Hey everyone! I'm late with this chapter, I apologize. I had a lot going on last week. Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys it, I look forward to reading your thoughts.

Cover My Eyes

by, Rampantt

Chapter Seven: Breath

Dark gray clouds rolled over the horizon, the sun sinking behind the trees as night spilled onto the streets. Hinata sat behind the stirring wheel of her Range Rover, chewing at her bottom lip as the red light glared at her from behind the windshield. She narrowed her pale eyes at in return, wondering how long it planned to remain red for, she had been sitting there for more than a few minutes now. She began drumming at the stirring wheel, silently cursing the angry red light.

"Can you stop?"

Hinata tossed a glance to her younger sister who sat in the passenger seat. She was tucking a lock of cropped black hair behind her ear and rolling her eyes. Hinata decided to ignore her for the time being – she honestly didn't feel like dealing with her at the moment. The heiress was far too busy worrying over her position in her father's company, Neji and the incident with Sasuke to even care to fight with Hanabi.

"Just be quiet until we get home..." Hinata told her, sucking at her teeth.

The youngest of the two let out a huff and folded her arms across her chest, murmuring a few indecent words beneath her breath. Hinata didn't even know why she was upset, if someone else had come to get her things would have been a lot worse. Hanabi should have been grateful Hinata had even come for her in the first place.

"What the fuck..." Hanabi grumbled. "Is it going to be red forever?"

"Language..." Hinata reminded her sister.

Hanabi only continued to grumble and pressed her feet up against the glove compartment, turning her back to her sister. After what seemed like an eternity, the light shifted and the vehicle pushed forward quickly. Hinata sighed as they traveled away from the police station where she had just picked her younger sister up from. Apparently, she had been fighting with a girl over a guy she claimed she didn't care about last time Hinata checked. The heiress still couldn't believe her sister had resorted to violence, the police had informed her that Hanabi had nearly broken the girl's neck, yanking her head about by her hair. The fuss had been so bad that the school had to call the police.

"You could have gotten yourself expelled, Hanabi," Hinata said to her sister as she turned a corner.

Hanabi sucked at her teeth loudly. "It would have been worth it..."

"How exactly would getting expelled have been worth anything?" Hinata asked, shooting her sister a glance.

"Because at least I would have taught that bitch not to fuck with me."

Hinata opened her mouth to remind her of her language again but decided against it. She licked her lips and breathed out through her nose trying to think. Had her sister always been this violent? She knew Hanabi was a bit of a "mean girl" and a boarder line bully, but she never thought she would have actually beaten someone up.

"It's really not that serious, Hanabi...," Hinata said, stopping at another red light.

"You don't even know what happened..."

Hinata shrugged her shoulders. "Nothing is ever serious enough for you to hit someone," she explained. "Especially when you are who you are. Do you know how angry father is going to be with you? You know he hates for his children to embarrass him."

Hanabi didn't say anything this time, probably because she hadn't even thought of their father.

"See what I mean?" Hinata said.

Hinata could only imagine the sort of punishment Hiashi would hand her sister. Something this serious was not going to be taken lightly, especially by their father. "What if that girl presses charges? Do you know how bad that would look to everyone? Colleges and employers are not going to want to hear any of your silly excuses –"

"It's not silly, Hinata!" Hanabi shouted.

Hinata looked to her sister. Her pale eyes were glassy and her cheeks and forehead red. The heiress watched as tears slipped down her sister's eyes and cheeks, clinging to her chin before finally puddling on her clean uniform shirt. "Moegi is my best friend..." Hanabi sobbed.

The heiress widened her opal eyes, staring at her sister as more she shed more tears. "Your...best friend?"

"Yes! How could she do that to me, Hinata?!" Hanabi shrieked, tears streaming down her pretty face, black brows crumpled. "She knows how I feel about Konohamaru... yet she... didn't even care..."

