AnimeCrasherz: CHAPTER FIVE! HUZZAH! Tried to make it longer than four, but shorter than three...
Enjoyeh.
Chapter 5, Alone?
My father is getting more ill by the day.
In the case of his death, it hasn't been decided as of yet who will take over his position as Head of the Clan.
Now, for the usual place where I go to drown my sorrows in non-alcoholic drinks, the usual drink, the usual seat, the usual person...
"What's up?" Sasuke asked me casually. Somehow our misfortunes caused us to become more acquainted. The silver lining on the dark cloud?
"My father... he..." I slouched so far down my head rested on the counter.
"I'm sorry." he said simply. He didn't have a pained expression, he didn't put a reassuring hand on my shoulder, he didn't offer a shoulder to cry on. But once again, who'd expect him to? Either way, I felt the comfort in his words.
"It scares me."
"His death?"
"No."
"Then what?" he put his drink down and looked at me, a sign of interest.
"Becoming heiress of the Hyuuga clan. I won't be."
"Why not? How do you know?"
"How can you ask that? I'm weak, I always have been..." I felt something wet roll down my cheek.
A tear?
He looked at me weird, I couldn't tell what kind of a look he was giving me exactly because of the tears blurring my vision.Another tear rolled down my cheek, then two, and I felt the embarrassment of crying in a public place. "I'm going home."
"I'll walk you there." Sasuke followed me to the door and held it open. Since when was he so damn nice? "I'm going home now, anyways."
We walked in silence, and I was reminded of that horrible night...
"So... Sasuke?" something had to break the stony silence, or I would explode.
"Hm?" he walked alongside me with hands in his pockets.
Quick, make something up! Say something... say something... say something... "Uh... what's it like.. living... at.. your house?" Good question? Or ground unsafe to tread on...
"Lonely."
I went just a little further, hoping I wasn't breaking the limits of how far I could go. "Is it hard to clean the whole house yourself? What about the other houses?"
"I can never go to the other houses. The silence in my own is enough to drive me insane."
"Hmm..." I never really thought about him or his life. He was just... there. Someone I could talk to so whenever I went out to drink I wouldn't be so damned lonely. But his life was so sad... I know it's mean, but that made him interesting. His pain makes me forget mine.
I felt selfish, but I couldn't help myself. "Do you ever think of anything else?" Can you picture his waking thoughts consisting of anything but Itachi, dead clan, kill Itachi, avenge clan, restore clan...
He looked at me. I thought it looked like he was deciding what to say, if he should say what he was really thinking. "...no."
"Ah." What I expected, ne?
But even if I saw it coming, his answer made me more down than ever.
"Well, ah... we're here." stopping in front of the gate, I looked up at him. I expected him to just say "later" and leave.
"Hinata..." he looked at me, very seriously. "I... you.." he sighed. "It's... nice talking to you. You're not... like the other girls." Not loud and obnoxious, not over confident, not self sentered or annoying... or pink haired or blonde...
He blushed a mad crimson. (OMFG! HE'S BLUSHING! IT'S THE APOCALYPSE! DUCK FOR COVER!)
"I... me... me too, Sasuke." I smiled a little up at him.
"Well.. later." He put his hands in his pockets, and walked away.
I sat at a cafe drinking coffee with Ino. We were talking about random things, anything and everything, and somehow our conversation had strayed to the guy she liked. She had seen us walking together lately, and I had to assure her that it was nothing but a coincidence.
"I mean come on, Ino, we're just..." acquaintances... I was about to say, but she interrupted me.
"Secret lovers who sneak out at midnight to-"
"INO!"
"Anyways..." she changed the subject, smiling brightly."What's up recently?"
I hadn't really talked to anybody lately. It's been a while since I met up with any friends, since I had the heart to.
"Well... nothing much... except.. you know." My father...
"Were you really sad when he...?" the air got a little heavier, and there was pity in Ino's voice. Hinata's one of my favorite friends... I always felt compassion for her and her shyness, and I can always talk to her. I have to be that kind of friend to her too.
