Sorry it's been so long. I was fixing up some of my stories and adding a new one (for the last time) and taking a little R&R. So without further adieu, 93 chapter 4.

The next few mornings were a little awkward in the Hyuuga household. Hanabi made every effort to avoid the Uchiha as he rolled himself from room to room. She didn't speak to him unless Hinata had instructed her to do so and Sasuke never had any intentions of speaking to her, so he didn't mind. But, Hinata had noticed this hostility and decided to confront her younger sister about it.

"Did Sasuke do something?" she asked the young girl while Sasuke slept.

"Oh, so now you're on a first name basis with these people?" Hanabi said icily.

Hinata had never before been on a first name basis with one of the soldiers staying there. She usually just referred to them as "soldier" or "ninja" when talking about them to her sister.

"Y-you're right…aren't y-you? Alright, fine. Did the soldier do anything?"

"He's a jerk."

Hinata let out a heavy sigh. She had feared that it he had been doing something much worse. But just because he didn't wake up on the right side of the bed wasn't cause for the young woman to be alarmed.

"Hanabi," Hinata began, hoping that the next thing she was about to say would make sense as to why the enemy soldier was acting the way he was, "when you're in a situation like his, you can get very…irritable. You see, h-he's a man and I'm a woman. Being c-c-cared for by a woman like me…it's…he may find it emasculating."

"What's that?" the young girl asked.

"She's calling me a pussy," Sasuke had chimed in. He rolled into the kitchen with a plate on his lap. He was moving a lot quicker than when he first got into the chair.

"S-Sasuke!" Hinata exclaimed. Her face was stricken with red blush. Her eyes went wide from his use language.

"Oh, sorry," the soldier apologized. But it didn't sound so apologetic, "She means to say that it's not that I hate children, it's just that this wheelchair I'm in is making me pissed off because I know I can't get out of it. Apparently the fact that I can still kill you both without the use of my legs or that I can still piss without assistance doesn't make me seem masculine or manly. The only thing that matters is that I still need her to do everything else."

Hanabi gave her sister a look that asked for confirmation of the man's words. Hinata nodded, "Something like that."

Sasuke tossed the yellow plate that was once on his lap into the kitchen sink and continued to roll his wheelchair to the direction of the bathroom. Hinata jumped at the sound of the dish clattering to the bottom of the iron sink.

"Sasuke! You can't put food in that sink! The disposal doesn't work!" Hinata rushed to the sink after hearing the bathroom door close. It had only been six days since his arrival and she had already observed how indifferent and uncaring of others feelings he was.

She picked up the plate and realized how clean it was. It was like he did everything but lick the plate itself. The Hyuuga couldn't help but smile. She had always been told her cooking was good, but no one had ever clean the plate so well. Maybe he was just hungry…or maybe he really enjoyed her cooking. He'd never said anything, but then again, that was another thing about this mysterious ninja: he had never been really honest with his feelings with her.

Hinata Hyuuga knew he did feel emasculated and she was sure he knew that's how he felt, too. He was just putting on the tough guy mask to disguise how helpless he really felt. Hinata had been telling him every day that if he ever needed anything that he should feel very free to ask her. Maybe he didn't get the hint in her voice that implied more than just an occasional cup of coffee or a replacing of bandages.

She resolved to try to understand him more. The Byakugan user didn't understand why she felt like she had to get to know him better, but it couldn't hurt to try. She thought then just maybe Hanabi might warm up to him as well. After all, she had never had a problem with any other guest before.

Eight minutes later, Sasuke rolled back into and through the kitchen, making his way back to his room. Hinata had just come out of her own room, dressed in a sleeveless jacket and knee length black shorts. Her hair was tied back out of her face into a ponytail.

"S-Sasuke?" she mumbled his name.

"Yeah?"

"I was wondering; would you like to go outside with me? I…It is really beautiful and it looks like you could use the sunshine."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. What the hell does that mean?

"Please?" she pleaded, "I'd really appreciate the company."

Sasuke shrugged, which Hinata had learned to take as an okay. She wheeled him out through the backdoor that was across from Hanabi's bedroom and they were both instantly greeted by a large backyard and a very beautiful garden. Flowers of all shapes and sizes and colors filled the plentiful land. Lush green grass seemed to run on for miles, despite the fence that divided the land.

"I really like coming out here wh-when I need to think," Hinata whispered to him, or seemed to whisper. She always talked so low the Uchiha could never tell the difference.

"Did you do this?" he asked her, his eyes were unconsciously wide, amazed at the scenery before him.

"Yes. It turns out that g-gardening is very relaxing t-to me."

"Hn," the Uchiha sighed.

He had to admit, it was very serene and relaxing. It was peaceful and quiet. Sasuke had spent so long dodging genjutsu traps and paper bombs that the calmness of the garden washed over him like a tidal wave. He suddenly felt tired and his tense muscles relaxed. The shinobi yawned and rested his head on the back of his wheelchair. His eyes started to shut ever so slowly. He was drifting listlessly into a much needed rest. The anxiety of the journey kept him sleepy, but the pain he was feeling was keeping him awake.

Oh, the pain. In the mornings, he'd wake up to searing pain in his eyes. He thought that maybe it was an effect of the Sharingan, though he couldn't recall ever using it in Hinata's home. Why would he? The whole thing with Hanabi was just a thought that popped into his head for a small moment. Never would he act on it. He'd have been kicked out of the home so fast not even Tsukiyomi could slow it down. The fact that he could not remember anything beyond dragging himself to their doorstep didn't help either.