Hinata was at a lost for words, stunned by her sisters outburst and revelation. Her best friend had betrayed her... no wonder. Hinata could only imagine the pain her sister must have been feeling. To have someone you trust enough to call your best friend do something like that to you must be unbearable. "Hanabi..."

"I just... don't understand how she could do that to me," Hanabi said through clenched teeth, drying her eyes with the backs of her hands. "God, she's lucky they pulled me off of her."

Hinata remained silently, turning her car into the parking lot of the grocery store. Turning the engine off, she sat back in her seat and chewed her lip. What was she going to do with her sister? Her opal eyes glanced to the Hyuuga in question. She was still crying but her eyes were closed. Hinata's heart clenched to see her sister like that.

"Come on..." she said softly, unbuckling her seat belt and climbing out of the car.

Hanabi reluctantly followed suit, joining her sister by the carts. "Why are we here?"

It was a decent question to ask considering the fact that the housekeeper did all of the grocery shopping.

"Comfort food," Hinata reasoned, pulling the cart out and pushing it towards the automatic doors.

Hanabi sucked at her teeth but otherwise remained silent. She watched as Hinata dumped all sorts of goodies into the cart; chocolates and pretzels, cookies and tastie-cakes. "This will make you fat," Hanabi told her sister, eying the chocolate cupcakes her sister stored in the cart.

Hinata shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe in the long run," she said. "But for now it'll make us feel better."

Hanabi cocked a brow. "What do you have to be upset over?"

A lot more than you'd ever know.

The eldest sister smiled and shrugged her shoulders, adding a box of crackers to the growing pile of junk. "Life I guess.."

Hanabi was silent for a while, watching as her sister added more and more junk to their cart. Her heart was still hammering in her chest, the adrenaline not quite worn off yet. The silence between them stretched on as the two wandered through the grocery store together. Hinata couldn't stop herself from thinking how similar her predicament with Sakura was to the one her sister was in with Moegi. Hinata told herself that she wasn't like Moegi exactly, she didn't do anything to intentionally hurt Sakura. She hadn't meant to kiss Sasuke, in fact, he kissed her first. A familiar headache pounded at her skull and the heiress found herself dumping more snacks into the cart. To her surprise, Hanabi had began to join in with her, adding a bag of potato chips and onion dip to the cart. Hinata studied her sister for a bit, watching the way her features calmed.

"Do you think you can forgive Moegi?" Hinata heard herself ask.

Hanabi cast a look to her sister then shook her head, turning her gaze back to the box of cereal she had been studying. "Fuck no," she answered, sucking at her teeth and putting the box on the shelf. "She'll be lucky if I never see her again."

Hinata felt her heart speed up, pounding against her ribcage in defiance. She shook her head, pushing the cart out of the isle. If Hanabi couldn't forgive Moegi then Sakura might not ever forgive her either – of course she didn't know the whole story between Moegi and Konohamaru but it was close enough to hers and Sasuke's.

How could she ever look Sakura in the face again knowing that she had willingly kissed Sasuke? Never mind how reluctant she had been in the beginning, the fact that she returned his kiss after little to no urging by him was enough to make her guilty. Her heart sank to the pit of her stomach. Hinata didn't suspect that Sakura would ever resort to such violence if she learned of what happened between her and Sasuke but she wasn't naïve enough to think she'd be forgiven either. This would surely be the end of their friendship. Hinata felt the tears stinging the back of her eyes but refused to let them surface.

"You okay?"

Hinata turned her head to find Hanabi looking to her curiously, her white eyes slightly widened. Hinata nodded her head and smiled. "Yeah, I'm fine."

But she wasn't. What was she going to do? How could she keep something like this from her friend? Hinata felt fire burning in the pit of her belly, burning her up from the inside, drying out her throat and making it almost impossible to breathe. She had committed the greatest crime against their friendship and she was certain they would never recover from it. How would Sakura ever be able to look at her? It pained Hinata to know that she would be the cause of such hurt to her best friend. Worst of all, she couldn't even tell Naruto about what happened. How could she tell Naruto, the man she loved, that she kissed his best friend? Hinata knew Naruto wasn't her boyfriend but still. Perhaps him not being her boyfriend was another stress to the situation. What if he didn't care outside of the fact that it would hurt Sakura? What if it didn't bother him that someone else had touched her when he hadn't? Hinata's throat continued to tighten.

