Yup Chapter 2 up... I think I revised it one time too many that the nice simplicity is gone. Oh well... I was hoping for more reviews before putting up another chapter but I understand, I hate reading stories with only one chapter too... they usually aren't too promising. Anyway R&R
Disclaimer: Me no own
Chapter 2
Hinata stared blankly, watching Naruto and Sakura eat ramen together. It was kind of… sad how she longed to be Sakura. It was pitiful that she didn't even like herself. Naruto was babbling on and on about this new technique he learned from the legendary Sannin: Jiraya. Gaara had already returned to talk to Tsunade-sama about the antidote and to see how it was coming along. When she came back, wham right in her face. Naruto, the man she loved with Sakura, the girl she admired. Maybe it wasn't so bad; at least she didn't hate Sakura.
"Oh hey Hinata-chan!" Naruto said grinning widely waving at her.
"Where's Gaara-san?" Sakura asked a little relieved that he wasn't there.
"He's talking to the Hokage," Hinata replied meekly. Seeing the two so happy together made her envious.
"Oh," Sakura said and continued to smile for Naruto.
"What are you two doing?" Hinata asked stupidly. They were eating, duh, anyone could've figured that out.
"We're on a date!" Naruto announced happily. Sakura blushed crimson and knocked him in the head. At the moment Hinata mentally knocked herself in the head for asking.
"Not so loud Naruto!" Sakura hissed angrily.
So… it was a date. Sakura agreed so that means they're a couple doesn't it? Hinata's heart dropped, there goes all her chances of ending up with Naruto… again.
"So you two are… going out right?" she asked with a weak smile.
"I guess you can say that," Sakura said laughing nervously, her blush know easing down to a pastel pink.
"Oh," Hinata replied. "I'm happy… for you two," she said half-heartedly.
"Thanks Hinata," Sakura said, relieved. Now Hinata felt guilty for lying to her but what could she say? 'Give me back Naruto, I saw him first?' Hinata wasn't that type of person.
"Well… I guess I'll see you tomorrow, Sakura-chan, Naruto-kun," she said bowing slightly before running off. It was dusk, the sky had turned into a light sleepy blue. She slowly trudged towards the Hyuuga estate.
"Hinata-sama," a warm familiar voice said. She spotted Neji waving to her and she waved back.
"Neji-niisan, how are you doing?" she asked.
Much to her surprise, Neji blushed. "Hinata, just call me… Neji," he said. She gave him a confused look but didn't wish to dig further into it.
"Why?" she asked slowly.
"I just thought that since we're close now we don't have to be so… formal," he explained.
"Okay, Neji," she said, establishing his request. It made sense, but she didn't expect it.
"Did you eat yet?" he asked. She remembered what happened a few minutes ago and sighed. Well they probably wouldn't have wanted her to stay anyway.
"No, but I'm not really hungry," she lied. Her tummy was grumbling.
"It's not good to starve yourself, Hinata," he said, furrowing his brow. He didn't refer to her as –sama anymore she noticed.
"I'm not starving myself, I'm just not hungry."
"Alright," he said. "But you need to eat something at least," he said sternly.
"Fine," she replied. She wasn't in the mood to play the nice sweet cousin right now and she might as well eat something.
"Come on let's go home," he said, taking her hand and leading her through the gates.
"Neji, I'm not a little girl anymore," she said quietly.
"I know," he said, not stopping to look at her. She was too depressed to argue back right now or to fight his hand.
"Do you want to go training tomorrow morning?" he asked her.
"No," she replied, surprising herself actually. She usually gave the excuse first and then the answer. He suddenly stopped.
"Why not?" he asked. He turned to face her.
"I'm sorry," she said quietly, looking at the ground. She didn't like that look he gave her, that look that made her so guilty. His hand clenched onto hers tightly as if he was never going to let go.
"So… are we going training tomorrow or not?" he asked impatiently, and rather angrily. She was taken aback, Neji did have random outbursts of snide comments and anger… it was usually the snide comments that attacked her though.
"I-I have to go to the hospital tomorrow morning and I have to guard the Kazekage, it's my mission," she said, she thought it sounded rather corny though. His hand loosened.
Neji sighed, he gave her a hard, concentrated stare. After those ten awkward seconds he grabbed her hand, gave it a slight squeeze and tugged her along to the house. He sighed.
"Let's go."
