...WoW! Wow wow wow wow wow! 100 reviews already! I can't believe this :D Thank you everyone for taking the time to review, you're all awesome. I really love reading your reviews, even if they aren't positive. I used to be really sensitive about that, but now I see that criticism will only improve your writing abilities, so thank you to everyone who contributed your imput. And, of course, all of your nice reviews make me all warm and fuzzy and all that good stuff inside. Now, without further ado, I shall stop my joyous ranting, to present to you:

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. But I do own this delicious ice cream, which is currently melting into my hands, due to all of the excitement :D


Chapter Six: Your Promise

The next day at school, Hinata tried hard to focus on the lessons. Really, she did, but could you blame her? She could take notes on the novel they were studying (which she had already read twice), or, she could 'accidently' let her eyes wander to her left, where he sat. This had been going all day, but try as she might, classwork simply fell to the bottom of her priority list when competing Uchiha Sasuke. Besides, she wasn't totally day dreaming: looking at his face was a novel in itself. His feautres were so artistic and perfect that it was better than any description a novel could offer.

He was resting his chin against his arms, looking straight ahead. Feeling her eyes on him, his eyes darted to their right, looking at her. Just to humor her, he gave her a slow wink.

The temperature around her rose ten degrees. Hinata tried to hide her face in her hands, but she knew nothing could escape his perfect eyesight.

The shrill bell rang, providing a distraction from her embarrassment. Hinata hastily shoved all of her things into her bag and rushed to escape from the sea of bodies, currently clogging in the doorway. All of the towering bodies closed in on her, pushing her in every direction. She was about to give up and fall into fetal position when something grabbed her hood and yanked her through the crowd. She struggled to look backwards, and saw the back of his toussled black hair. Hinata wasn't surprised when a pathway formed in front of him; Sasuke had such a strong presence that it was impossible no to notice it.

When they made it out the door, Sasuke released her hood, smiling that smug crooked smile. "You're a walking disaster."

Fixing her hood so that she wasn't choking to death, Hinata nodded. "So I've been told."

With his lips hovering near her ears, his quiet laughter tickled her ears. Even his breath was too cold to be human.

The cafeteria was deafening as usual. Sasuke noticed her uneasiness when their usual table came into view. The five of them were there already. Naruto and Kiba were too loud as usual. Shino and Gaara were too busy looking ridiculously cool to talk. All was normal except for Tenten. She was quietly staring into the contents of her cup, deep in thought.

He cleared his throat, causing her to look at him. He opened his mouth a few times, hesitating with what to say to her. Hinata looked down at her hands, thinking of the right thing to say.

"Sasuke?"

"Hn?"

"J-Just tell me. D-Did you guys...hurt h-him?"

"Him?

"Hyuga Neji, my cousin."

He seemed to be weighing the truth, before finally deciding. "No."

"And you didn't s-steal it from him?"

"No."

"Okay...then I won't ask." She quietly walked to an empty table, setting her tray in front of her. Sasuke took a seat across from her, studying her face expression. There was a early invisible crease between her eyebrows, the corner of her lips were drawn downwards, and her eyes were downcast. "You're sad."

"H-Huh?'

"You're sad because of this Neji."

Pausing, she nodded. It was pointless trying to lie to him. He seemed to read her like an open book. "Why do you care so much about him? He's just family."

She looked shocked. "That's exactly why. He is-was...the only family I had left."

"I see." He still sounded skeptical."

"Well...he's the only one that cared."

"That cared?"

"He talked to me. My father, he made sure I ate reguarly, and all of my needs. But we never talked. I spent more time with the maids than I did with him. The only time of the day we talked was dinnertime, and even then he was too busy chewing. Neji-nii-san sacrificed a lot to take care of me. He had to gt a modelling job, and...I'm sorry, I'm probably b-boring you.."

Sasuke answered her with another question. "Did they ever find his body?"

She dropped her fork. "E-excuse me?"

"You said he died."

"Oh yeah...n-no. They just found his blood all over the reservation park..."

"You really want to find out what happened to him, don't you?" She nodded before continuing to pick at her food in silence.

Hinata was so used to him waiting outside her last class that it only mildly jolted her insides. It had become an everyday ritual; he would wordlessly walk her to her car, cracking jokes about her dinky mini-cooper. Like usual, he walked alongside her. His face looked strained and slightly irritated. Hinata figured it was because of her slow pace. Clumsy people had to take extra care when they walk.

When they got to her car, Sasuke opened the door for. She got in and was about to close the door when his had blocked the way. Hinata gasped, fearing she had broken his fingers. But the door simply bounced off of his skin. She nodded approvingly; this whole vampire business could come in handy for someone accident-prone like her.