"Oh.. Uchiha-kun is here..." Hanabi said beside her sister, effectively tearing her from her thoughts.

Hinata looked up from her cart, stopping immediately when she saw him. The very man who had been the source of all her discomfort and angst stood before her now, wearing an expression that was difficult to place.

Onyx clashed with opal and both set of eyes widened. Sasuke felt an unfamiliar bit of anxiety bite at his belly, forcing him to clench the basket he carried in his hand a bit tighter. Of all the people in the world he had to run into her at the grocery store.

Sasuke studied her briefly; she donned a black blouse, tucked neatly into a pair of white slacks that were held up to her waist by a thin gold belt. A pair of red-bottom, gold slingback pumps made her a lot taller than he knew her to be. Her long black hair spilled down her back in loose waves, curling around her face becomingly. His chest tightened when her opal gaze cast downward.

"Come on..." he heard her mumble to her younger sister.

He watched as she pushed her cart past him, the younger Hyuuga in toe behind her, giving him one or two odd looks before catching up to her sister.

So she was ignoring him then? Sasuke didn't know what to call how he felt but he didn't like it. He spent the last week or so going over in his mind what had transpired between himself and the Hyuuga heiress. When he thought of it, it didn't make sense. From the time he was young, she had been nothing but an annoying acquaintance, someone he never gave more than a few moments thought about. He never deemed her important or noteworthy; their blue blood was the only reason the two shared the same social circles – she was just as or possibly even more elite than he was so it only made sense for the two to be around each other. It seemed like now they had been spending even more time together and it frustrated him to an extent.

However, when Sasuke thought of it, it wasn't that they were spending more time together – honestly they had been spending the same amount of time they always had together – it was that he was just noticing her more. He noticed her more than he ever did before. He noticed what she wore. He noticed how she styled her hair. He noticed when she was genuinely smiling and when she was being polite. He noticed when she was pretending to be forgiving and polite but was actually annoyed. He noticed when she didn't show up for Sakura's lunch party a few days ago. He noticed a lot of things about her and what was fucking with him was that he wasn't sure why he was noticing all these things. Sasuke wasn't sure why he noticed the look on her face whenever she was with Naruto –good or bad. Sasuke wasn't sure why he noticed her lips more often now and why he felt the need to see for himself just what they felt like. And it wasn't just her lips he was noticing if he were to be honest with himself. He was noticing her in a way he hadn't really been noticing Sakura lately.

It was strange.

Strange, but he still felt himself seeking her out, secretly hoping to bump into her at the grocery market. Secretly wanting her to be half as excited to see him as he was to see her. Sure, he didn't really expect to see her there but it wasn't an impossible encounter since this grocery mart was the closest one to her home. He'd never admit it to himself or anyone else for that matter, but he was stalking her in a sense. He hadn't been in a desperate need for groceries because he could have went to the market around the corner from him home. Instead, he opted to travel forty minutes across town to a grocery store he hoped she shopped it. It was confusing yet somehow Sasuke had the clarity he sought all along. He wanted to see Hinata and since it had been a week since she made herself visible to him, he came looking for her. Sasuke realized he wanted something from her but he wasn't sure what it was just yet.

"Hinata."

It was his voice but he didn't remember opening his mouth.

Sasuke turned himself in her direction. She stood still, back rigid with anxiety. Her younger sister was staring at him with white eyes that seemed familiar but different from Hinata's at the same time. Sasuke watched as the younger sibling murmured something to her sister and he swallowed. Suddenly, she was looking over her shoulder at him, her black brows knotted together and her eyes slightly narrowed.