Hinata stared at the sky from the hospital window. In a way she was afraid of the hospital but she found solace here. She didn't like the screaming cries of people, the bitter smell of medicine, the metallic smell of blood and seeing people crying and worried sick for others. She had been to the hospital many times to visit Naruto, sometimes when he was injured; she never stayed long enough so that he actually knew she came to visit him, it made things a lot simpler that way, yet more painful and regretful.
"Hey Hinata-chan, you sure are early," Sakura said yawning as she walked into the room. Their jobs were to keep the hospitals tidy; in return they were trained by the Hokage herself to become medic-nins.
Hinata didn't tell her she was only early because she wanted to avoid seeing Neji, who also woke up early to go training or to make sure he didn't miss her. Things have been getting awkward lately. She was more afraid of Neji now than she was a few months ago, in a subtle way he changed. She didn't know what was different but she could feel it, the raw tension between them. She never knew he could become so… possessive. She liked the idea that Neji cared about her and would rather protect her than kill her but recently he wanted to be with her all the time.
Maybe he's going away for awhile… who knows… Maybe she's just paranoid and he just wants to protect her. She didn't want to accept any other explanation anyway.
"You know, I never knew that Naruto had it in him to be romantic," Sakura said suddenly as they made the patient's beds. When Tsunade was busy with work they instead of working on charka ended up making beds and other chores.
"Hmm…" Hinata replied, she really didn't want to know but it was rude to say so otherwise because Sakura seemed to be so happy. She liked it when she praised Naruto, she knew that he deserved more than he got now.
"Last night even though we went to a ramen shop he still ended up buying me these really cute pink chopsticks," Sakura said sighing dreamily. "Even though it's pretty random it's still thoughtful. I would've preferred flowers or something but I don't mind." Hinata nodded sadly. Sakura immediately noticed.
"I'm sorry, you're still into him right?" she asked worried. Hinata shook her head.
"I'm fine, besides he is really kind of silly," she said in her most cheery voice. Mentally she wanted to walk out of the room and lock herself in a closet for a half an hour to think about it some more. That was the kind of person she was, but she dared not do it in front of others.
It almost seemed like Sakura wasn't Gaara's bodyguard at all, she always ran off when she saw Naruto. Which forced Gaara and Hinata alone most of the time. She glanced at the red haired sand-nin. She finally managed to get a good look at the "love" symbol on his forehead. She wondered what it meant and how he got it in the first place. She noticed that he had his gourd this time. She liked him better without it.
"Is she even supposed to be guarding me?" Gaara asked blankly watching Sakura chase after Naruto… again.
"Hai," Hinata said laughing a little. "Sakura-chan does get distracted easily when a pretty boy comes along," she said trying to joke but she ended up sounding pretty sad.
"Do you still like him? Uzumaki Naruto?" Gaara asked. She looked at him surprised. How did he even know that she liked him? Was she that obvious? If she was obvious, she didn't know whether to feel sad that Naruto ignored it or embarrassed that everyone else knew. She immediately looked away seeing Gaara's curious eyes on her.
"No," she lied, "Why do you say that?" she asked innocently.
"Yesterday, I noticed the immediate change in your expression when you saw Naruto and the immediate change after he left, and an even more depressing change when that other girl ran after him," he told her. She smiled, blushing of embarrassment. She wanted to laugh but didn't. He didn't seem to think it was funny.
"I guess I'm easy to figure out neh?" she said nervously, with a small smile on her face.
"It wasn't painfully obvious either," he assured her, if she didn't know better he was actually trying to make her feel better.
"You two look thirsty!" a man yelled from a tea shop they were walking by. "Kazekage-san, what an honor! The drink is on the house," the man said. Hinata wondered how he even knew Gaara was the Kazekage since he wasn't in his formal Kazekage clothing.
Gaara stopped, glanced at Hinata for a second and walked into the tea shop. Gaara this time ordered something. A simple yet popular green tea, nothing added of course.
"Sorry Hinata-chan," Sakura said running back to them, out of breath. "I really am avoiding this mission huh?" she said laughing.
"It's okay Sakura-chan," Hinata didn't mind being alone with Gaara now, the tension had wore off after two days.
"Hey, Naruto-kun's going to go on a misson for a week, want to go seem him off?" Sakura asked her. Hinata nodded, Sakura immediately started running and Hinata followed. She turned around to check if Gaara was coming or not but he wasn't there…
"Sakura-chan- wait!" she shouted to her. Sakura turned to see the panic stricken Hinata.
Hinata looked around to see if Gaara was nearby but she couldn't see him with normal sight. She noticed that the tea he was drinking had fallen to the ground, a slight crack on the porcelain cup with green liquid pouring out and around it.
