Her father would not be happy to hear about this.

"I'm getting calluses," she whispered in horror. She ran her thumb over the rough tops of her palms where the bucket handles rubbed against.

Finally, the bell rang. Hinata shifted her weight nervously, making sure to keep the heavy buckets from spilling. Ino found Hinata with her back pressed to the hallway wall. She wasn't too happy with her either. Hinata lowered the buckets slowly to avoid eye contact.

"Again? I'm going to kick you every time you start spacing out,"

"I-I'm sorry,"

"At least be a little less obvious about it. You know Iruka-sensei is a hard ass,"

They headed to the cafeteria, Hinata trudging along in a cloud of gloom. She covered her yawn, though it turned into a choking cough. She noted that it had a phlegm-y quality to it.

"Distracted and tired, hm?" Ino leered. "Got a boy keeping you up all night or something?"

"N-No! No no no! No b-boys! Well," Hinata scratched her cheek. "If you count Neji-nii freaking out when I came home in a hospital gown and lecturing me for an hour about my curfew,"

"Hospital? Oh, to see Chouji?" Ino tugged her ponytail. "I'm volunteering today so I was going to see him and Tenten today. But you know, this is getting pretty scary. Cho's parents said that he got hurt protecting the Kumo kendo captain,"

Karui. In unexpectedly neat, fine print, Chouji had written her name on the inside of the book. The sunflowers he'd bought from the shop had been neatly pressed inside.

"So someone really is going after us," Ino shuddered. She looked at the cafeteria line when someone caught her eye. "Hey! The yakisoba bread is mine! MINE! Hanako's gonna eat them all again!"

"Damn it, Hanako! Not the anpan too!"

"Sakura, stop her!"

"Unhand the bread!"

Hinata watched as the cafeteria descended into chaos as the girls fought for lunch. She quietly took a seat and started on her bento, occasionally dodging the odd flying slipper and loose fist.

"Isn't that her?"

Her ears prickled at the whispering voices behind her.

"Yeah, look at those cow tits! It's gotta be her. No one else in our year is that stacked,"

She choked on her food. Cow-?!

"Hmph. Figures a snob like Sasuke-kun would pick a Hyuuga snob,"

"Don't badmouth him,"

"It's always the quiet ones to watch out for,"

"I bet they've done it already."

"I bet that's why she keeps getting caught sleeping in class!"

Somehow her day seemed longer and more tiring now.

Ino made good on her promise to kick her out of her daydreaming.

Cow tits.

Thump!

Snob.

Thump!

By the end of the day, Hinata found the thud of Ino's foot hitting the back of her chair rhythmic rather than jarring. Hinata scrunched her nose, feeling a sneeze coming on.

"Achoo!" She blew her nose. "Great. Now I'm a sick snob with cow udders,"

"Take better care of yourself, will you?" Ino packed her bag and waved over her shoulder. "See ya."

She sniffled. "Bye."

A familiar "Just Married" car waiting outside for her. The obnoxious honking snapped her out of her drowsiness.

Uchiha Sasuke was in the driver's seat. He gestured impatiently and said, "Get in, loser."

She stood there, unmoving and silent, until someone kicked the backseat door open and pulled her in. "C'mon, Hinata-chan, we don't got all day!"

"Th-This is nostalgic," she said, squished between Naruto and Kiba. "Um, where are we going?"

"Sasuke's," Kiba dropped a plastic bag full of junk food in her lap. "Help yourself,"

"We didn't want you walking home alone," Shino said from the front.

"Th-That's very considerate," she said, feeling her face warming up. "Th-Thank you,"

"Sasuke, let's get ramen,"

"No,"

"We had that last freaking week, let it go man," Kiba said.

"Actually, we had Korean barb-"

"Let. It. Go,"

"Sasukeeee,"

Hinata warily regarded Naruto's flailing arms and said, "I've been meaning to ask, but where did you get this car from?"

"It's Jiraiya's," Sasuke answered her, meeting her eyes in the rearview mirror. "Naruto won it in a bet,"

"Jiraiya's my godfather," Naruto said. He casually draping his arm around the back of her seat, unaware of black eyes tracking the movement sharply. "And an alien,"

"R-Really?"

"He's not an alien," Kiba deadpanned.