She was scowling at him.

He smirked.

Sasuke couldn't help it. He might have been nervous but he couldn't stop himself for thinking how odd such an expression looked on her face. He might have thought Hyuuga Hinata had limited facial expressions before but Sasuke knew now she had millions of various expressions when it came to him. Sure it might have been bad, but shit, it was something.

"Hinata," he called her name again.

He saw her frown at him then glance to her sister, murmuring something he couldn't quite place. The youngest bobbed her head and disappeared, pushing the cart down the isle to her right.

Sasuke was satisfied when the heiress began to strut towards him, the heels of her platformed shoes clacking against the tiled floor beneath her. He felt his heart twinge but ignored it, he could figure out what it meant later.

"Don't call me by my name..." she whispered once she was close enough, folding her arms across her chest and looking down at his feet.

"I thought we were close enough for it now," he commented, earning himself a slap to his arm.

"Th-that's not funny," she hissed at him, her eyes narrowing to slits.

Sasuke couldn't help his smile.

Hinata cleared her throat. "Anyway..." she began, licking her suddenly dry lips. "If you're worried about...me telling Sakura what happened... I won't."

Sasuke stared openly, surprised by her sudden admission. Sakura? When he thought of what happened between him and Hinata he never even thought of Sakura. Sasuke swallowed. He might have been in deeper than he originally assumed.

"You think I'm worried about Sakura?" he heard himself asking her.

Her jaw tensed and she shifted her weight from one leg onto the other, looking rather pained. "Of course," she hissed at him. "She's your girlfriend."

Sasuke continued to stare down at her.

"She's my best friend; I'd never want to hurt her," Hinata continued, her voice shaky. "I know you d-didn't mean anything by...what you did – "

"What I did? Hinata, you were there too," Sasuke argued, his brows knotting together.

"You started it!" she hissed.

Sasuke glared. "I can't remember you being against it."

"I pushed – it doesn't matter," she began to fight back but caught herself. The heiress took a few deep breaths before continuing. "It doesn't matter who did what," she said now more calm. "We both know what happened didn't mean anything so there's no reason we should tell Sakura... There's no reason for us to hurt her..."

Hinata felt her heart clenching and the tears burning at the back of her eyes. She could reason all she wanted but deep down she knew she was foul. All she could do now was protect her relationship with the pinkette and hope that she never found out. If at all possible, Hinata would take this to the grave and always keep it in her, no matter how her heart clenched and ached for her to confess, this was the only way.

"We were both obviously s-stressed and...looking for something to make us f-feel better," she continued. "That d-does mean we should d-drag Sakura into it... I think it's b-best if we...don't speak to one another w-when we d-don't have to."

This was not the conversation Sasuke was expecting to have with the Hyuuga heiress. He had no clue what kind of conversation he expected to have with her honestly, but this was most certainly nowhere near his line of assumptions. Sasuke supposed he expected her to feel what he felt, whatever that was. He cursed himself for ever having been excited to see her because she clearly could have gone without seeing him. She was saying a lot but all he got out of it was that she didn't think he mattered. He and his kiss were not important to her.

"Whatever."

Hinata looked at him once more, searching his face for any signs that he might not really agree with her. Apparently satisfied with what she found, she bobbed her head in acceptance.

"Okay. Goodnight, Uchiha-san."

Sasuke didn't say anything in return, vaguely aware of her usage of his family name as he stepped around her. Hinata could have it her way. If she didn't care then why should he? If he was nothing to her then she was even less to him.

Sasuke wasn't sure if he was more upset with her for dismissing him as she had or himself for even caring about what she thought. What he did know was that his ego had taken a massive hit from the Hyuuga heiress and he didn't appreciate it. Girls just didn't ignore him; Sasuke wasn't used to that sort of thing from them. Hinata might have always been blind to him but tonight she made it clear that she would rather pretend he didn't even exist and expected him to do the same of her.

Did she really hate him then?

