Everyone, I am very, very sorry! I tried to upload this yesterday, but I kept getting an error page. I tried to submit it in every hour, but the site wouldn't let me. I'm really sorry for making all of you fine people wait. I hope you understand. On a brighter not, I can't believe how much response I'm getting to this story. Thank you all for supporting me, and encouraging me to write faster and better chapters. And sadly, I'm aware some of you do not like the pairings, and I truly wish there was something I could do to help, but I can't make everyone happy D: And thanks again for giving me such kind words of encouragement!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Chapter Four: Your Enigma
The sudden painful sensation in her legs jerked Hinata out of the darkness, and back to conscienceness. She winced as two strong arms closed in around her, wrenching her legs into an awkward angle. As she went flying, her head collided with her car's bumper, making her vision slightly blurry. A burning pain pulsed through the muscles in her legs, but she had no time to think about that. The same arms fastened around her waist tightened, nearly squeezing the life out of her. She felt a heavy pressure push both of their bodies forward, until they skidded to a halt. Hinata's jaw dropped when she looked behind her; not only was he her unexpected savior, his shoulders were embedded into the hood of the truck.
And he didn't look tired at all.
He simply pulled himself out of the fair sized dent in the car, and backed away, still holding onto her. In an attempt to dodge her, the driver had driven in a full arc, and cars were trapping them in every direction. He loosened his hold on her, and leaned down so that his lips were aligned with her ear. It shivered from his frosty, cold breath as he whispered into her ear. "Hinata...are you alright?"
What to say...'I'm fine,' 'I'm okay,' or 'I'm alright'? They were all lies. She was confused, fustrated, and most of all, the feel of his cool hands penetrated the fabric of her white sweater, and it was driving her insane. Hinata didn't know how long they stayed like that, together on the ground, but each second seemed like a lifetime to her. To her dismay, he pulled away from her like she was a virus when the cars were cleared away and the ambulence arrived.
A bowl-cut, bushy eye-browed, spandex clad jazzerciser came running out of his truck. From under the bandages wrapped around his head, she could still see the blood seeping through. He had hundreds of cuts and scrapes around his face, and looked much, much worse than she did. With floods of tears running down the ghastly bug-eyed creature, Hinata smiled at him uncomfortably. He threw himself at her feet, still sobbing. "Forgive me for nearly extinguishful your youthful, burning flame of youth! I will do whatever I can to make it up to you, and your springtime of youth!"
The medics kicked him aside and forcefully pushed her down into a gurney. Hinata covered her eyes, too embarrassed for words. She could hear all of the voices of her peers around her; all of the attention was making her feel naustious. When the medics tried to force Sasuke into a gurney, he stopped them with a hand and charismatically refused. Hinata tried to sit up, but the medics pushed her back down.
"A-ano, I'm n-not hurt, this is r-really not nec-"
"Good lord, she might have permanent brain damage, she's stuttering! We're affirming that she has a severe concussion, she needs to be taken to the emergency room right away!"
"N-no, no, I-I'm fine..."
"This is serious! Roll her into the car!"
Hinata sighed, burying her face into her hands. She wished she possessed Sasuke's authoritative tone; the medics hadn't even bothered to suffocate him with a humiliating neck brace. The poor neck-braced girl sighed; her truck had a flat tire, she was in a gurney, with a neck brace, and the whole school was looking at her. There was no possible way it could get any worse.
Sasuke got into the ambulence car, next to where she was lying on her gurney. Hinata cursed under her breath; she hated irony.
After the nurse had checked her x-rays for the umteenth time, she shifted her glasses on the bridge of her nose, confirming that she did not in fact have a concussion. Finally, all Hinata wanted to do was get out of this miserable place. Looking around the empty room, she turned tot he wrinkly old prune. "Where is Sasuke?"
"Oh, that hunky son of Dr. Hatake? Bah, he's fine. Hehehe, don't you kids use that word these days, 'fine,' meaning hunky? Hehehe I just love keeping up with you youngsters! Speaking of Dr. Hatake...that young man's not too bad himself, in fact if I were, oh, twenty years younger I'd be-"
"Is someone talking about me again?"
Hinata gasped as a gray-haired man walked through the door, his eyes crinkled in what appeared to be a smile. He looked to be about thirty or so, but he was more gorgeous than any actor, celebrity, or movie star she had ever seen in her life. The lower half of his face was covered with a mask, but what was visible was enough to make Hinata's heart accelerate. "Y-You're Sasuke's f-f-father?"
His good-natured chuckle was pleasent to her ear, and felt overwhelmingly compassionate to her. "Well, adopted. Along with the rest of his 'siblings.' Well, were you realizing where his good looks came from? Me? Oh stop it."
Hinata blushed, fiddling with the zipper on her neckbrace. Feeling another wave of embarrassment, Hinata looked at her toes. "Um, c-can I take t-this off?"
The attractive doctor looked up from a suspicious orange book. "Huh? OH, that old thing. Of course, miss, you're fine." He seemed to read her with his one visible eye; his wild bangs fell onto the right side of his face, obscurring one of his eyes. He tilted his head, studying her with an amused look in his eyes. "So, you're Hinata! Hm...yes, I see."
The red gow on her face displayed her uncomfortableness. He chuckled. "Oh, you're free to go. You're perfectly fine. Bye, miss, don't be a stranger!"
Hinata slid off of the vinyl hospital bed, and started to walk down the hall. As she rounded a corner, she neary passed out when she saw Sasuke leaning against the wall, looking effortlessly stunning and composed. Flashbacks of her near death snapped her from her ogling, and she looked up at him with wide eyes.
"Are you...hurt?" He shook his head. "What-how, um, what happened?"
"I was right next to you, so I pulled you out of the way."
