this wasn't exactly how she wanted to find out. She went back to the bar and ordered another few of those fruity drinks that Ino always had before making an excuse that she was going to the bathroom again and sneaking out. She didn't want anyone following her.

Flashback End

After what happened, she had wanted to talk to someone. Sasuke wasn't out with them - he wasn't exactly a social butterfly - so she knew he would be home and sober. She also knew he wouldn't sugarcoat anything. He was blunt, not really caring how his words would affect others. The truth of his life had been harsh so he figured everyone else could handle their own.

If she had told any of her other friends what she had overheard, they would probably try to convince her that she may have misheard or misunderstood. Sasuke wouldn't mince words to spare her feelings.

Apparently though, instead of the hard heart to heart she had intended to have, she had shown up drunk and blabbering incoherent nonsense. At least Sasuke had been nice enough to let her sleep on his couch instead of dumping her on his doorstep. He had even let her use his shower and borrow some clothes. He was such a nice guy.

… Okay, so maybe not a nice guy, but he could be friendly. Well, not friendly, but he could be decent when he felt like it and that was what counted.

Hinata continued along, keeping inside the tree line so that she had a quick place to hide should she see anyone.

The closer she got to the Hyuga compound, the more paranoid she became. It would be just her luck that someone would recognize her as soon as she was almost home free.

"Hinata!" she heard suddenly and froze. It sounded like Naruto.

But she shook her head. He was never on this side of town. Apparently her paranoia was now making her hear things.

"Hinata!" she heard, louder this time, and dread coursed through her body as she realized it had not been her imagination.

Sorry for the cliff hanger. I already have part of the next chapter written so it shouldn't be a super long wait. I'm not evil. Probably.

Anyway, let me know what you thought! I enjoyed writing what she saw as a comparison to Naruto's side of things.