Well hello my wonderful readers! School has officially started back up for me, and boy is it already busy! Anyways, I'm putting up another chapter this weekend since I have some time (Hallelujah!) on my hands. Please forgive me if you ever have to wait a little extra time for updates, I'm a straight-A freak, so school is always at the top of my list - but I will always try my absolute hardest to get an update in each week! Usually on Sundays, probably. Maybe on Saturdays. So look forward to weekends!
When I update I usually put up two or three chapters. Well, I don't have much time today so I'm just putting up one extremely long and angst-filled chapter and then will see if I can get another one in this evening.
But enough of my author note! On with the chapter! Enjoy!
Chapter Eleven - Like Getting An Upgrade
"Oh really? I find that hard to believe, you destroyed my relationship, at least have some respect for me by not lying to me," he said crossing his arms. "I may be a fool, but I am not stupid, Neji, so do not think I will believe every lie you tell me," he said and then looked to Neji and waited.
Neji swung his hand around so the back of it would hit Naruto smack in the cheek hard. "Are you such a fool that you won't even acknowledge the truth! Think about it, Naruto. What would I possibly have against the two of you being together! I'm not dwelling on any past. I have no ill will against either of you, so open your eyes and acknowledge that I'm telling the truth!" His eyes reflected a rare show of emotion, albeit anger that surged through them. "What could I possibly gain from telling him?" he stated rather than asked in a softer tone.
Naruto practically ignored the hit, and turned away from him. "Then who told him then? If it was not you like you say then WHO told him? and as for what you would have to gain, I figured the pain of others would be a good enough reason for you, also the fact, that if I were to become part of your clan, you would hate it, because of who I am, just like the rest of your clan," Naruto said angrily at first then changed to monotone after his second question.
Sakura almost threw a kunai at Neji's head when he hit Naruto, but when Naruto did nothing she decided not to. 'What does that guy think he is doing hitting Naruto like that! And what is Naruto doing NOT hitting him back!' Sakura thought as she watched everything that was going on, wishing she could hear what was being said.
"You know, as shocking as this may sound, I'm not a completely cold-hearted callous beast." He sighed. "I hold no grudge against you, or your company of Hinata-sama." He looked at Naruto. "I didn't tell him, I'll say it again. You must remember that as the head leader he holds extreme power with his Byakugan, honed over the years. I don't know who might have told him, but did you ever think that for even a second he could have known all along, waiting to see what would happen, all simply with his power!"
Naruto thought about it for a second. Could he be wrong about Neji and at the same time, Neji be right. "I don't know anymore, I really don't, nothing is making sense to me anymore. First Hinata breaks up with me, then you come over here and try to make feel better in your own weird way, which reminds me - why exactly ARE you here? You did not know I was upset or what's going on, so what did you want?" he said changing the subject away from all his drama.
Neji's eyes widened in surprise as he heard what Naruto said about Hinata. "I came because I overheard what went on between you and Master Hyuuga. And I knew that I would be the assumed snitch." He looked away from Naruto, not comfortable with what he was about to say. "...I wanted to make sure you or Hinata-sama didn't do anything stupid." He looked back at Naruto. "But what do you mean 'Hinata breaks up with me?'"
"Well I assumed that much was self-explanatory, she broke up with me, I asked her if she loved me she said no, plain and simple. What do you mean by before we do anything stupid?" he asked after he answered Neji's question very bluntly.
Sakura almost yelled with excitement when she just barely heard the words 'Hinata broke up with me' come out of Naruto's mouth, she did not even have to go through the trouble of breaking the two up now, all she had to do was swoop in and comfort him as soon as Neji left.
"Nevermind..." he answered, not really wanting to go into details. "Look, whatever Hinata-sama said, I'm sure she had a good reason to lie, but believe me when I say this, after I live with her practically all my life, I KNOW that breaking up with you after you two started going out would be the LAST thing that would make her happy." He rubbed his forehead protector. Now he was going to have to track down Lady Hinata before she got herself into any trouble. "Your friend over there," he pointed to Sakura, "wants to talk to you about something. I need to go find Hinata-sama before she gets herself into trouble."
Before Naruto could say another word Neji was gone and Sakura was on her way over. 'This is EXACTLY what I need right now.' Naruto thought before Sakura reached him. "I heard the news Naruto, I'm so sorry she did that to you, and after only a day, but you should not be so sad Naruto, It's her loss not yours. You can do SO much better, like with me for example, I will still go out with you, even though you picked her first," Sakura said and sat down in front of him and held both of his hands.