Irritation bubbled up inside of Hinata; she hated liars. "No, I saw you. You jumped out of a window...and you were so far away."
Sasuke's stoic face contorted into that of anger and annoyance. "You're delusional. You don't know what you're saying."
His sneering, almost taunting tone made her angry. "I'm n-not stupid. I know what I saw, Sasuke."
"You don't know anything."
"I know somethings different about you guys! You never eat, you guys always look hungry, I could've sworn Naruto had fangs, and, and, you can get hit by a truck and still stand in front of me!" Her cousin flashed before her eyes, and she felt a renewed confidence in her. "And, you, she, you guys stole his ring! It's like...you're all..."
"What? We're all what?" Hinata lowered her hands to her sides, too tired to hide her tears. Sasuke brushed past her, but not before stopping to whisper to her, "Just let it go. And...stay away."
She watched his back moving with uncanny grace, until he was no more than a speck in the far off distance.
The next day was a disaster for Hinata; apparently, not much happened in the rainy little village of Konoha. She was some kind of hero for surviving a truck accident. But no matter who she asked, no one could recall Sasuke even being there. Unsuccessfully, she tried to shift some ofthe limelight to Sasuke's heroic bravery. As for as anyone else was concerned, Sasuke was nowhere to be seen. She sighed. The whole day was filled with people following her, asking her to autograph unmentionable body parts. She wanted to cry.
As lunch time rolled by, Hinata rolled her apple around in her hands as she made a b-line towards her usual table. A frown formed on her face when she saw only five bodies instead of the usual six. She looked at Tenten's bare fingers, and wondered if she had dreamt it all up. Before she could walk towards Tenten to interrogate her, she saw a long, pale hand waving from her left. Turning to face whoever was trying to get her attention, Hinata had to do a double take to make sure she wasn't hallucinating.
Sasuke was sitting by himself at a table, waving at her. Despite her mind's internal battle, Hinata could feel her feet move without her consent, until she was standing in front of his table. He motioned for her to sit, and she numbly complied. When the shock had worn off, she looked up at him. "I don't get you."
"Hn?"
"First you seem to hate me. Then you save me from a truck. Then you get mad at me again. And now you want me to sit with you..."
Taking another sip of his 'protein shake,' Sasuke paused thoughtfully, before shrugging. "Yesterday, didn't I tell you to stay away from me?"
"Then why did you ask me to come here?"
"I was hoping you would refuse."
Hinata sighed, resting her chin in the palm of her hand. "Like that's possible..." she whispered under her breath. Sasuke seemed to laugh a little, as if he could hear her. The distraught Hyuga girl sighed. Sasuke smirked. "You seem to do a lot of that."
"C-can you blame me?"
"Hn...I suppose not."
"So...why?"
"Why did I tell you to come here? I'm finding it too hard to ignore you."
"...U-um...thanks?"
A heavy silence fell over them, and Hinata merely rolled her apple around the table from hand to hand. Sasuke looked at her with an amused expression. "You're interesting."
"I could say the same about all of you." She turned around to look at Tenten, then looked to him.
"Is this about yesterday? I said to let it go."
"I know what I saw, Sasuke."
"You had a concussion."
"I did not."
Sasuke groaned, running a hand through his lustrious black hair. "Can't you just thank me and get on with life?"
Her eyes narrowed at him. "Well, unfortunately it's too late for you to have regrets."
"What?"
"To regret saving me."
He slammed his cup onto the table, making her apple roll off of the table. "What makes you think that?"
"Because everytime I'm around you you look like you're in excrutiating pain."
"I don't hate-"
The bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. Sasuke didn't make any move to get out of his seat. She gave him a questioning stare. "Aren't you going to class?"
"No."
"Y-You're skipping?"
"Yeah, so?"
Without another word, she got up from the table and picked up her bags. Before she walked away, she softly muttered, "About the ring...I'll find out eventually."
Stupid Sasuke. Why couldn't he trust her? All she wanted was the damned truth! Hinata was too distracted to listen as the teacher explained the lab they were doing. She gave a blank stare and blinked when he hovered over her desk. "Y-Yes?"
"Well, give me your thumb!"
"H-Huh?"
He produced a sharp pin. "I already have your signed content for this assignment from the registration papers. I'll come around and just give you a small prick. Then, we'll mix your blood with our solution. Don't worry, it's just a small drop. You need to find out your blood type anyway for the upcoming blood drive." Suddenly, Hinata's senses kicked in, and she could smell the rusty, salty scent of blood penetrate through her nose. Her cream-like complexion donned a greenish hue, and she was sweating along her forehead. The teacher retracted his pin and immediately grabbed a nearby boy by the collar. "Hinata, are you feeling queasy?"
She nodded weakly, her head still supported by her sweaty palms. The boy knew what to do. He swooped down and carried Hinata in his arms, already heading towards the nurse's office. All of the movements made Hinata fight to keep her apple down.
When they were halfway there, Hinata groaned when she saw him walking towards them, apparently on his way to the parking lot. She tried to turn her head, hiding her face from him, but nothing could escape his hawk-like vision. Raising a brow, he looked at her condition. "Is she sick?"
The boy carrying her had a protective tone in his voice. He lowered Hinata to the ground so he could cross his arms. "Well, excuse me, but I'm escorting her to the nurse's office, so see ya!"
Looking down at her, he ignored the other boy and lifted Hinata into his arms. The boy loudly protested, but Sasuke kept on walking. "Go back to class. I'll take her."
They walked on in silence, while Hinata tried very hard not to explode. She was certain that her face was shifting from vomit green to cherry red. "You look awful."
Feeling his strong, well-muscled arms supporting her, Hinata couldn't have disagreed with him. Whenever he was around, she couldn't help but fall to pieces.
I'm going to try and finish a chapter by today. If not, it will definately be up tomorrow!