Hello everyone! Oh my, it's been a long time. I guess a lot of things happened in the meantime, but I'm finally updating! Sorry for taking so long! I'm also writing the 4th chapter at the moment, so hopefully I should upload that soon! I hope you enjoy it and, if you want, leave me a review so I know what to change/adjust.

I do not own Naruto and the characters, but I do own the story!

Masiel (:

Saturdays were usually pretty quiet days for Hinata, spending most of them studying, both for her university course and for her magic spells. She couldn't use her magic in the mortals' world, but no one forbade her from reading volumes and volumes of magic books. From potions to summoning spells, then healing ointments, protective shields and so on. But this Saturday was different. This Saturday she woke up very early in the morning, the sun was nowhere to be seen. She was nervous.

This Saturday was the day of the DNA test.

She had done some research in her books to see if they could find her true identity through the test, but most of her magic books didn't mention science at all. Some others simply did not have any knowledge about shape shifting. She should have gone to The Alchemist, the only place in the magic world, that she knew of, where science and magic were a combined thing. Now it was too late.

She sat on her bed; her eyes closed tight, her fingers pressing on her temples.

She had to calm down. Hinata decided to meditate, a practice she actually learned from her mother.

She sat down on the carpet, crossed her legs and started breathing deeply. Inhale, exhale. Concentrating on her breathing and nothing else. As clouds dissolving after a storm, her thoughts started clearing-up. In few seconds her mind was peaceful, her body relaxed. She could feel the tenseness of her face muscles loosing up. She meditated for half an hour. After that, Hinata felt reborn.

The woman decided that she had to go and participate to the project; she had given her word to Sasuke and his friends. She could always find a solution after she had gotten the results, after all, she didn't know herself what the results were going to be.
'You can do this Hinata,' she looked at herself in the mirror, 'but maybe you could use some more sleep'. She snuggled back to bed, now that the anxiety wasn't eating her alive, she managed to fall asleep quite easily.

Luckily, she had an alarm at 7 'o clock, otherwise she would have slept all day considering the deep sleep she fell in. She got up quite easily and had her favourite breakfast, cinnamon rolls and jasmine tea, to motivate herself. Juno gave her a loud meow as she entered the room and stretched. Even for her it was too early. A small chuckle came out of Hinata's mouth, then she took a little bowl containing some cat food and put it by her seat. Juno purred warmly in response and started eating her food.

As Hinata got ready to go, her mind kept thinking about what could happen to her if someone had to discover her true identity. Her friends would probably label her as a liar, they would be terrified. She could imagine the hurt in their eyes.
She squeezed hers, as to delete that image from her mind.

She grabbed her bag, ready to go, she opened the door and, as she turned around to say bye to Juno, something caught her gaze. A book was laying open on the sofa, its pages now slightly turning with the morning breeze that was entering from the front door. The witch was confused because she thought she put the book away the night before, but maybe her mind was playing tricks on her. She closed the door and went to pick up the book to put it back in its shelf of magic tomes, but as she did so, the title of a paragraph caught her attention.

'Erasing Memories: Spells and Rituals'

Her pearly eyes widened. 'This could be a solution, if anyone finds out, I'll just have to erase that particular memory'
Although risky because she was not supposed to use magic in the mortals' world, she decided that this could have been her last resource.

With a little less burden on her chest she stood up, put the book in her enchanted bookcase, waved goodbye to her furry friend and went out.

Sasuke was in front of the lab, waiting for his friends and the group of volunteers to turn up. Why did he always have to be so early for meetings? The past few days were uneventful, mostly because he spent all of his time preparing paperwork for this project, he didn't even realise that Halloween was nearing. A flash of costume parties and drunk people appeared in his mind and a shiver travelled across his spine. His thoughts were interrupted by a soft female voice.

"Good morning"

He turned around only to see his damnation. A damnation that had pearly grey eyes, a little smile on her face and cheeks tinged with pink.

And he damned himself again for always arriving too early.

Trying to sound as unaffected as possible, Sasuke only replied with "Hi".

Already preparing himself to hear a thousand questions from her, he looked away, slightly frowning. But the questions never arrived. In confusion, he turned around to look at her.