"Sakura, I do not know if I am ready for anything like that right now. Hinata just broke up with me and I do not know what is going on," he said in a normal tone, but did not pull his hands away.
"Well, I do know and I think that you are ready. You're strong Naruto and you only started liking her less then twenty-four hours ago. You have a beautiful girl who you have liked since you were little, practically throwing herself at you now. Are you going to let a relationship that could not even last a day stop you from going out with me?" Sakura asked moving closer to Naruto. "So what are you going to d-" Before she could finish her sentence Naruto put his lips on hers and began to kiss her.
Neji was now following after traces he could identify of Hinata. He had a harder time but could sense the sadness permeating the area, so he trusted his judgement and followed it, eventually coming back to the village and reaching a dead end. "Great. If she returned to the village but not our home then she could be anywhere. Who was in her squad again? Ugh, I need to start paying more attention to stuff like that..." He faintly remembered the name Kiba being brought up that one time Naruto had come calling for Hinata and he followed that clue.
Asking around the village he eventually found out where Kiba lived, and yes, he had been seen with the Hyuuga girl not too long ago. He had what information he needed and proceeded to Kiba's home.
After a minute or so of kissing, Naruto pulled away. It had not felt the same as it did with Hinata, but Naruto did enjoy it. It just lacked love, but if he could not have Hinata, he would just have to settle for the next best thing, which was Sakura. Naruto smiled at her, "Well I hope you know how to get back to the village because I am completely lost out here."
Sakura let out a small giggle, "I figured as much you goof, and yes I know the way back."
Naruto let out a little laugh at this. "Well that's good I did not want to be stuck out here forever, even if it is with you," Naruto said and smiled. Sakura stood up and held Naruto's hand who also stood up. "Let's go then," she said and headed in the direction of town with Naruto's hand interlocked with his.
Right before Neji knocked on Kiba's door it was thrust open and an infuriated Kiba stood in the frame with a growling Akamaru. "Um, hello, I-"
Before Neji could say anymore he was yanked inside (much to his surprise) by the shirt. "I hope you're happy! Look at what you've done! You've ruined everything between Hinata and Naruto and now Hinata's up in my room crying her eyes out and Naruto's off goodness knows where and everything is completely messed up and it's all your fault because you decided that it would be cool to tattle on her!"
Neji blinked as he listened to everything, stunned, and then coughed right before Kiba was about to go into another rant. "Can I get a word in! Thank you..." And with that he went in telling his tale as he told Naruto and telling him that he had already spoken with Naruto earlier and Sakura was now with him.
Kiba sputtered as he heard the last part. "Sakura's with him!" Neji nodded. "Great..."
"...so may I speak to Hinata-sama now?" Neji was lead into Kiba's room after Kiba gave his reluctant approval when Hinata called down asking for him to come up.
Naruto and Sakura finally got back to the town still holding hands. While they were walking they talked about the lack of missions, Sasuke, and obviously Hinata. "I bet that she will come back to you by tomorrow telling you things like, she did not mean what she said and she lied to you to protect you, and a lot of other lies to try and get you to take her back, because I can almost promise you that she will regret breaking up with you," Sakura said trying to cover all the bases in case Hinata tried to get Naruto back.
By the end of the walk almost all of Naruto completely believed Sakura, but there was a small part of him that told him that Hinata did love him and everything Sakura was saying was a lie. "Thank you Sakura-chan, for helping me out of the forest and helping me get over Hinata," Naruto said as he gave Sakura a kiss. "I think I am going to go home and go to bed now, but I will see you first thing in the morning," he said as he walked towards his house.
"Good night Naruto-kun," Sakura said lovingly to Naruto as he walked away.
Neji walked up the stairs to Kiba's room to find Hinata sitting on his bed, head down, her shoulders lightly bobbing up and down from crying. Kiba remained downstairs to give the Hyuugas privacy. "Hinata-sama?"
Hinata looked up, wiping the tears from her face as she saw Neji come in. "Neji nii-san...have you come with a message from Father?"
He shook his head and hesitantly sat down by her. "I didn't tell Master about you two..."
Hinata nodded, not looking at him. "I know..." She turned to Neji. "Nii-san, what do I do? I..." She couldn't finish her sentence as fresh tears started coming once again.