The Uchiha self-consciously lifted his hand and arm to touch the bandage on his head. The wound was healing and less blood was showing up on the white gauze each day. Whatever caused that wound also caused his loss of memory.

"Sasuke?"

The soldier groaned, there he thought he was going to a few minutes shut eye.

"What?" he said groggily, softly.

"How are y-you feeling?"

Sasuke sighed and kept quiet for a few seconds. In truth, his head hurt like crazy, for some reason he was suffering a huge stomachache, and his casts were making his legs itch.

"Do you have a hanger?" he said instead.

"Oh, for your cast? Yes, I-I'll go get one," Hinata said and left hurriedly. Sasuke sighed, a few seconds of quiet were granted to him.

The wounded man began to close his eyes, drifting back into sleep.

Sasuke!

Sasuke's eyes shot open immediately, which granted him more pain. That voice, it was very familiar. It wasn't either of the Hyuuga's. It was a man's. Someone Sasuke could only identify at that moment as a friend.

He had forgotten about that. He couldn't sleep. Ha-ha, how could he forget that? Every time he closed his eyes, he'd hear that same voice, calling over and over the same thing. Sasuke! Sasuke! And if he was lucky, he would hear something else: Come back with me! Stop! For some reason, hearing these few words replay over and over in his head like a broken record was haunting. He couldn't close his eyes. So, either he learns to sleep with them open, or he gets to the bottom of this. The tired Uchiha chose neither.

There was a small tap on his shoulder and then a white iron hanger lingering in front of his face now. Sasuke took it and thanked Hinata softly and instantly abandoned the idea of sleeping. Hinata sat next to Sasuke, her eyes scanning the garden animatedly.

"This place used to be a training ground," she said, "H-Hanabi used to come here with our cousin and train all the t-time."

So, Hinata renovated it when…she bought this land?

"I made it into a g-garden when I bought the land."

Ah.

"It used to grow vegetables, too, but I wasn't s-so good at that," she looked up to the man in the wheelchair next to her. She saw that his head was titled to the left and that his head was rested on the back of the seat, but he wasn't sleeping.

"Are you tired? This place has that effect on p-people," she said and yawned. Whether or not that was intentional was only known by Hinata.

Sasuke didn't, nor did he want to, respond to her question. Instead he chose to ask, "Why are you no longer a ninja?"

Hinata didn't answer for a very long time. It was like she was carefully thinking over her answer or trying to find the nicest way to tell Sasuke to "mind his fucking business". Either way, it was taking her too long to answer.

"I am not fit," she said finally. She was looking down and nervously poking her two index fingers together, "to b-be a kunoichi. Everyone knows it. I felt that…it was better to give up my career as a ninja. I would t-take care of Hanabi instead."

Sasuke was not fazed by what she had confessed. It wasn't because he thought it was true, or thought that was a huge cop-out on Hinata's part to quit and if that she really felt that way he'd leave it alone because he always thought people were entitled to choice…even if it was a stupid one, it was because he thought…

"You're lying through your teeth."

Hinata's eyes grew wider, the pale orbs jumped around a little. It looked like she was seconds away from crying, "H-huh?"

"I don't know what the real reason is and honestly, if you don't want to tell me the truth, I'm fine with it, just please...be a better liar. Hell, you could have just told me to go screw myself if you didn't want to say anything. I have only known you for six days and I can already tell when you're lying. Six. Days. I can already tell that you have a better personality than what you just told me you had."

"But…" Hinata was about to object, but then stopped herself. She rested her head in her lap…so much for getting to know Sasuke better. She is the one who is more conscious than the other right now! In fact, she's been awake far more hours than the Sharingan user has since he came to her home! And yet, the Uchiha seems to know her better than she knows him.

She knows that he sleeps on his side. She understands that one of his eyes has better sight than the other (only by a small bit). She can understand that he is stubborn, that he can't express his feelings as well as she'd like. She hears how on some nights, in his sleep, he speaks out loud. But never has she actually gotten to know this stranger for who he is on the inside; at least more in-depth.

"I've got to go to the bathroom," Sasuke said and rolled into the house.

Hinata nodded, her head was still nestled in between her chest and knees. She kept thinking about what he said. He had said that he knew she had a better personality than what she just displayed. Well, what exactly did she imply her personality was like? For one, it screamed coward. Was Hinata a coward? She had to admit, she used to be. She used to run from her problems and never look back. But now, she has changed. She fought, and even though sometimes she lost the battle, she could always count on herself to get back up again. It took courage to be able to look after all of these soldiers and her sister at the same time. Could Sasuke have seen that? The strength she held inside her, could he have realized it?

For another, what she said completely implied that she had the mind of a quitter, a selfish person entirely. Could he have seen with those eyes of his, that she was the complete opposite of this? Is that why he deemed her the only negative thing that fit her at that moment? It was not cowardice, nor was it selfishness, and it was never her being a complete and utter defeatist.

She was a liar. Plain and simple. And apparently, she was a terrible liar.

I'm sorry for lying; I just can't tell you that…you'd hate me even more.

"Hinata!"

For the first time in a long time, Hinata felt down enough to actually think:

What the hell does Neji want now?

So...yup. Thanks for reading Chapter 4.

In a previous chapter..I don't remember which it is but it was the one where Sasuke first debuted. Anyway, I made a mistake. Naruto was not incarcerated, he was hospitalized. So if any of you were thinking, "Naruto got arrested? !" don't because it's not true. He's in the hospital.

Also, I've got this whole story planned out. All it takes now is writing it. This is the first time in writing a story of mine that I actually know the beginning to the end. So the updates should go a lot smoother.

Thanks! Please review!

~M.o.t.C