"Gaara... is… missing," Hinata told her. Sakura glanced around, also noticing he was indeed not there.
"Byakugan," Hinata said after performing the more than familiar hand seal. The charka flowed to her eyes. The tea he was drinking, it was slightly malty with powder. She turned away, in search of Gaara again.
Hinata looked but couldn't see him anywhere. Her heart was pounding, she hoped he was okay… Suddenly she spotted him, he was being carried off by a masked ninja, who was accompanied by another. It was a pretty stupid thing to do in broad daylight, unfortunately no other ninjas were around.
"I found him! I'll go after them, you go alert Hokage-sama!" Hinata told her. Sakura nodded and ran off in the opposite direction as Hinata hopped from shop to shop trying to catch up with them. She was more than confident she could handle them, being a Chuunin now. The shop owner probably kidnapped him. It was quite silly how easily they fell into that trap.
After a few minutes Hinata managed to catch up to the two captors.
"Stop!" she yelled. The one carrying him laughed.
"What should we do boss?" the other one asked.
"Take her too," he replied.
Suddenly the other masked-nin stopped and held a kunai in a ready position to attack. Hinata stopped and snatched a kunai from her bag also. With the byakugan she could easily evade his attacks. She had to make this quick if she was going to find Gaara. A single Kunai flew at her, she easily moved a few inches to avoid it, and it jabbed into the shop wall behind her. She then saw in the back of her head a little ball hanging from it… what-
She heard a loud explosion and smoke cover the entire area. She tried to cover her mouth but inhaled some of the dark smoke before she realized it. Her head started to spin, and she began to cough, forcing her to inhale deeper, her wounds never properly healed from the first Chuunin exam she took. Coughing was always quite painful for her. She clutched her chest looking around blindly to see where the masked nin had gone but her vision began to blur as her Byakugan disappeared. Her eyelids felt heavy…
NO! I need to rescue Gaara! She thought as she slowly fell over into the darkness.
When the hell is she going to get up? Gaara thought, watching the pale girl in the cell across from him, he waited. She called herself a bodyguard like that? She fell for such a simple trap…
She looked rather peaceful, but he disliked the fact that someone like her was lying on such a dirty ground. It didn't seem right. He wondered if she was wounded? His eyes wandered to the ground he was sitting on, there was nothing, not even a toilet… how… hospitable. Not.
His eyes darted back to the young woman lying across from him, she was slightly budging or so it seemed but it looked like she gave up halfway and decided that it wasn't worth the trouble. His focus went back to the ground, fortunately he had his gourd, the Hokage recommended that he didn't take it since it seemed to have been a threat to the village or so he thought. Fortunately he did, there was a bit of sand on the ground, probably to cover up waste… or vomit… probably something that came out of someone else. He wanted to get out of here as soon as possible but he wanted to wait for the girl to wake up first, he didn't know why he should even wait, she just seemed peaceful lying there, even if the ground was filthy.
"Hn," he heard Hinata groan. He turned to see her trying to support herself. She slowly looked up to see him staring back coldly at her.
"You're finally up I see," Gaara said more relieved than he should be. He was pretty annoyed that she got caught also, that wasn't part of the plan. He wanted to figure out who was coming after him but instead it turned out to be a bunch of rogue ninjas hoping for a ransom. Pathetic.
"Sumimasen," Hinata said looking down with guilt. "I couldn't save you," she said quietly.
"Don't worry about it," he popped the cork on his gourd, he watched as the sand spewed out of the opening. Hinata watched curiously. Gaara began to mold the sand with his mind to form a key. The sand key slowly floated to the keyhole of the cell and they both heard a click. Gaara walked out of the cell staring at the girl, who was on her knees looking up at him with those… white eyes. Those white eyes that haunted him ever since they talked four years ago. He hated them, well not hated, he hated the effect it had on him though. She slowly brought herself to stand up but ended up coughing again, blood dripped onto the dirty ground, speckles of it landed only a few inches away from his feet.
Gaara stared at her, worried. Did they do anything to hurt her? She didn't look wounded but one never knows. Anger bubbled slowly bubbled inside of him.
"Are you… okay?" he asked, watching her hack up some more blood. He unlocked her cell door and helped her stand up.
"I'm," she was out of breath from coughing. "I'm fine," she assured him.
"Let's go, we're not in a good condition to fight," he told her, he meant to say she wasn't but decided not to. She had one arm draped around his supportive shoulders, he slowly began to walk but she wouldn't budge. He practically had to drag her out of there.
