Hey guys, sorry for the late update to this story. Working on three stories at the same time is hard work. And I really want to start one of my other stories but I'm going to hold off on that.
As usual, I'll apologise in advance, for any grammar mistakes, my way of writing and any repetitiveness. Also this is quite a long chapter, so I'm sorry if it starts to get boring.
Anyway, on to the story. Enjoy! (I hope!)
The next morning soon came and the sun's rays gleamed through the gaps of the closed curtains of Hinata's room, at the Hyūga household. Then, the sound of an alarm clock rang loudly in the room, and from underneath the covers of the bed next to it, a hand reached out and turned it off. The noisy room became quiet once more and when it did, Hinata slowly sat up. Her vision was a blur so she rubbed her eyes and got the sleep out of them, and her sight had becoming clearer.
"Time to get up already?" she asked out loud to herself.
She stretched her body and a yawn escaped her lips as she did. I'd best get ready before Tenten comes she thought. But just as she was about to leave her bed, the sound of even breathing could be heard next to her and when she turned to look, a gentle smile appeared on her face. Laying there, still in her summer uniform and with the headband in her hair, was Sakura. She was sleeping on her side, facing in the ravenette's direction and Hinata thought that the pink haired girl looked extremely cute sleeping and didn't really want to wake her up.
Thinking that, the ravenette thought back to the events of last night.
She didn't know how much time had passed, but both girl's had made their way to the bed and Sakura's cries had become simple whimpers. Once the pinkette was calm enough to talk, Hinata released her from her embrace, and Sakura started to wipe away any stray tears from her cheeks. "Sorry," the pink haired demon apologised.
"It's alright Haruno-san," Hinata reasured her with a gentle smile. "Are you okay now?"
"I'm fine," she replied, and then paused for a moment. "Also... you can call me Sakura."
"Sakura..." Hinata spoke slowly, tasting the name on her tongue. It felt nice and she then smiled. "Alright then, Sakura-chan it is."
"Chan?" said with an confused expression.
"No good?" the ravenette asked, but Sakura shook her head.
"No," Sakura replied. The girl then turned her gaze away. "I'm fine with it.
The pink haired girl's cheeks began to glow crimson and even though the room was dark, Hinata could still notice it and she began to giggle.
"W-why are you laughing," Sakura stuttered.
"Sorry, sorry," the raven haired girl apologised. "It's just that you're so cute Sakura-chan!" The pinkette became even redder than before from those words and she couldn't look Hinata in the eye. But when a little finger was in her line of sight, she turned back. "Then let's promise," she continued. "From now on and forever, we're friends."
Sakura's eyes widened at the girl's statement and looked at the finger that was extended to her. She smiled at the thought and with a "Yes" and a nod, Sakura wrapped her own little finger around Hinata's and made the promise. And from then on, both girl's knew that their lives would change completely.
Hinata smiled at the memory and then stretched her limbs once more.
"Maybe I'll go and make breakfast," she said. It had been a while since she had woken up on time and made breakfast for herself. Hopefully her skills hadn't de-graded too much. With that thought, Hinata began to get out of bed... or so she thought.
As she was getting out, the hem of her pyjama top got snagged on something. "Huh?" Looking down, Hinata saw Sakura's hand gripping her pyjama top. Is she awake? "Sakura-chan?" the raven haired girl called out. She waited for second but didn't get a reply. Instead, she got even breathing, which meant she was still sleeping. The ravenette again smiled at the sleeping girl next to her. Maybe five more minutes wouldn't hurt.
With that in mind, Hinata got back into bed and as she got comfortable, Sakura suddenly started to move. She shifted closer to the white eyed girl and nestled herself onto her. Her eyes widened in surprise at the sudden closeness and her heart began to beat faster, her cheeks began to blush a crimson hue.
Looking at the demon girl up close, Hinata was reminded at how really cute the girl was, and thanks to the sunlight that was passing through the gaps of her curtains, it hit Sakura's pink hair, making her glow. And that made her even more elegant to look at.
