Chapter Four: Stories and Misunderstandings

Last Time on the Love Square: Sasuke heard noises in the night and found that it was Hinata, sitting on the porch crying with a kunai at her feet, now ready to tell her story.

Hinata took a deep breath and shivered. Sasuke noticed her nervousness and said quietly, "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

Hinata considered this for a moment and shook her head. No, it must be told now.

"My father…" she started off. "My father wanted me to come here to get stronger."

----Flashback----

"Hinata!" Hiashi boomed, watching Hinata's shuriken miss the targets. "This is your fourth day straight of shuriken practice and all you've done is miss all the targets!"

"Father…" Hinata said, trembling a little. "I'm sorry Father, I…I've been trying my best…"

"Your best obviously isn't good enough." Hiashi muttered, pouting. "What am I going to do with you? Hanabi would make a better heiress than you, Hinata. She never misses anything!"

Silent tears ran down Hinata's cheek that went either unnoticed to Hiashi or he simply didn't care.

"Go back to your room Hinata, I'll figure out a solution for this."

The next day Hiashi called Hinata out to the family room. Hinata nervously took a seat across from her father, who looked very serious, which scared her a little.

"I've decided Hinata." Hiashi told her folding his hands together. "You are to be escorted to the Village Hidden in the Mist, and train there, every day for a month. The Mist Village is a tough country, so I've heard."

Hinata merely nodded, not seeing how training in a different country would help her improve.

"But you see Hinata, this is a win-win situation for me."

"H-How so?" Hinata asked nervously.

Hiashi grinned that devious grin again. "You see, Hinata. On the 29th day of that month, I'll pay an unexpected visit to you to see if you've become stronger. If you haven't"
Hiashi quickly and unexpectedly tossed a kunai at Hinata's feet. She gasped and looked down at it in fear.

"Then one of the local bandits or thugs will make an appearance at your house that night." Hiashi said simply, getting up from the house. "Like I told your Jounin leader, Kuerenai, I didn't care if you died on a mission, and I still don't. You will be sacrificing your life for the clan, and the clan is what is most important. Remember that."

With that, Hiashi got up from the couch and dusted himself off. "Your escorts are coming tonight. Be sure to have your things packed." Hiashi then left, leaving Hinata in a state of confusion and fear.

Hinata shivered, looking down at the kunai her father had tossed at her feet. She picked it up and gripped it, in fear of what her future held.

----End Flashback----

Sasuke sighed in relief. "Ok, I think I got it now. You came out here to train right? That's why you have your kunai, so you can get stronger!"

Hinata looked at him as if he was stupid. "No…No, Sasuke you have it all wrong. I acme out here to…"

Hinata grabbed the kunai that was at her feet and trembled a little. "I came out here to end my life, like my father wants."

Sasuke gasped, his mouth open wide. "No, Hinata, no. You can't do that. You can get stronger in a month. I'll help you, heck, I'll get Naruto to help you even. You can't just quit."

"But, I must." Hinata said, her voice softer than usual. "Sasuke, my father wants me dead. He knows I can't get stronger. I know it too. I can't…."

Hinata bit her lip to keep the tears from coming down and grasped the kunai tighter and flung it to her hand. Sasuke grabbed it and pulled it out of her hand, but not fast enough. Blood was running out of her hand, and Hinata put her hands to her face crying.

"Sasuke, let me do it now! The faster I do it the less pain I'll feel."

"No Hinata I won't let you do it!" Sasuke countered back.

"What the hell is going on here?" a blond haired kid yelled bursting onto the scene in his pajamas. He saw Sasuke holding the kunai and Hinata bleeding and clicked 2+2 in his head, getting the wrong idea.

"KAKASHI-SENSEI!"

"Naruto you teme, you got it all wrong!"

Hinata couldn't say anything but to keep sobbing furiously.

The whole house lit up and everyone scrambled outside. Kakashi-sensei, Sakura, Tazuna, Tsunami and Inari, all gasped at the scene they saw.

"Sasuke-kun, no! Tell me you didn't…" Sakura started then turned away.

"Well…" Kakashi started, putting his book away that he had come outside with. "This looks bad…"

Sasuke sighed. "It does… but I can explain!"

"Kakashi!" Naruto started, pointing a finger at Sasuke. "This TEME stabbed Hinata!"

"Let's let the lady talk." Tazuna suggested looking at the sobbing Hinata. "Hinata, tell us what happened."

"Sasuke…" she started in between sobs. "Stopped me…my life…:"

"AH HAH!" Naruto yelled triumphantly. "Sasuke stopped her life! Meaning he wanted to kill her!"

"Sasuke-kun, why?" Sakura said and started sobbing as well.

"That's not what she meant!" Sasuke cried frantically, looking around at everyone's faces. "She meant I stopped her from taking her life! She left out a few words is all!"

Kakashi sighed. "Sasuke, I'm afraid for the rest of this mission, you're to stay away from Hinata and stay in Tazuna's house. We can't have you trying to kill our client."

"But I…"

"Enough, Sasuke." Kakashi stated. "Get back in the house. Hinata, I'll take care of your wounds."

Sasuke stormed into the house, mad at the world. He saves Hinata from suicide and this is what happens? All he wanted was to be alone right now, but when he flung open his room door, who did he see?

"Sakura…" he muttered.

"Sasuke-kun!" she cried flinging herself onto him. "Why…why did you do that to Hinata? Why?"

Sakura started sobbing into his arms and all Sasuke could do was roll his eyes.

"Sakura, I didn't do it." he murmured.

"But…" Sakura started, rubbing her eyes. "The kunai, and the blood…"

"I told you, Hinata tried suicide and I stopped her, now leave me alone."

He tried pushing past Sakura to get to his bed, but she jumped in from of him.

"Then I believe you, Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke stopped. Sakura was so naïve and obsessive that even when faced with a situation like that, she still believed him. Heck, if he saw all that evidence fright in front of him, he wouldn't believe himself either.

But it was sort of nice Sakura believed him.

Sort of.

"Hey, Sakura." Sasuke called out to the pink-haired girl who was starting to leave.

"Yes, Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke smiled. "If we want everyone else to believe me, I'm gonna need your help."

Sakura grinned making Sasuke hope he wouldn't regret this. "Whatever you need, I'll be right there with you Sasuke-kun!"

A/N: How'd you like? Yes, I bet some of you are going to hate Hinata now for not speaking up clearly ahem But I promise a happy ending!…or not, we'll see. I hope ya liked!

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