They finally made it back outside of those ninja's hideout. It wasn't too far from the village itself. Gaara used the sand he had to find to rip into the ground and produce more sand. Hinata's arm was slowly slipping off his shoulders, he turned to see her fall off but he managed to catch her before she dropped to the ground. He laid her down softly, staring at the pained expression on her face. It puzzled him still. Didn't she say she wanted to change so she could be happy? She did change, or at least tried but she still wasn't happy. Was there more to being happy than just trying to change something?
Maybe it was because she lost her important person… Uzumaki Naruto. He was with that silly pink haired girl now wasn't he? Maybe that's why she's sad, because her important person was taken away from her. Just like his was… Yashamaru never saw him as an important person but it was just the opposite with him, maybe it was similar with Hinata and Naruto?
Gaara ignored any other thoughts and went back to collecting sand. Finally he had enough to crush the whole hideout and made sure those stupid criminals would never see daylight again. He made his hand seals and the sand flew into every nook and cranny of the hideout until everything was covered, crushed and buried.
Gaara looked at the sand filled area, satisfied. He turned to pick up Hinata and slowly lifted her up. It was weird how much flesh to flesh contact he was having with a stranger. He carried her, walking back to the village. She was pretty light, she probably didn't eat a lot. She had a small delicate frame and looked as if he held her too tight she would crumble and shatter in his arms.
He made it to the outskirts of the village and walked through the gates. There waiting was another Hyuuga, the male one that was Hinata's cousin; the one that caused her some severe wounds four years ago.
"Hinata!" he said worried, he ran towards him and tried to pry her from him. Gaara didn't let go though. He didn't know why, maybe it was because he didn't trust this other Hyuuga to hold Hinata. He was worried he'll break her, even though he knew that probably wouldn't happen.
"What are you doing?" Gaara spat, annoyed at how he was trying to snatch her away from him.
"What are you doing?" Neji asked staring back angrily.
"I'm bringing Hinata to the hospital," he said with a hint of boredom in his voice. "Now if you'll move."
"I'll take Hinata to the hospital! She's my cousin," he said hotly.
"Well I saved her," Gaara argued back, face showed signs of annoyance. He dared him to do something, this guy was no match for his sand.
"There you two are!" the silly pink haired girl yelled running to them. She saw Hinata cradled between the two men and just and stared at the two quizzically.
"Neji-san, take Hinata-chan to the hospital and Gaara-san, Tsunade-sama wants to speak to you about the antidote," the girl informed him. Gaara shrugged and placed Hinata into Neji's arms.
"Whatever…" he said with a bored tone and hesitantly walked away.
Where… am I? Hinata thought. She saw a white ceiling. She sat up and looked around. She was in a hospital bed. She looked around panicking. What happened to Gaara? The masked-nins? The door creaked open… Gaara?
No, it was her cousin Neji.
"Neji!" she said surprised to see him. He had a tray with him, he brought her a bowl of broth.
"You're awake, Hinata," he said with a smile of relief. "I brought you some food. It looked like you passed out, fortunately you got back soon before the internal bleeding got out of hand," Neji said frowning at the fact that he was the one who inflicted that to her.
"What happened?" she asked, lifting a spoon from the broth to her parched lips.
"That doesn't matter, you're back and safe aren't you?" he said softly. She slowly blew on the broth, realizing it was still hot.
"What happened to Gaara-san?" she asked, worried. He did save her, even after all the trouble she caused him, he still saved her. All she could remember was arms carrying him and the smell of sand, but it wasn't that dry smell. He smelled nice surprisingly. He didn't look like the type to care about hygiene.
"Well…" he said scowling at the thought of him. "I think he's with Naruto," he told her. She smiled, those two could become really good friends if fate gave them the chance. Naruto and Gaara were so different yet so alike in a way.
"So he's okay?" she asked, sighing in relief.
"Looks like it," he said. Hinata quickly ate the rest of her broth and tried to make her way to her clothes but Neji blocked the way and pushed her back into bed.
"You still need to rest Hinata," he told her. He narrowed his eyes, "Gaara-san is fine, you should be more worried about yourself. Forget seeing him," he said.
"B-but-"
"No buts Hinata-sama," he said using that formal term. "Why do you want to see him so badly? It's not like he's dying," he said, annoyed.
"I know… I just wanted to… thank him," she said softly. Neji sighed.
"I'll thank him for you. You rest Hinata," he said turning to leave.
"Hai… Neji-niisan," she said quietly, but he didn't hear her.
