Oh...my...gosh! I am like spazzing out right now! I can't believe how much response this story has been getting. Sob Do you know how this makes me feel? Keep it up you guys! And thank you so much for helping little ol' me get encouragement for writing. Wow...and I'd like to say sorry if i took kind of long to update, but I'm busy trying to get ready for school. You guys are awesome. On Tuesday, I have to go somewhere for about four days, but I promise to update right after that! Hope you guys will understand :D

Disclaimer: Roses are Red, violets are Blue. I don't own Naruto, but Kishi I wish I were you ;D

Chapter Three: Your Touch

The next day, Hinata found two guys sitting on her desk, trying to push each other off. She looked around, making sure she was in the right class. Sure enough...It was class 42-D. When they stopped clobbering each other enough to turn around, they broke out into a smile and waved at her. "Kuso..." Basically the whole class was starig at her because of the distraction it was causing. She could even see him peering at her from under his bangs.

"A-Ano...I'm afriad that's m-my...s-seat?"

"Oh, we know! I just came here to see if you wanted to-"

The other guy elbowed him and cut him off. "-go to the dance with-"

"-me!"

They turned around when they felt a dangerous aura from behind them. They both paled at the sight of Tenten. "You jerks...what do you think you're doing? What's your problem, are you too stupid to know that the dance is Ladies' Choice. As in, tough luck cause no girl would ask you two idiots."

"Pft...I've got to act first before someone else snatches my prize away from me." Wink.

Shiver. "Ah, sorry, but I can't."

"Why not?"

"W-Well...see, I'm...going to study. At the library."

The red-head smirked. "I love cute nerd types like you. Well, see you around, Hinata."

"Not if I see her around first!"

Hinata turned towards Sasuke, hoping he hadn't heard everything. She saw he had relocated to the farthest end of the class; she sighed with relief. There was no way he'd be to hear that embarrassing conversation. Since his hair was covering his eyes, Hinata didn't notice the way his head was inclined towards her, as if he had heard the whole thing...

Through out the whole class period, Hinata couldn't hear a word about cell mitosis. Everyone was still busy discussing that stupid dance. With a sigh, Hinata gave up tyring to listen to the class lecture, she turned to the left and decided to study the more fascinating creatures surrounding her. Now, that was a topic worth studying, not some "dance."

For the frist time, she got a good look at their clothes; they had to be rich. All of their black apparel and shiny jewerly looked expensive. Tenten's dress was by far the most extravagant; her Lolita/Goth inspired style looked like it could very well be worn down the run ways of any prstiguous modeling agency. Her black lace skirt complemented her fishnet stockings. The skirt fell a few inches above her thigh, and a bit lower thaan that were her black kne-length lace up boots. Hinata tried to picture wearing something like that and nearly retched; she could hardly had anything black in her closet, not to mention...fishnet...shudder.

The guys wore simpler clothing, but it only added to their charm. Shino, well he had that nose-high leather coat, and Naruto was by far the most colorful of the group. He wore a black-and orange shirt with black suede pants that nicely framed his legs. Gaara was wearing a black long sleeve button up shirt, opened a bit at the top to give anyone passing by a nice glance. He wore straight, tight pants that went very well with his naturally lanky frame. Kiba's outfit was as rough as he was; he wore a black jacket over a thin fur-trimmed sweater, with the hood sticking out. And Sasuke...

Sasuke. He was wearing a black, tight-fitting flannel that had a set of headphones sribbled near the shoulders and chest. His black jeans were only slightly tighter than Naruto's, and if Hinata was a more crude individual, she would've told you how nice his ass looked in it.

Hinata lost track of her thoughts, and snapped back to reality as the shrill bell jolted through her bones. She looked around, noticing that the room was nearly empty. She quickly picked up her things and ran outside the door, running into someone as she rushed out the door. Shaking her head, she found that she was face-to back with someone. Who ever it was, this person was much too tall for her to look at their face. Upon contact, Hinata could see his well-toned muscles stiffening in his back. Hinata felt something warm inside of her rise, curling up into her chest where she had collided with him. Without thinking, one of her fingers stuck out, gently prodding one of his shoulder blades...

Fwap!

She opened her eyes, and felt herself wilting under his penetrating glare. The poor girl would've looked away, highly uncomfortable under his blazing stare, but he had her pinned to the wall too tightly. "I-...I...Sorry..."

When he saw her face turn red from the lack of air, he saw his arm on her nek and quickly let go. Without another word, he walked away from her, disappearing down the halls. She was used to being hated; it was nothing new to her. Hinata was so used to it that any feeling of compassion or affection made her feel awkward and uncomfortable...It hardly even stung anymore when someone hated her.

So why did he have to be different?

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During lunch, she saw Kiba wave her over. On her way to their table, Hinata squinted her eyes to get a better look at them. Again, they were sipping from those same red tumblers. Did they never eat? I mean, she knew how hard it was to be a model because cousin had been what, he still ate regularly, jsut smaller protions. She had never seen them eat anything...

"Hello!"

Hinata stumbled backwards when Sakura's head popped up from nowhere, falling right into...that guy from the morning...

"Oh...helllo. Nice of you to...drop by! Har har!" The white-eyed girl quietly squeaked and picked herself up, taking a few protective steps away from him. "Heh heh heh..."

She gave a little bow to Sakura to excuse herself, and quickly ran towards the others. Sighing, she placed her tray down and gave a small smile to her strange new friends. Naruto, Kiba, and Tenten smiled, while Shino and Gaara noded to acknowledge her presence.

Tenten tipped her head back as she poured the remains of that disgusting, putrid protein shake into her mouth. As her hand roughly shook the tumbler, something on her finger glittered under the spare lighting in the cafeteria. Hinata squinted her eyes to get a better look at her ring.