Subconsciously, Hinata reached out with her hand and begun to stroke the pinkette's pink locks. "Soft," Hinata found herself saying quietly, continuing to stroke the girl's hair. At that moment, Sakura began to smile in her sleep. Seeing that innocent smile made the ravenette's smile grow even more, but she could feel sleep slowly starting to take over, and, not even trying to fight it, Hinata closed her eyes. The feeling of Sakura's warm body pressed against her's felt nice and that was the final push needed to send Hinata to the land of dreams.
About fifteen minutes later, after Hinata fell back to asleep, the sound of her front door, opening and closing, could be heard from downstairs and her name being called out after. Footsteps came up the stairs and, after a moment, the bedroom door opened. "Hinata!" cried the voice of Hiramatsu Tenten, as the twin bunned girl entered the room. When the brunette saw the lump that was underneath the covers, Tenten couldn't help but let out a sigh. "Hinata, are you still a sleep?" she asked but knew the answer to.
There was no reply back from her childhood friend, which she knew would happen, and let out another sigh before she made her way to the bed. A sense of déjà-vu took over Tenten as she grasped the covers of the ravenette's bed. "It's time to wake up," she said in a sing-song voice, "Hinata-chan!"
In a swift single motion, the covers were pulled away and Tenten froze on the spot, her eyes widening at something that she was never expecting see. "Wha... Wha... Wha..." was what Tenten could only say at that moment. With her very own eyes she saw, laying there, her best friend. And next to her best friend was a pink haired girl. More specifically, it was the new transfer student, Haruno Sakura and the pair of them were sleeping soundly, as they were snuggling into each other.
Tenten soon finally started to process what was going on in front of her and as soon as she did, she took in a deep breath and then, finding her voice, shouted from the top of her lungs, which made the whole house shake itself.
"WHAT IS THISSS!
At Konoha High for girls, in the classroom labelled 2-B, Tenten was sitting at her desk with her head leaning against her hand and was staring into space. What on earth was that about? the brunette wondered to herself. She thought about what had happened at the Hyūga household earlier before.
After she saw Haruno Sakura and Hinata snuggling with one another, she had froze and just drew a blank. Then, she screamed out loud, causing the pair to wake up. From what Hinata told her, she and the Haruno girl had finally become friends after settling their differences.
Tenten didn't understand, and she knew that the ravenette wasn't telling her something, but she decided to leave it at that. She would eventually tell her, right? Afterwards, Hinata told the brunette to go ahead to school and that she would catch up. She did so, and now she was just sitting at her desk, waiting for her friend to arrive. "She's late," the brunette whispered.
"Hey did you hear what happened last night?"
Just then, the sound of Tenten's classmates could be heard. They were all gossiping about something, to which, the brunette didn't know. "About the explosion last night?"
The girl nodded to that answer. "Yeah. A construction site suddenly collapsed and they say that they couldn't find the cause."
Then another girl joined in the conversation. "Something also happened in the park. There was a crater in the middle of the park and no one knows how it got there!"
As those words escaped the girl's lips, the door to the room opened and Tenten instantly looked toward it, hoping to see her raven haired friend. However, it was just her homeroom teacher, Hatake Kakashi. "Okay everyone, take your seats," the white haired man said. "Homeroom's starting."
As he commanded, all the girl's that had been busy talking to their classmates took their seats, and Kakashi made his way to the podium at the front. When the one eyed teacher looked at his class full of girls, he noticed that two of his students were missing. "Huh? Are Hyūga-san, and Haruno-san absent today?" the man asked to no one in particular.
The girl's began to murmur with each other. They all knew that it wasn't like Hinata to be late for school, even if she would wake up late herself. And as for Haruno Sakura, they didn't know very well but they probably knew that the transfer wouldn't want to make a bad impression with her attendance, right?
As the class continued to murmur to themselves, the door to the classroom suddenly slid open, and through it, came the raven haired girl in question. "I'm... really sorry... I'm late Kakashi-sensei," Hinata apologised, breathing heavily.
"Hyūga-san," Kakashi called out to her, cocking an eyebrow. "Why are you late for homeroom?"
"Sorry Sensei," Hinata apologised once more, "but I have got an important announcement to make."
"Hmmm," the white haired man hummed in amusement. "And what's this announcement you think is so important?" he asked.
"Right," Hinata replied back. Then, looking to her left, she motioned whoever it was next to her to come towards her. "Come on," she spoke in a gentle caring voice.