"See you tomorrow."

She gave him a confused look. "But isn't tomorrow..." he simply grinned, then disappeared into the shadows.

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"Morning."

Hinata jumped out of bed at the sound of his velvetty smooth voice. She looked at the door frantically and sighed with relief when no one was there. Zombie-walking to her mirror, she groaned; half of her hair was glued to her chin, and the other half was disheveled like a bird's nest. Heh. Good thing he wasn't he-"

"Over here."

With wide, horror-stricken eyes, she slowly turned around. When she saw his face, smirking face hovering outside her window, Hinata yelped, trying to cover her hair. Grabbing some clothes at random, she dashed towards the bathroom. After brushing out her hair, she looked closely at herself. Smoothing her hair over her shoulders, she noticed that it had grown out to her collar bone. Instead of tying it, she left it down and side-swept her bangs with a hair pin.

After changing into her clothes, Hinata walked back to her bedroom to see him lying on her bed, sleeping. She nearly had a heart attack when she checked the time; it was 7:15. School would begin soon, and here he was napping on her bed! She should probably wake him...but...

Hinata stared at his sleeping form, sighing. He looked much less hostile, maybe even peaceful. Taking slow, careful steps, she walked over to her bed and stifled a giggle. He was so much taller than her that most of his shins were hanging over the bed. With quivering fingers, she touched the dark black circles under his eyes. Hinata traced them, starting from the outer corner of his eyes, towards his nose.

"Boo!"

She recoiled her hand and stumbled backwords, falling over.

Laughing at her antics, Sasuke got up from her bed with that perfect, gorgeous half-smile of his. "Did you really think I was sleeping?"

Hinata removed her face from her hands, revealing the bright red blush coloring her face. "W-well, you weren't moving." Thinking for a second, she realized that he was still; too still. It didn't even look like he was breathing." She turned to him with her wide pearly eyes. "D-Do...do you..um, guys...breathe?"

The light glinted off his fangs when he smiled. "You know, you're pretty smart for a human."

"Jee...thanks."

He smiled this time, looking sideways at her. "Well you are right. We don't have to breathe."

"Really! For how long? Forever? Even when you swim! Or how about-"

Sasuke used his cool, icy fingers to shush her. Hinata blushed and timidly smiled. "G-Gomen."

His smile drooped down so that it was a tight line across his face. "Hey. Come on, I'll give you a lift."

Looking at her clock, she gasped. "Hurry, hurry!" Hinata went behind Sasuke, trying to push him towards the stairs. She might as well have been pushing her bedroom all; he wasn't moving at all! Giving up, she stopped trying to push him and groaned. "Will you j-just go?" The quiet Hyuga wasn't a straight A student for nothing.

A sly, evil grin spread across his face as he turned to face her. It made Hinata oggle and shiver at the same time. Licking one of his fangs, his deep coal eyes darted to the window, then back to her. "Hurry, you say?"

"Ano...by h-hurry I mean-EEP!"

Before Hinata had time to blink, Sasuke had flung her small body over his shoulder, and jumped onto her window sill. His movements were so fluid that she hadn't felt him moving at all. Hinata clawed into him like a cat, shaking with feer. She lived on the third floor...

"S-Sasuke?"

"Hn?" She didn't miss the playful edge in his otherwise neutral voice.

"Y-You're not going to...are you?"

The corners of his lips tugged upward into a smile as his feet left the safety of the windowsill. Hinata squeezed her eyes shut and dug her hands into his back as she prepared for the impact of the fall. The wind stopped running through her hair, yet Hinata never felt the fall. She braved a peek and saw that they were safely perched on the ground. Amazing...she hadn't felt a thing...

"Hinata?"

Blushing, she let go of his back and allowed herself to be lowered to the ground. Sasuke half-smiled at her, then opened the door of passenger side for her. Hinata nervously slid into the car, fearing for her life.

As soon as Sasuke turned on the ignition, the car zoomed out of her driveway. Hinata winced as the wind whipped into her hair. "D-Do you always have to drive this f-fast?"

He looked at her from the side with a smirk. "It makes us feel more like outselves."

She didn't question him further...until she looked out the window and noticed that her surroundings were foreign and unfamiliar. Then it clicked inside her head...

Today was Saturday...

Noting her puzzled expression, he grinned. It's about time!

"W-Where are we going?"

His grin was 100 percent mischevious, and equally enticing. "We're going to meet a friend on mine. I think you'll...take a liking to him."

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School is coming up, so I'll be getting very busy. Especially since I take Ap classes, I'll have a lot on my plate. But fear not, I will try my absolute best to update weekly. Sayonara, minna-san, until next time :)