"And he enters toads in pit-fights and sells his own organs to make money,"

"Seriously, shut up," Kiba punched his spiky blond head.

Naruto dodged and gleefully continued. "And - AND he survives on a diet of watermelon rinds and the blood of virgins!"

"N-No way," she gasped.

Kiba whipped his head around to gape at her. "You – You don't actually believe him, do you? And you – stop lying!"

"And he's a pervy hermit who writes porn for a living,"

Hinata glanced at Kiba for confirmation.

He scratched the back of his head. "That one's actually true,"

Hinata dug out a pack of gummy candy and nodded along to Naruto's animated stories ("One time he peeped on Tsunade and she gave him internal bleeding, organ failure, broke all the bones in his body, and busted his freaking nuts.")

She couldn't be surprised by how hungry she was - she hadn't been able to stomach her lunch after hearing that gossip about her. She glanced up at the rearview mirror to see tense black eyes focused on the road.

"Say, you haven't seen Kami around have you?" Kiba said, sipping on his orange juice. "I think Akamaru knocked her up,"

She almost dropped her candy. "W-What? Who?"

Kiba's face lit up. "Oh, that's right! I haven't introduced you two. Akamaru's my best friend,"

She blanched. "Y-Your best friend…did - did that with a dog?"

"Pretty sure he's been sniffing around her," Kiba rubbed the back of his neck with pride in his eyes. "Man, this'll be his first time being a dad,"

Hinata glanced at the other boys in alarm. Naruto was stuffing his face like a greedy swine and Shino had his headphones on. Sasuke caught her eye in the mirror and gave a hoarse laugh at her look of horror.

"Is – Is this acceptable?" she whispered.

"Well, Kami is a stray so we can't bring the pups to the kennel but I'm sure I can get them adopted. If you got time this weekend, we can meet up. Akamaru's friendly, I swear,"

The Uchiha lost his amused expression. "As if she would waste her time with you and that cow of yours,"

She deflated at the word "cow" and glared down at her chest. "Cow…cow…"

"Akamaru is purebred, you shithead," Kiba huffed. "All you've got are cold-blooded snakes,"

His stare flickered to her briefly. "More useful than that drooling, smelly, shedding dog,"

She snapped out of her trance. "W-Wait. Akamaru is a dog?"

Kiba lowered his fist and blinked at her. "Of course. What'd you think I was talking about?"

She let out a deep breath of relief. "Th-Then I want to meet him!"

"Aww," Naruto had on a shit-eating grin as he leaned toward her. "Sasuke-kun's probably sad that you don't want to visit his snake friends,"

Screech!

"OW! You bastard, you did that on purpose!" Naruto shouted and rubbed his forehead after he'd gone tumbling out of his seat. Unlike him, the rest of them had responsibly worn their seatbelts. Stay in school, kids.

"Yeah. I thought I'd get your head out of your ass so you'd stop talking shit,"

"Fuck you!"

"We're here." Shino said dryly.

They took their shoes off and entered the Uchiha mansion. As well-designed and luxurious as it was, it was eerily quiet. There was no movement, no lived-in feeling, no feeling of home. She tried to imagine living all by herself at the Hyuuga compound and shivered. Then sneezed.

"Allergies?" Naruto chucked a tissue box at her, which she caught with minimal fumbling.

"I-I think I caught a cold," she said.

"It's been raining near every damn day since you trespassed my property," Sasuke said and shot her a nasty look.

"A-Are - Are you saying the weather is my fault?"

He raised his nose and sniffed haughtily. "I'm not saying it isn't,"

"Th-That's absurd!"

"Hey, hey, let's order Chinese! I found this pamphlet on the gate,"

Hinata looked around for the rest of the boys. "Is everyone else at the hospital?"

"Shikamaru's with Chouji and Lee's coming over later," Sasuke said, moving toward the kitchen.

She wasn't really surprised to see how quickly it had been renovated after the fire. She noticed him clearing and rubbing his throat, discomfort showing through his blank expression. Unconsciously, she wrinkled her forehead in concern. "D-Do you have a sore throat?"

"Not your business" he said, reaching for a pitcher of ice water from the fridge.

"W-Wait! Don't drink that!" Hinata went to grab his wrist, but he caught hers. He leveled an icy stare at her.