"I don't know. I can't really tell what I'm thinking sometimes."
She gave me a weird look as if I was a dead frog in her soup. But then something in her brain must have clicked and she smiled her ditsy little smile again.
"Come on Hinata. Let's go on a shopping spree!" (-sigh- ditsy blondes dressed in purple...)
"Ah..." I didn't have time to reply before she dragged me off to some random store full of colorful, revealing clothes...
I enjoyed spending time with my friends, though. They made me happy, what are friends for anyways? So I helped her shop for a while, and she picked out a whole bunch of clothes for me to try on. Of course I reclined from the offer politely, secretly refusing to be seen in public in clothes anything other than modest and conservative.
As we were walking out of the clothing store, Ino and I each carrying half of her bags, we spotted someone I had seen way too much of lately.
Guess who! Yes, bird's-ass.
"Oh!" Ino squealed and ducked behind me. "He looks so hot when he's... anything!"
"Sure, Ino." I laughed a little bit. Silly goose, Ino.
"Oh, that reminds me! Valentine's Day is coming up!" Ino began skipping forward, then looked back to say, "Come on Hinata, we have to go buy chocolate!" she walked off, having a merry old time trying to make it seem as if she didn't care walking right past Sasuke.
He passed by me."Afternoon, Hinata."
"A-Afternoon, Sasuke-kun." He said hi. Well, it's only polite.
Ino looked back at me to see if I was following, and noticed us greeting eachother.
She looked like she was about to burst into tears. "Hinata, what was that? TELL ME WHAT THAT WAS MISSY! HOW CAN YOU LOOK AT THAT AND TELL ME THAT YOU GUYS AREN'T-"
"N-No, it's not that, I'm sure he was just being poli-"
"YOU'RE JUST SAYING THAT TO MAKE ME FEEL BETTER!" Ino ran off crying, bumping into many innocent bystanders. Including small children.
"I...Ino... your bags..." I stood in the middle of the street like a fool child. "Just my luck..." I walked away dejectedly. At least now I knew not to question god for my misfortune.
I'll give her bags back when she's not so... Ino-ish...
Trudging back tiredly -these bags were heavy- I wanted to walk home in peace.
But no, you all know that SOMETHING HAS to interrupt my peace!
My path home led me right past Sasuke and... his best friend whose name shall not be spoken, eating ramen at the Ichiraku. Speed-walking to get out of that general area as fast as I could, I wasn't watching where I was going.
Do you ever want to look at a moment in your day and say to yourself "This is not my life"?
Dirt covered the entire front of my body that landed on the ground, I even received a mouthful of it. I got up and brushed myself off, there were some scratches on my hands, which I had used to break my fall. Ino's clothes had spilled out of the bags, and didn't look too good either...
"Um..." Sasuke looked at the mess at his feet, wondering what to do. In the end he just got on the floor and helped me pick up the rest of Ino's clothes.
He pulled me up by the wrist, and then we had sort of an awkward moment...
"Y-yea... s-s-sorry about that..." I was back to my stuttering self.
"No... uh... problem.." Sasuke began looking around to avoid my eyes, and caught Naruto's dumb, shocked -while hilarious- expression.
"I... I-I have to g-go home now!" I caught it too.
I hurried off, making sure to watch where I was going. Sasuke sat back down next to Naruto, but Sasuke and Naruto didn't say much to each other right after that.
The next day, it was announced that I had another mission assigned.
Who was going?
None other than the same people that I went with the last time we completed our mission so well. Tsunade wanted to pick the people that worked well in a group, and well, she assumed...
Sasuke, Hinata, Sakura, Naruto. She assumed that would work.
Must go home and get ready for mission.
AnimeCrasherz: I'm still not happy with the number of reviews... I don't think I ever will be though. (I mean, I miss the 80-something reviews I had before! sniff) But I'm still reposting it anyways, cuz before I had a lot of faithful reviewers that probably wanna see the new chapters.
STILL, REVIEW PLEASE! I still want you guys to tell me what you think, especially if you didn't read this story when it was first up...