Hinata was still smiling, looking at the landscape around them. The lab was in a building of the campus that was close to a big garden so students could go and relax there during breaks. It was also used to plant certain types of herbs that then were used to extract different oils and other components to practice in the chemistry lab.

The woman beside him seemed to be completely absorbed by the flora of the garden. Then her gaze stopped on one particular bush just few steps away from them. He could have sworn that he saw some sadness in her eyes, despite the smile still being on her lips. He didn't know why, but he felt the urge to know more about her.

"Do you like lavender?" 'Oh no, that sounded so cheesy! What am I? A teenage girl gossiping with her friends…', but it was too late. His words had slipped out of his mouth, the only thing he could do was accepting the consequences.

However, Hinata didn't seem to notice anything wrong in that innocent question, and without even turning around she replied with a small nod. Her grey eyes seemed to reflect the clouds in the sky, as if her eyes were white and just mirroring her surroundings. Like the clouds of that morning, her eyes held sadness, as if water was about to pour from them. In a second though, they regained that faint shade of lilac that was so peculiar of her.

She turned around and smiled at him, "They are my favourite flowers".

Like someone who is looking at a masterpiece, Sasuke felt his chest tightening, leaving him a bit breathless. Maybe it was just the brisk autumn air filling his lungs, he thought.

"Do you have a favourite flower, Sasuke?"
The way she said his name was soft and warm, like cream on hot chocolate. Why did she have to be like this? Why everything she did, seemed so special to him? He didn't even like hot chocolate!

"I, uhm, don't think I have a favourite flower…" he started, but then he saw her face slightly lowering, as if saddened by his response. Tilting his face so it was hidden by his long black locks, he continued "…Though I like red carnations".

Her head rose immediately, looking at him, she smiled even though she couldn't make his features very well.

A small raindrop fell on her cheek, taking her by surprise. She breathed in some fresh air, recognising the distinct smell of wet soil.

"It's going to rain soon" she said, not really knowing who she was talking to. Sasuke glanced at the clouds above them and then started to walk away. After few steps, he noticed that the woman wasn't following him.

"Let's wait the others underneath the canopy of the entrance".

She nodded and pink made its way to her cheeks. As she got closer to Sasuke, she spotted some people in the distance.

Sasuke sighed "Finally".

Once everyone had arrived, they opened the door; a man with grey hair was sitting at the reception desk, reading a book.

"Good morning students" he cheered everyone. Some volunteers were left a bit confused by him, but Sasuke and his friends knew him quite well.

"Good morning Kakashi-sensei" Sasuke said, weirdly there was no annoyance in his voice, his comment sounded genuine.

Kakashi looked at him with a big smile, or at least, it looked like he was smiling. His face was covered by a black cotton face mask, hiding half of his features.

"Guys this is Kakashi-sensei, our biochemistry and genetics teacher. He's gonna help us out today, making sure everything goes smoothly" Shikamaru announced.

A general "Hello" raised from the group of volunteers. After the introductions, they walked down a hallway and entered a big lecture room. The volunteers sat down waiting for instructions.

"So, we're gonna call each of you individually. When you hear your name being called, if you can please follow Sasuke into the lab where the test will take place" Gaara explained to the crowd.

"After I take the samples I need, Shikamaru will ask you some questions and you'll fill in a form. Part of the questions will be asked in a month, when the results will be known. All clear?" Sasuke seemed very comfortable in directing people. Hinata was looking at him, feeling admiration towards him. She also noted that by looking at the man, she felt calmer, maybe because of his unperturbed expression.

Hinata then felt someone poking her arm, so she turned around to see that her friends were trying to get her attention.

"So, were you too distracted by your handsome crush that you forgot to say hi or were you just in your little world again?" Ino asked her friend, a sly smile on her lips.

"Ah… Ino, Tenten, Temari, Kiba… I was, uh, just thinking about Halloween, you know, it's approaching, and I, uh-" she was coming up with an utter lie, when Kiba interrupted her.

"OH MY, HALLOWEEN IS NEARING GUYS, WE NEED TO THINK ABOUT COSTUMES AND TRICK OR TREAT AND-"

"Shhhh" Temari and Tenten interrupted him, as he was getting too loud because of his excitement.

They lightly chuckled and sat closer to each other.