"Don't tell me what to do,"

She bit the inside of her cheek and took a deep breath before saying, "G-Ginger and honey!"

He dropped her wrist and stared at her blushing cheeks. "…What."

"A-And lemon. Um, I-I can make ginger tea. I was going to make some for myself if you had the ingredients. I-It would be better for your throat if you had some as well,"

He turned and poured himself a glass of ice water. She watched him drink it slowly and spitefully in front of her. Then he pointed to a cabinet. "There's ginger in there. Honey's on the counter, lemons in the fridge,"

He leaned against the counter and watched her move carefully around the kitchen. He snorted and said something under his breath that definitely sounded like "weird."

She held up her knife threateningly. "What was that?"

"I said I can see your whale-tail,"

"M-My w-what?"

"Wow. I didn't peg you for the type to wear thongs, Hinata,"

"I-I'm not wearing a thong! I-I'm wearing boy shorts!"

In an instant, a familiar notepad appeared and Sasuke was scribbling and mouthing the words, "Wears boy shorts, not thongs as I originally hypothesized, both of which reduce the appearance of panty line - "

"Th-This is sexual harassment! Don't write that down!"

He expertly maneuvered out of the reach of Hinata's hand and the pot of boiling water lurching and spitting in her other hand. He smirked.

"If you'd like, I can sell this information back to you," He leered at her. "Though you shouldn't freely give it to me in the first place,"

"Y-You -" She sighed in frustration and set the boiling pot back down. "F-Fine. I won't talk to you if all you want is to a put a price on my words,"

"Oh?" He pushed his hip off of the counter and went to her side.

She turned her head away and stared intently at the ginger she was peeling. From her periphery, the Uchiha was staring blatantly at her. He moved to her other side. Hinata turned the other way. How annoying. How childish! She imagined herself dragging him out of the kitchen by the ear.

Then she heard scratching again. She saw him writing in that stupid notepad again. Black eyes lit up with mischief, a corner of his mouth curling up.

"Curious?"

Hinata silently contemplated "accidentally" squeezing lemon juice into his eye.

Sasuke tapped his pen against the notepad, craning his neck to read her face. His gaze dropped to her tight grip on her spoon as she stirred the honey in. "Don't put too much,"

"…"

"Hey. Are you listening? Stop. Stop pouring,"

"…"

A tick formed in his brow. "Mature, Hinata,"

He hovered over her shoulder, where she was gratuitously filling the cup with a 1 to 1 ratio of honey to tea. She might have been humming. "Oi. You're wasting my honey. I'm charging you 350 yen for every drop,"

"I SAID PRINCESS MONONOKE!"

"TRIAL. OF. THE. DRAGON!"

Sasuke and Hinata peered out into the living room. Kiba had Naruto in an arm bar.

"Princess Mononoke is a kid's movie!"

Kiba tightened his legs around the other boy's arm. "You take that back," he hissed.

"When you take back what you said about fighting in kung fu movies being fake,"

"It IS fake fighting!"

Shino piped up from his place on the couch. "May I make a suggestion?"

With Kiba now in Naruto's headlock, both boys screamed, "NO!"

"Hmph. It is your loss if you won't see the educational value of documentaries,"

"If I wanted to see a bunch of bugs porking I could look out the damn window!"

"I like Princess Mononoke too," Hinata said, pouring herself a cup. Sasuke was dumping his cup of honey out.

He sneered at that. "Yeah, you like dogs too,"

She frowned. "W-What's wrong with that?"

He wasn't looking at her, which made it harder to read him. He seemed annoyed (which was not unusual for him) but there was something there she hadn't seen before. Granted, it was difficult to see anything on his face, but as a Hyuuga, she was used to reading pokerfaces. It was a necessary skill if one wished to communicate with any member of her family.

"I-I don't mind snakes either," She tried to smile, not understanding why she didn't want to see him upset.

Something lightened in his expression. He uncrossed his arms, leaning lazily against the counter across from where she was sitting. He smirked. "I made you talk,"

"I-Is it good?" she said, ignoring his pettiness.

"I appreciate that you didn't burn down my kitchen,"

"Th-That's not much of a compliment,"

"Were you fishing for one?"

She bit her lip, exasperated. "I was just asking if it was okay,"

"After I got rid of all that damn honey, yeah," He took an emphatic sip.