Kiba spotted Sakura passing nearby his house through the window, seemingly happy, and hurried out the door to confront her. "Hey, Sakura!" He waved and called out to her, trying to be as friendly as possible.
When Naruto arrived at his house he was actually in a good mood, despite the fact that Hinata broke up with him. Sakura had made him feel better about the breakup, and he was now going out with the girl of his dreams, who he thought he always wanted to go out with. Although he was nowhere near as happy as he was with Hinata, even though the relationship did not even last a day. Naruto however just put that out of his mind and figured he would let good enough be.
Sakura turned to Kiba and waved as she walked over to him. "Hello Kiba, how are you doing today?" she asked happily. "It has been a while since I have seen you, how is everything, you and your squad get any good missions lately?" she asked making small talk.
"Meh, same ol' same ol'. Not anything particularly challenging. What about you? Anything interesting?" He decided to go out on a limb on his next question. "And how's Naruto...?
Neji sighed and somewhat smiled awkwardly. "You know I'm not very good at cheering people up, but I figure I'll try..." He asked her what happened and she told him everything, not leaving anything out, somewhat surprised at how much she was trusting him with. "Well, a lot has certainly happened..." He looked at her seriously. "You made a wise choice, Hinata-sama. He will be safer this way, you know he will be..." She nodded solemnly.
"Well I should not be saying this and I don't really want to say anything, but well he kissed me and we held hands for a while so I guess..." she trailed off and held up her pinky and smiled. She was however lieing about not wanting to tell - she did want to tell Kiba, because she knew he would tell Hinata, and that would break her so she would not try to get Naruto back, 'Not that she would succeed if she tried, but better safe than sorry,' Sakura thought and waited for Kiba to give some fake congratulations to her.
Kiba's stomach churned and his fists clenched when she said that. 'How could he just immediately run to Sakura! He's nothing special! He's just another fickle loser after any girl just so he can look good!' He gave a sickening grin towards Sakura that looked more like a death threat than a congratulatory smile. Rather than spout any nonsense about him being happy for them, he turned on his heel and stormed off back to his own home. 'He doesn't deserve our Hinata...'
Hinata looked at Neji and sighed. "I think I hurt him...I mean, he spoke so strongly of standing tall against our family, and I turned away. I feel like I betrayed him...'
Neji shook his head. "If anything, you helped him." He smiled a genuine smile at Hinata, afterwards. "But sometimes a life of danger can be fun." He stood up from the bed. "If you want to go to Naruto, I won't object. In fact, I'll stand with you two the entire way." He looked down at the ground. "I'm sorry that I didn't support you in the beginning, I was being selfish." They both jumped as they heard a door slam downstairs and loud growling and grumbling. Neji looked at Hinata skeptically. "I'd better go check on Kiba, he sounds mad..." And with that he left Hinata alone upstairs, feeling better than she had near all day.
'Well that worked out better than I could have hoped for, he is going to go inside, trash Naruto to Hinata, and say she deserves better then that, then Hinata moves on, realizes she made a mistake then cheers up, now everybody wins! I was hoping I would not have to make Hinata miserable so this works out great, now if only Sasuke would get jealous and want to be with me, then I would dump Naruto. It would be like getting an upgrade, but if not Naruto will be fine for the present,' Sakura thought and walked home smiling at how well things were going the whole way.
N A R U H I N A
Now for my reviewers!
blackmoore11: -le gaspe- You're not caught up Sis! Shame...shame! I thought you cared! -sobs dramatically- Ah well, I'll just hold you to reading it or else...I'll hide our roleplay notebook!
naruto-uzumakifan: An extra long chapter for you:) Hope you enjoy!
iloveanime2009: I'm sorry...I've always wanted to be ornery and put up a cliffhanger...please forgive me! Lol, you may or may not know about Hinata's father finding out in this chapter (won't tellz! lol), there's Sakura in her seductive, manipulative self (wow, Shawn, you've made Sakura incredibly evil in this story) tricking Naruto again, and I suppose you'll just have to keep reading if you want to figure out if they get back together. -puppy eyes- I hope you're enjoying the story so far, though!
As always people, I love it when you review! It really makes me want to put up more fast because I feel obligated! But if I have no obligation...then no chapter! -le gaspe- Motivate me! -smiles sweetly- Anyways, thank you you three for your reviews and everyone else for reading!
Skidoodle