He dropped his basket in a stray isle, no longer caring to keep up the rouse of actually shopping. The Uchiha felt embarrassed that he had even come this far away from his home hoping to run into a girl who obviously wanted nothing to do with him.

As he climbed into his vehicle a short time later, the same thoughts plagued his mind. Hinata had never been concerned with him, even as children. He could remember all the times he had been forced into play dates at the Hyuuga compound and how she had always seemed more interested in reading or painting than him and leaving her sister to cling to him as all the other girls had.

Sasuke supposed he had always hated her first as a result of her constant dismissals.

He found himself pulling into the parking garage of Sakura's high rise. It wasn't long before he was riding the elevator to her penthouse and using his key to let himself in. The pinkette seemed surprised to see him, her emerald eyes widened, staring expectantly at him from her spot on her couch. She was curled up with a bag of cheetos, looking guilty when realization set in.

"Sasuke.." she breathed, placing the bags on the coffee table and standing to her feet.

She donned a nude silk pajama set, looking comfortable with her pink tresses pulled away from her face. Sasuke watched as she licked the cheese from her fingers, not bothering to mind her manners as she would in public. If he were to be honest, he liked her better this way. It was a more honest Sakura; a finger licking, cheetos eating Sakura.

"Hey..." he said, dropping his keys on the counter.

"Hey..." she almost whispered back, studying him carefully.

He hadn't been to her apartment since his encounter with Hinata, he realized. He was immediately pissed at himself for even thinking about her while he was there. He came to Sakura's to forget about the heiress but it seemed impossible now when all he could think about was how different she had looked standing before the same scenery.

"I...wasn't expecting you..." she said softly to him, looking unsure.

Sasuke nodded. He hadn't expected to come either. "Hn."

Silence fell between them.

Sakura felt her heart racing as Sasuke moved around her kitchen, digging around her fridge. Honestly, she wasn't sure how she felt having him there. Of course, she wanted to see him, but she was still rather upset with him for not telling her about his new job. How could he forget to inform her? He had an entire party for his success and his girlfriend didn't even know about it.

"I don't want to fight anymore, Sakura," Sasuke told her, pulling from her freezer a tub of vanilla ice cream.

The pinkette licked her lips and nodded as she watched him dig around the drawer for two spoons. "Me either..."

Sasuke smiled, just a tiny lifting of the corner of his lips. He walked around the island, ice cream and spoons in hand as he crossed into her living area and took up the seat on the couch beside where she had been.

Sakura searched his face for signs. They were struggling in their relationship and it was becoming more and more difficult by the day to pretend that things were just magically going to fix themselves. Part of her knew the only reason he stuck around so long was because her father had been sponsoring his firm. When she learned of his new job with Hyuuga Enterprises, Sakura immediately became worried. What if his success was so massive he didn't need her father's money anymore? If he didn't need the money, then he didn't need her either. Sakura was worried in that moment that he was only there now to patch things up with her so that he might hold onto her father's funding until he no longer needed it. Her heart clenched.

"Sasuke, I – "

"I've missed you."

The pinkette studied his face, looking for any signs of deceit. Her heart was pounding and her brain was telling her not to trust him but the look on his face made her want to. She wanted to believe everything was fine with them and that she didn't need to worry over their future any longer. Sasuke was looking at her like he wanted to fix things and hell he was there with her without her begging him to spend time with her. Moments like these were hard to come by. Sakura could feel the tears stinging the backs of her eyeballs and she wanted to cry, more than anything she wanted to cry.

"I missed you too," she breathed out, taking her place beside him and curling into his side.

Hinata found herself on Naruto's couch much later that night. She had long since stuffed her face with all sorts of fatty foods with Hanabi but the junk food binge hadn't made her feel any better after all. She was relieved when Naruto called her that night just before she was laying herself down for bed. She confessed to him everything that had been bothering her, everything but what was really weighing heavily on her mind. After a few sniffles, the blonde had figured out she was crying and immediately came to get her. Hinata was more than relieved to see him. She felt suffocated in her home and getting away was exactly what she needed.