She was somewhere between being pleased and wanting to suplex the stupid boy into the third circle of hell.

The doorbell rang. Sasuke and Hinata went to the living room, where Naruto and Kiba were still fighting (Naruto was trying to give Kiba a wedgie). Shino answered the door.

"Look, I found another friend!"

The resident bowlcut was waltzing with the delivery girl.

Lee dipped her, bags of food and all. From her position upside-down, she read off the list;

"12 orders of fried rice, 8 orders of kung pao chicken, 24 dumplings, and 15 orders of lo mein?"

"Yes, thank you,"

"Another wonderful sister has come to join us!" Lee cried and twirled her.

Shino handed her the money. Without missing a beat, she chopped Lee's neck and kicked him off of her. She took the payment. "Thank you."

"That was sick," Kiba said, watching the delivery girl ride off into the sunset on her moped. He elbowed Naruto and said,"See, that's real fighting,"

"O-Our second sister…is indeed…a skilled – oof, fighter," Lee said, clutching his bruised stomach.

In the end, they took a vote on which movie to watch. Surprisingly, Princess Mononoke won. What was more surprising was Sasuke's vote on the animated film. She figured he'd like action/fighting films. His choice most likely indulged the sadistic pleasure of seeing his best friend tearfully denounce them as his friends ("Bunch'a traitors!")

"Oi, move your big head out of the way," Sasuke said. He shoved Naruto's head away with his foot from his spot on the couch.

"I hate you, Sasuke!" Naruto cried, still wiping his snot with his sleeve.

"And you, dog boy. Don't eat all the kung pao chicken. I don't need another fatass in my gang,"

"Get hit by a truck, cockstain,"

Once again, Hinata was left wondering how Sasuke ended up as their leader. He was more of an evil TV drama mother-in-law to them. She gulped when he fixed his eyes on her. She was sitting next to him, having unwittingly followed him to the living room with the food. He simply lifted a finger and flicked away a grain of rice near her mouth. Instantly, color bloomed across her face.

"Tch," Naruto reached for his chopsticks. "He's only nice to her because he's got a crush. Hey, come here Kiba-kun, lemme get that for you!"

He mimicked Sasuke's expression and dramatically reenacted flicking a bit of rice off of an unenthusiastic Kiba's face.

Hinata hid her embarrassment in her fried rice. She looked at Sasuke, who sat with a serene expression, completely shameless.

"Kiba. 500 push-ups. Now,"

Said dog boy widened his eyes incredulously at their cruel leader. "Huh?"

"Man, don't be rude. We're eating," Naruto scolded around a mouthful of food.

"I'd be willing to lower it to 400 if you can eat at the same time,"

"Wait, what? Why the hell do I have to do that?"

Sasuke crossed his arms, his nose upturned. "I thought I was doing you a favor, you ungrateful swine. Here I am, giving you a chance to appeal to Hinata,"

Kiba sent Hinata, then Sasuke, blank stares. "…what,"

"Hmph," Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "You haven't been subtle about sniffing around her, you dog,"

"I – what?"

"Look, I think I got it!" Naruto shouted. "I put the bowl under my chin and every time I do a push up, I take a bite. I am a genius! 399 to go!"

Lee, who had been knocked out cold by the delivery girl, stirred to at the sound of a challenge. "400 push-ups while eating? HA! I challenge you to 1000!"

"Bring it, bushy-brows!"

Hinata chewed her lip anxiously. Maybe this was normal for them? Eating and doing push-ups at the same time?

"I-I'm sorry, my form isn't very good. Also…um, my – uh cow…" She hung her head and glared at her chest. "Y-You two make everything difficult for me,"

Fortunately, every one was too self-absorbed and busy misreading the situation (including Hinata's dense self) to notice her mumbling.

Sasuke shot Kiba a dark look. "I'll make it 2000. Hustle, you lowland gorilla,"

"Hey! At least be consistent with your insults! I can't be a dog, a pig, and a damn gorilla all at once!"