"Well, I uh, was thinking we could watch a scary movie at my place, or we could go to the cinema, depending on what you prefer" Hinata whispered to her friends, glancing at Gaara that was calling out the names as to not miss her call.

"Oh, you can come around mine if you want, my house is quite big, and Gaara just purchased a huge TV so we can definitely watch a scary movie on it" everyone looked at Temari with excitement as if to say, 'YES PLEASE'. With a small chuckle she continued "I'll just ask my little brother if it's okay with him, but I'm sure he'll be okay with it".

Hinata was about to say something when her name was called.

"Hyūga Hinata" Gaara looked up to see the girl jumping up from her seat, like a scared cat. The scene nearly made him chuckle.

As he straightened his features, he realised that Sasuke was looking at him with a weird expression, one he had never seen on him before. Confused, Gaara was about to say something, but Sasuke called Hinata's name again.

"Hinata, please come forward" he stated blankly.

The woman walked down the steps of the lecture room and followed Sasuke into the hallway. She could feel her legs trembling, her heart pumping faster and faster as they got closer to the lab.

Sasuke opened the door of the room and let Hinata in. In front of her, there was a big desk where Shikamaru was sitting, filling in forms; on the right, there was a room divider where a medical chair was positioned together with a trolley full of test tubes and other tools.

Hinata felt a shiver down her spine and cold sweat started forming on her back. As they arrived at the medical chair, Sasuke instructed Hinata on the procedure, then he looked at her.

The woman wasn't looking at him, instead she kept her head down, like she was hiding herself.

'As if the DNA issue wasn't enough…' she thought while trying not to stare at the space that reminded her of a hospital room.

Sasuke felt something on his stomach, a heavy feeling he couldn't describe.

"Are you okay?" he asked, the tone gentler than usual.

Surprised by the sudden question, Hinata looked up and encountered his gaze. His face didn't show any emotions, like usual, but she could see something in his dark eyes, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

"Ah, I am… Okay… It's just that this room reminds me a bit of a hospital room, but it's okay, my mind is just silly today…" And with that she gave him a weak smile.

"I understand"

Sasuke's words came out without him even knowing, surprising both of them.

Hinata wasn't sure about what he was referring to exactly, and he probably wasn't going to share anything else with her, but those two words really meant a lot to her in that specific moment.

They didn't know how long they had been staring at each other without saying anything, but suddenly Kakashi's voice took them back to the real world.

"So Sasuke, have you finished with Ms. Hyūga?", amusement was clearly showing on his features, even under his mask.

"Ah, uh, Kakashi-sensei" Sasuke was caught by surprise, again, "I will be a minute" Sasuke stated then.

The lecturer seemed to smile and left them alone again.

Hinata's cheeks were tinted with pink, everything was so weird that morning.

Sasuke cleared his throat, "Right, so, I need some of your saliva, so please open your mouth" he tried to pronounce every word correctly and without any hesitation.

Hinata's cheeks became a darker shade of pink and simply nodded, opening her mouth.

Sasuke wore some gloves and took a tampon and a test tube form the trolley. With careful hands he put the tampon inside her mouth, letting it absorb her saliva. Then he took it out and placed it in the tube, which he immediately sealed.

His concentration and preciseness were the same that a surgeon would experience during a difficult operation. He didn't know why, but staring at her plump lips made him waver.

"You can go to Shikamaru now" he said to the woman that was still pink on her face.
"Yes-" she wanted to say more, but he interrupted her "Ah, wait" he remembered, and he stood in front of her, gaze locked on her pale lilac grey eyes.
His left hand travelled towards her face, as her eyes went wide and her cheeks went warmer and redder. She could feel she was about to transform into her cat form.

"Ouch" Hinata let out a little whimper, while she touched her head, caressing the spot that was hurting. Sasuke, mischievously smiling, put the hair he just extracted from her head into another tube and sealed it.

"Sorry about that" he said, even though he seemed rather amused by her little pout. "Thank you for coming today" he then said seriously, "It was appreciated by all of us. I'll see you around".

Hinata, who didn't expect those words simply replied, "I'm glad I could help and yes, see you" and with that, she smiled and waved at him, then she turned around and went to Shikamaru.