With that, the person that had been hiding came into view, and made her way inside the classroom. She walked up to the blackboard, hearing the other girl's gasps and feeling their eyes on her, stopped and faced the other students. Even Tenten, who had been worried about her friend only moments ago, couldn't help but stare.
The person was Haruno Sakura, there was no doubt about that. But when she looked, Tenten could see why the other girl's gasped at the sight. The pink haired transfer student had a familiar headband on her head and instead of white gauze wrapped around her left eye, it was replaced with an medical eye patch. The same thing with her left arm. Instead of gauze, she wore an one armed sleeve top underneath her summer uniform's shirt that stopped at her wrist, her left hand was still covered with gauze however.
But from what she saw, the pink haired girl looked more... normal. A huge difference to when she came in wrapped in gauze, like she had been in an accident.
At the the front of the class, Sakura began to fidget. She was rubbing her sleeved arm and was avoiding everybody's gazes and they all found it strange. They all thought it weird that the girl, who had been cold and rude to them when she first joined, was now becoming embarrassed of the attention that she was now getting.
"Ummm," Sakura began meekly, unsure of what to say. But then, taking a deep breath, she suddenly bowed her head and cried out, "I-I'm very sorry!"
Everyone was surprised at the sudden apology, except for Hinata who had a smile on her face. Before she and Sakura had fallen a sleep the other night, they had talked about many things. One of them being that Sakura wanted to apologise to her classmates for being so cold. And hopefully, if they would allow it, they could start over. Hearing her say that warmed the raven haired girl's heart. Doing something like that, brought joy to Hinata.
"I want to apologise to everyone," Sakura continued, her head still low. "I'm sorry for being rude and cold, especially to the ones that tried to become friends with me. And if you'll allow it, I would like to be able to reintroduce myself." Sakura straightened her back, and turned her emerald gaze towards her teacher's black one.
Kakashi, seeing the girl's determination through her gaze, sighed under his breath. Might as well get it over with he thought, and with it, he gave his nod of approval.
Sakura, also giving a nod, turned back toward her class and put her hands in front of her skirt. "Good morning everyone," she began with a greeting. "My name is Haruno Sakura and I'm sixteen years old, so which will probably make me one of the youngest in the class. I don't have many hobbies and... I recently made friends with Hyūga-san," the ravenette smiled at that, "and I'm hoping, that one day, we can all become friends as well. So..." the pink haired girl lowered her head into a bow once more. "Please take care of me!"
The entire room went silent after Sakura's introduction and as her head was low, the pinkette's emerald coloured eye was tightly closed, as she prayed for everything to go well. The classroom continued to remain quiet as all the girls looked to one another, wondering what they should do.
When the silence kept going, Sakura began to lose hope. Maybe it's too late was what she thought. Maybe the damage that she had already done, could never be repaired. It was understandable. After all, she did-
CLAP...! CLAP...! CLAP...!
Sakura's eye opened up and widened when she heard the sound of someone beginning to clap. Raising her head, the pinkette could see one of her classmates clapping with a gentle smile on her face and Sakura could hardly believe what was happening. All the other girl's looked upon that girl and in the next moment, another girl also began to clap. And following their example, one by one, another girl would clap, until eventually every girl did the same thing.
While the applause echoed around the room, Sakura turned toward Hinata, who was still near the door, and saw the ravenette smile at her. And, as soon as she saw that, the pinkette's shocked face quickly became a smile, which in Hinata's eyes shone brightly.
After that, the rest of the school day went by like normal, except now everyone in the classroom had begun to talk to Sakura in between breaks and during lunch and the pinkette happily returned the conversation with a smile and Hinata could tell that the pink haired girl was having fun while doing so.
Once school had finished for the day, Hinata and Sakura began to make their way home together, saying their goodbyes to anyone they know along the way. "You know," Hinata spoke up as soon as they left through the gate. "I never knew that you were younger than me."
"Really?" Sakura replied, a surprised look on her face.
"Yup," she said. "When I first met you, you had the air of maturity, so I couldn't tell. Also, had I'd known, I would have called you Haruno-chan instead of Haruno-san." The ravenette then began to giggle with an gentle expression. The last part was a joke. No matter what her age was she still would have shown her respect.