"Nine hundred…ninety seven," Naruto and Lee panted, sweat rolling down their faces. "Pass me…the duck sauce,"

Shino watched them descend into madness with short shake of his head. Sasuke was grinding Kiba's face to the ground with his foot, Hinata was trying to do push-ups and muttering about cow udders, and Naruto and Lee were actually making decent progress. The bespectacled boy took the remote and switched to the nature channel. Ah. He hadn't missed his documentary on rhinoceros beetles. Good.

lllll

"I hope you have returned to your senses," Shino said, arching his brow at Naruto and Lee face-planted into their bowls. Kiba had passed out with rug-burn on his face. Hinata was still trying to do a push-up.

"I see that you have all lost your damn minds," Sasuke said in disapproval.

Shino frowned. "You were also participating,"

"Wow, it's gotten late,"

"…Don't change the subject when it doesn't suit you,"

Sasuke looked down blandly at the bodies at his feet. "I guess you might as well stay over then,"

Hinata sat up and gasped. "Oh no! M-My curfew. Neji-nii's going to scalp me," She scrambled for her phone.

"H-Hello? Neji-nii? Club ran late again…huh? Y-You are? Why Hokkaido? That's pretty far…Y-You told me this morning? Haha, yes, I-I remember!…W-Well, would it be okay if I stayed over?…" She bit her lip and giggled. "O-Of course, it's only girls. J-Just us ladies here!…Uh-huh, uh-huh, okay, okay…okay, bye then,"

She hung up and sighed. She met Shino's questioning look. "Neji-nii's on a field trip with the archery team, so he can't pick me up. My father doesn't like anyone driving me around because he thinks I'll become pampered and lazy,"

Shino stood. "Then I'll go find some spare futons,"

The remaining conscious pair lapsed into a silence. "Naruto-kun passed out again," she said, poking said sweaty boy covered in duck sauce and rice with her toe.

Sasuke sunk down next to her. For once, he wasn't trying to stare into the depths of her bone marrow. Instead, he locked onto a tiny wooden block carved in the character for "peace". It was set on the TV stand.

"Who would have thought that Hyuuga Neji has a sister complex," Sasuke said.

"S-S-Sister com-! N-No, no, no, no way-"

"He calls you like clockwork," Sasuke put his arm up behind her head. "Like a controlling boyfriend,"

Hinata huffed, hyper-conscious of his arm brushing against her head. "I-It's not strange for siblings to look out for each other,"

Sasuke was silent. He was still staring intently at the block.

"I-I also have a younger sister. Her name is Hanabi. Even though there's a bit of awkwardness between us, I-I still look out for her,"

"Hm. You don't seem like the older-sister type. At all,"

"W-What does that mean?" She squinted white eyes at him. "S-Somehow that sounded like an insult,"

He rolled his shoulders, sliding his eyes back to her. "Take it as you will,"

"H-How did you mean it then?"

He inspected her face, dark eyes dilated. He looked away, sweeping his gaze over their empty tea cups. "There might be hope for you yet, Hinata,"

He fell silent again after that.

She took her lip between her teeth. "I-I don't spend time with her though. Our schedules are different, but I don't make time for her. As the older one, I should reach out to her, but," She cleared her throat. "I-I guess I'm a coward,"

"Admitting it isn't the same as confronting it," he drawled.

"I-I know. I know. I can't read her mind, but I'm sure she wouldn't mind if we talked more. I don't think she wants this rift between us either,"

His silence seemed more suffocating, heavier, this time. She wondered if she'd verbally stepped on a land mine.

"I found the spare futons," Shino deadpanned.

He went about carelessly tossing them on top of the passed out boys. He gently laid out his own futon. He held up another one. "I wasn't sure if you wanted to sleep here or in a guest room,"

Hyuuga propriety demanded she go to the guest room. Hinata didn't feel like moving.

"I-I can fix it myself. Thank you, Shino-kun,"

He nodded and slipped into his futon.

Sasuke got up and headed to the kitchen. She was about to get up but then stopped herself. In shoujo manga, this was the part where the pure-hearted maiden sympathized with the misunderstood bad boy. No, he was still a sadistic weirdo and a pervert who kept commenting on her underwear and he stillhadn't paid her for doing his homework. She also wasn't keen on pissing off his fanclub.

The devil in question appeared in the doorway with an empty pot in his fist. He shook it. "There's no more tea."

A/N: This one is short, but with the semester ending writing 6-7 more pages would mean getting this out much later so I decided to put up what I have (like 10ish pages). I also didn't do as much editing/revising…i'm sorry ;_; Thank you for being patient with me 3