The heiress had just gotten through spilling her heart out to the blonde, going over most of her anxiety until her throat felt raw. Her eyes were swore from all the tears that had been shed in the last hour or so. She thought time spent with Naruto would ease her but she didn't feel better at all, in fact, she felt worse.

How she longed to tell him her secret; how she longed to hear him tell her everything was fine. She needed him to convince her that Sakura would be okay and that Sakura would forgive her. Hinata needed Naruto to assure her that what happened between her and Sasuke meant nothing and jeopardize nothing. How could she get that sort of comfort when she couldn't even confess to him? What would Naruto think of her? She felt so tainted and dirty from the kiss they shared. Hanabi's issues with Moegi didn't make her feel any better either; in fact, they deepened her concerns. What if she and Sakura ended up like Hanabi and Moegi?

Hinata swallowed past the lump that lodged itself in her throat.

"You're doing fine you know," Naruto said, easing onto the couch beside her and handing her a mug of what she suspected was hot coco.

The heiress sipped, pleased by the heat that slid down her throat. "I'm not..."

"You are. Don't let the pressure get to you like this."

Hinata sipped at more of the hot beverage, trying her best to calm down. Her opal eyes looked into the kind cyan one's of Naruto's. She wished more than anything in that moment that she could spill her heart to him. She needed him to know what was really plaguing her mind. Hinata never felt more guilty in her entire life. She was keeping a secret from the two most important people to her. Would they ever forgive her if they ever found out? Hinata's stomach flopped and she closed her eyes.

What would she do if they decided to leave her? There was no way she'd ever be able to replace their friendship. How would she go on without either of them? Who would be there to comfort her when she needed it badly? Who would make sure she didn't drown herself in her responsibilities? These two people kept her sane, kept her focus, she would lose herself without them. Her heart began to race as the idea of living without them sank in. Sasuke ruined her life.

She sobbed.

"You're going to be okay," Naruto hushed her, brushing his thumb against her cheek and wiping away the tear that nestled there.

Her clear orbs fluttered open, staring into his eyes for comfort. He smiled and Hinata's stomach dipped again.

"I believe in you," he whispered, cupping her cheek in his hand.

Her heart began racing faster than before and Hinata was certain it would burst from her chest at any given moment. He held her cheek in his hand, smiling that same assuring smile that she had fallen in love with so many years ago. Naruto made her feel like maybe things would be okay, like maybe he wouldn't leave her if she told him the truth. Naruto would always be there for her. Even when he was millions of miles away Hinata knew that he was with her.

She placed her hand on his, her delicate fingers tracing over his rough skin. She smiled softly, rubbing her cheek into his calloused palm – his hands were harder than she remembered them being. Hinata supposed war would do that to a person. Her heart fluttered and her stomach flopped again as she stared into his cyan eyes, neither one of them speaking. His silence was comforting – just knowing that he was there and he believed in her made everything seem not so bad. She leaned closer.

And closer.

He didn't seem to mind.

Her stomach dipped in as she tilted her head up. Her heart was in her throat and she could feel his breath on her lips. Had it always been this easy? Was the only thing she needed to do was lean closer and Naruto would be hers? This whole time, had this been the only thing in her way? A few centimeters?

She pressed her lips to his and breathed.

Thanks everyone for sticking with me and this fic. I hope this chapter was satisfying!

It might be a little early to say this but I can't help myself! I'm planning a sequel for this fic!

*confetti explodes in the air*

I'm not gonna give out too many details just yet since it is rather early to be even telling you all this. This fic is nowhere done however, if everything goes as I've planned for, there should be another...11 chapters? Haha, I know, sounds super long even for me but I think it'd be worth it. Anyway! Thanks everyone for reading my fics.

Also! Please vote in the poles on my profile and help me find out which fics to rewrite and which new pairing I should try.

Ciao,

- Rampantt