While she laughed, Sakura suddenly stopped in her tracks and the raven haired girl stopped giggling and noticed, she too stopped and turned to look at her. The pinkette's head was low, so her bangs were casting a shadow on her face. Hinata began to worry. "Sakura-chan?" she called out. The ravenette wondered if she had something wrong and if she did, she would apologise.
"Thank you..." But she stopped herself when she heard the words of gratitude come from the younger girl. She continued. "Thank you, Hinata," she repeated herself. "Because of you, I was able to apologise to everyone and..." she gave a pause. "For always sticking by me. Even though I was so cold to you and I threatened you, you still never gave up on me. So... thank you Hinata, for everything!"
With that, Sakura raised her head and showed the ravenette a bright, and most genuine, smile that Hinata had ever seen on the pink haired girl's face. To her, the smile on her face looked absolutely radiant and her cheeks began to blush up to her ears and her heart had begun to beat faster than normal. She even had butterflies in her stomach. Why? Hinata thought. Why do I feel like this?
Thinking about it, this sort of feeling had happened before. It happened when she saw Sakura save a cat from the tree, when she saw for the first time, the smile and laughter the pinkette had. And the other time was when she was saved from the demon that attacked her. The gentle gaze and smile she received from the pink haired demon girl wasn't an illusion she saw, and she knew the fever wasn't the cause for her heart to beat fast that time either.
And now she was feeling it all over the again, from just seeing the girl in front of her smile a true smile.
"Hinata?"
Her name being called out, the ravenette was brought back to reality and she noticed that Sakura was looking at her with another worried look."Are you alright?" she asked, moving slightly closer. "Your face is completely red." Then her eye widened. "Don't tell me you have another fever!"
Before Hinata could get a word in, Sakura had already proceeded to move the raven haired girl's bangs to the side and placed her forehead on her's. "S-S-Sakura-chan!" Hinata stuttered. The girl could feel her face warm up even more, to the point of burning. And the fact that the person that caused her face to heat up in the first place was filling her vision, wasn't helping things. Subconsciously, she looked down, towards Sakura's pink lips, and Hinata thought that they looked extremely soft. She wondered what they would taste like... What am I thinking?!
"You're extremely hot," the pinkette said, bringing Hinata back to her senses.
"I-I'm fine!" she said, finally managing to move away.
She turned herself around, her back now facing Sakura, and took in a few deep breaths, trying her best to calm her pounding heart. Calm down she told herself in her thoughts and when it did subside slightly, she took in another breath and slowly exhaled, mentally slapping her own cheeks. She then turned to face Sakura, who looked like she had a question mark above her, and smiled at her.
"Come on," she said, extending her hand out to the pinkette. "Let's go shopping before all the stores close."
"Shopping?" Sakura repeated. "What for?"
"For you of course," she stated, like it should have been common knowledge. "You're going to be living with me now, right? So you're going to need things like clothes, underwear and all the other necessities."
That was one of the other things that the two had discussed that night. Hinata had found out that Sakura had been living on top of buildings when she arrived in Konohagakure, and when it came to washing herself, she would sneak into unoccupied houses and use there bathroom. Hinata was quite shocked hear that and that was when she came up with an idea. That Sakura should come and live with her, as she lived by herself.
Thanks to the school, who knew of her living conditions, they offered to help with some of the living expenses, and she was allowed to get a part time job for her other expenses like food or clothing. Hinata knew that she could never thank them enough for it. The pinkette refused at first, thinking that she would only be a hindrance. But after some persuasion, Sakura finally agreed to it.
The pink haired girl looked at the hand that was being offered to her and a small smiled appeared on her lips. "Yeah," Sakura said, giving the ravenette a nod. She then grasped the older girl's hand. It felt warm and when her fingers had wrapped around Hinata's hand, she felt herself being pulled. Together, they walked hand in hand and smiled as they both began starting their new lives together.
Meanwhile. On top of the roof of Konoha High, six figures, two boys and four girls where standing there, watching the duo that had left the school grounds. They all wore matching black cloaks with red clouds that were imprinted on them.