The chocolate-eyed girl opened her eyes and looked at Hinata. "Hinata? You okay? Oh gosh...you're paler than...Gaara!"

Her silvery eyes were wide and locked onto the huge rock on Tenten's finger. It was an impressive ring; it was a rare blue diamond set in two-tone gold. The sheer size of the pear shaped gem stone was certainly awe-inspiring. But Hinata was a simple girl. Though her parents had left her a fairly sizable will, she was never one to be prone to such luxuries or fineries. The invaluable token was not what had her baffed. Rather, it was who the ring had formerly belonged to...

Flashback

He opened the soft velvet box, revealing a beautiful blue diamond ring. Hinata blinked, before looking at him. "What's this?"

"It's one of my mother's family heirlooms. It's been passed down on her side from generation to generation. Your father just gave it to me."

She made a face. "It's very pretty. But...why are you showing this to me?"

The older boy sighed, rubbing his temples. "To make you jealous of my rock. It's to give it to you, idiot. Why else would I be showing you something like this? In case you haven't noticed, I'm not one for jewelry." Hinata blushed. It was true. He was more of a shirt-and-jeans kind of guy, and anything that wasn't black or white was given to her, or charity.

"Oh...well, I can't take this! It looks very expensive..."

With a shrug, he snapped the box closed and shoved it towards her. "Well, who else would I give it to?"

"Well...someone you...um...l-love?"

Snort. "Like that'll ever happen."

"Don't give me that. It's a chore in itself shoveling all of those love notes from the mailbox."

He grabbed her in a headlock, ruffling her hair. "Hey, you gotta earn your stay here, you know? Jeez, gift giving is never just 'oh, you shouldn't have!' with you."

Hinata cringed at his distubing imitation of her voice. "Hey, just...keep it. Someday someone you love will wear that ring with pride, okay?"

"Ffffiiinnne, if you say soooooo."

End Flashback

Maybe this was the girl he had love. That didn't bother her; Tenten was gorgeous, and kind from what she could tell. What really disturbed her was...

He died just last year...

"Hey, what's wrong? Hinata? Hinata!"

They all turned towards Sasuke, who had dropped his tumbler, sending its contents to the floor. Naruto panicked, getting on all fours and 'disposing' of the evidence. He rushed around the table and went to where the distraught girl was.

"Shit...shit...Hyuga, how could I have overlooked that?" Tenten fustratingly exclaimed.

"It's okay Tenten...we were all distracted by her fragrance..." Shino tried to reason with her to calm her down, but Tenten was already prying the ring off of her finger, shoving it into her pockets. But it was too late; the damage was done.

"We've got to...ahh..." Naruto scratched his head; this was bad...

Hinata's eyes were platter-sized pools of anxiety. Her fingers were shaking in an unhealthy manner, and her lower lip was trembling. She felt so cold that she hardly noticed the cold hands that enclosed his wrists and dragged her away from the table. She couldn't even feel 500 pairs of eyes drifting towards her as the school heart throb pulled her along. Looking down at the long, masculine hands enveloping hers caued her to snap out of it and come to her attention. Sasuke whirled around with wide eyes as she tugged at her wrists. "No, stop! You don't understand! They're...you're...you've got to be theives! Stop, please let go!" She didn't even have a free hand to wipe the tears wildly spilling from her eyes.

He looked around, looking for somewhere to keep her. Sasuke continued to pull her despite her protests, and dragged her into the boy's restroom. "Ey man, what the hell?"

"Get the hell out."

"What? Hey, if you want some alone time, the janitor's-"

In one swift movement Sasuke had the boy by the collar, suspending him above the air. Hinata didn't remember even seeing him move his arm...

"I said...get. Out."

That sure as hell was enough for the others as they quickly stormed out of the room. He turned around to look at her tear stained face; sighing, he leaned in to quickly wipe them away. By now, the frenzied girl had calmed down considerably. However, in place of the panic she had replaced it with as much anger a girl such as her could call upon. "How did you get it!" His silence and stoic face made her blood boil. A fresh layer of tears ran down her face, falling onto his hands. She wrenched herself out of his grasp, and looked at him with more hate than she knew she could gather. "Did you do it because you hate me"

He looked at her with a confused/surprised look. It was the first sign of any emotion besides anger she had seen him express..

"What did you do, dig his grave to get it? Why'd you do it! Do you really h-hate me that much?" He tried to talk to her, but she was too confused to listen. She turned away and ran out, the soft tips of her hair grazing his face as she whirled around.

As she ran towards her car in the parking lot, Hinata wiped at her eyes with the back of her sleeve. He could hate her; fine. There obviosuly was no way she was changing that. But how dare they disrupt her nii-san's peace...that she could not forgive.

Sasuke leaned against the wall, staring out at the window, watching her small, slender body run away. His eyes widened when he saw what was headig towards her, and when someone came into the bathroom a second later, all they saw was an open window...

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Hinata collapsed onto the ground from exhaustion. Damn her unatheletic-ness. Of all the times for her lungs to give in...

A loud, blaring noise woke her from her distraught thoughts, and her pale face became transparent as the large vehicle came charging at her. Since she was so small, andshe was crouched over, the driver hadn't seen her before he was only a few feet away from her. Hinata wrapped her arms around her and closed her eyes; she remebered her last visions were that of a black angel, falling from the sky, and dashing towards her. But with the kind of luck she had, it had to have been her dying wish to see him, just one last time.

He was merely a dying girl's apparition...

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Confused? Heh, I don't blame you. I promise, everything will be explained. Bear with me, please? Ja, until I return from my adventures :D