Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Or Sasuke. Or Hinata. But this idea is mine…For the most part…

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Sasuke stormed into his house, upset and angry all at once. He hated himself for not being more careful that night. He hated Ino for stooping to that level. And he hated Naruto, for giving him that stupid mission in the first place. But most of all, he hated that man for not killing him like he had killed everyone else in the clan. If he was already dead, he never could have made Hinata cry.

Sasuke broke into his parent's old cellar, which was hidden under their room. He had never actually done this before, though he'd considered it a number of times. He returned with two bottles of sake, being careful to lock the cellar behind him. If he was going to be drunk, he didn't need to be going back down for more of the stuff and falling on the way. Sasuke was upset, not stupid.

He drowned himself in his bad mood. After his vision began to grow fuzzy, he for some reason decided to check the messages on his machine. The first was from Hinata and went like this:

"Hi, Sasuke-kun! Hope you're doing well. I was wondering if you'd like to come train with me and Neji, and maybe a friend of Neji's too-"

"What on earth-" Sasuke could hear that Neji sounded flustered at Hinata's suggestion.

"Ha ha ha, well call me back when you can, bye," Hinata hung up. Sasuke laughed and took another drink from his bottle. The next message played.

"Sasuke, it's Naruto," Naruto's childish voice said happily. "What do you mean you finished the 'mission'? Prove it! And where's Sakura? She hasn't yelled at me in awhile…" Naruto apparently hung up after that.

"Baka," Sasuke chuckled once again.

"Hi, it's Hinata," The message started. "Ino came up to me today…and, um…She said we needed to break up…I mean, I don't want to but…Why would she say that?…"

"Because she's a dumb meddling wench," Sasuke answered and took another sip of sake.

"And she asked if I'd seen Sakura lately…It was just weird. Call me," Hinata finished and hung up.

"Damn Ino," Sasuke cursed. "If she were here I'd…" Sasuke made a violent motion and stumbled, spilling some sake onto the carpet and falling fall on his back in the process. As the room seemed to spin, he decided to stay there to listen to the last two messages.

"Sasuke, I hope you're back now, we've missed you," Ino's voice said sweetly but Sasuke scowled. "Well, hope things are going well with Hinata, bye now!"

"How the hell did she get my number…" Sasuke wondered, his clouded mind not working right.

"Um…Hi, Sasuke-kun, it's Hinata…again. I was just…wondering…well, um, I haven't heard from you so, um…please call me when you can. Bye."

"Awww," Sasuke took another drink. "She really was (hiccup) worried about me."

Sasuke finished off the bottle and threw it aside. He thought about calling her, but again had no idea what to say. He got up and staggered over to what he called his thinking couch. It wasn't all that comfortable, but it faced out of a window with a view of the garden and was a great place to sit and think. Unfortunately, he didn't get much thinking done this time. He was asleep before you could say 'lights out'.

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Hinata came home with silent tears streaming down her cheeks. Neji and Tenten were training once more (having apparently decided the night was still young) in the open area in the Hyuuga compound that Neji always used. Hinata had to run past this area to reach her room, and tried to do so without them noticing. But her attempt failed, as Neji saw her run past with his byakuugan.

"Hinata-sama?" He said when he saw her face as she went past, feeling an urge to punch Sasuke's lights out all of a sudden.

"Leave me alone," She said and slammed the door to her room shut behind her.

"But I've got good news," Neji left the training area to talk with Hinata through her door. "We saw Sasuke today."

"So did I," Came Hinata's voice, muffled by the door. Neji glanced at Tenten to see how she was taking this, but she appeared eager to help and came over to hear the conversation.

"We found him stuck in a closet," Tenten told Hinata through the door. There was silence, not even a sob.

"He said he'd been locked in there ever since he left here after walking you home the other night," Neji added, thinking the effect the news had on her might prevent him from having to harm Sasuke. It would feel weird beating up the guy he'd helped set up with his cousin for something as dumb as being stuck in a closet after all.

"You mean…" Hinata began, sounding surprised. "He really was stuck in a closet?"

"You, and he wasn't too happy about it," Tenten said.

"Was he really with Sakura?" Hinata asked and the two outside the door shared a look. How would they explain that one?

"Uh…Yeah, he was…" Tenten started.

"That was how we found him. They were yelling at each other loud enough that even we could hear them," Neji added.

"I'm surprised he didn't hurt more than her ankle, the way he was looking at her. He seemed ready to knock her lights out," Tenten said to Neji, who smirked back at her. 'Guess that's why he said she was like a sister…' He thought to himself.

"Her ankle really was hurt? That's why he walked her home?" Hinata was no longer crying, as the story fell into place.

"It was swollen pretty bad," Neji said.

"Hey Hinata, you've had a really rough day. Why don't you come on out and we can have some ice cream?" Tenten said and Neji raised an eyebrow at her

'Yeah, like that's going to work with Hinata…' He thought, but then to his astonishment Hinata emerged from her room. Tenten put an arm around her shoulders as they walked towards the kitchen together. Neji watched them go in surprise, though he didn't show it. In all of his years of living with Hinata, he never could get her out of her room when she had been crying. Even after he had gotten to know her better, all of attempts were futile. He could help her to feel a little better sure, but she never left her room. And here Tenten gets her out on her first try. Neji allowed himself a small smile, 'I may have to keep this one around…' he thought.

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A/N: Okay people, thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far. And guess what? The next chapter is THE END! So, I hope you all liked this chapter, because I will post the next chapter a lot faster if I were to wake up tomorrow morning and find 10 reviews for this one... Yes, I'm evil, but I keep my promises. Review please!