"Is that really Sakura-chan?" one them, a girl, spoke out, as she crouched down. The girl who spoke had short, black, bob cut hair and slightly pale skin. Her eyes were a light blue and her pupils were into black slits. And to top it off, she had furry ears on the top of her head, giving her the appearence of a cat. "I barely recognised her, she's changed that much." The girl's eyes turned to the person on her left. "Don't you think so, Tayuya-nēchan?"
The person the girl called Tayuya, just stared at the two girl's walking along. The girl had long, untamed, dark red hair that fell past her shoulders with long parted bangs framing the either side of her fair-skinned face and one between her eyes. She also wore a hat with pipe-like stripes and bandaged sides which kept her bangs in place, while the rest of her hair was pushed back behind her ears to trail down her back. "You think so Himiko. To me, that brat will always be the same weak girl that was born from that weak woman." The girl's brown eyes narrowed slightly, and a sinister smile then played on the girl's lips. "Maybe I should go and pay her a visit?"
"You will do no such thing," another girl's voice spoke out. Tayuya's gaze turned to her right, to the girl with onyx hair who was standing next to Himiko. "You heard father's orders, we are to watch and observe only. And I will not have disobey them."
Tayuya gave the black haired girl, Sarada, a menacing glare. "What the fuck did you say bitch?" she spoke with venom. For whatever reason, the bespectacled girl always got on the red head's nerves, even when she was born. "Just because you're daddy's little princess, doesn't mean you can boss me around. I'll fucking kill you if you do."
Sarada used her middle finger to push her glasses up before she turned her own set of onyx coloured eyes on her older sister. "You can try. I don't mind getting rid of you. It's one less hassle to deal with in the future."
"You bitch..." Tayuya growled.
"That's enough the both of you," a male's voice spoke out. Both girl's turned their gazes to one of their brothers at the end. He was tall and muscular, even under the cloak, and had spiky orange hair. His calm red-orange eyes looked at his sister's irritated ones. "Killing each other won't get you anywhere."
"You might as well give up Jūgo," another male's voice called out to the boy named Jūgo. He had straight white hair with a light blue tint, almond shape purple eyes and sharp pointed teeth. "You know what those two are like. Once they start, they never stop."
"Shut your mouth Suigetsu!" Tayuya shouted. "Unless you want you want to be next?"
"Okay, Okay. Sorry, sorry," the boy known as Suigetsu said in a deadpan voice. That only irritated the red head even more. Ignoring his sister's glare, the white haired demon looked to toward the last member of their group, who had been quiet for some time. "Are you alright Konan? You're awful quiet."
Konan, as the woman was called, was relatively tall and had short, straight blue hair with amber eyes and lavender eye shadow and a labret piercing. There was also a large light blue paper flower in her hair, and all the siblings knew that she has always had it in her hair when she was little. "I'm fine," she spoke with a stoic expression. "I'm just thinking. Pay me no mind."
Tayuya let out a loud sigh. "Fuck. Now I've lost interest," she said, and then turned on her heel. "I'm bored, so I'm going home." And with that she walked away, and after taking a few steps she vanished into thin air.
"For once I actually agree with her," Suigetsu chipped in and too began to walk away. Then, following their example, the next person to leave was Himiko and was then followed by Jūgo, leaving only Sarada and Konan on the rooftop.
Sarada began to walk away, but when she realized that her sister wasn't moving she turned around. "Are you coming Konan-onēsan?"
"I'll be there in a moment. Go on ahead Sarada," was the reply she got. Sarada just narrowed her eyes slightly but thought best to not question her. Apart from herself, Konan was the smartest and oldest one of the family and she really respected her. So, turning on her heel she left just like everyone else, and vanished into thin air.
Now that she was left alone, it was suddenly quiet. But she didn't mind it. Her amber eyes continued to look toward the direction that the pink haired girl had gone. Her eyes suddenly became gentle and a small smile grew on the woman's face. You've grown up so much, Sakura-chan...
"Konan-Onēchan!"
Konan smiled even more, at a fond memory of a certain little pink haired girl calling out to her and reaching out to the blue haired woman with her little hands. And with that fond memory, Konan then turned and left, heading back to the demon realm.
And there we have it. Now we have more new characters in the story and there will be a few more in the future. Anyway I hope you liked it. Please leave a review as it will help me greatly and constructive criticism is very much appreciated.
Hope you enjoy your day. Till next time.