A/N Hello everyone. You must all please forgive me for not updating in a horribly long time. I've never stopped working on this story I just unfortunately don't have a lot of time to stay dedicated to it for long periods of time. I hope everyone enjoys this chapter. I will have another one up very shortly. Also the awesome song in this chapter is Cover Up by Trapt.

60 . . . 61 . . . 62 . . . 63 . . . 64 . . . 65

You must have pulled the trigger
Your eyes give you away
The gun in your hand still smoking
You don't have to take the blame
You have to do what you have to do
You know I'd never judge you
Still time to close those eyes
Forget what happened...forget you lied...

66 . . . 67 . . . Gaara muscles strained from yet another push-up. 68 . . . 69 . . . 70

Put the mask back on,

put the mask back on

don't take it off till everyone is gone

put the mask back on

no disguise has ever lasted so long.

Cover up, cover up

don't let them see the real you

If your secrets can't stay silent

all those rumors just might end up true...

With one quick motion he flipped from his stomach into sit-up position, being careful not to pull out his ear buds. 1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . 4 . . . 5 . . .

You're free to do what you want

you never thought of consequence

you created your own little world

were you could always be different

a place where the rules don't apply

you could never be denied,

you took advantage of a good thing

and now the void you filled is empty...

He could feel the satisfying burn from his protesting muscles –but he wouldn't stop– he had to keep going. Since the move, Gaara hadn't had the chance to keep up with his work-out. The effects were painfully obvious as his labored breathing came quicker then it used to. 20 . . . 21 . . . 22 . . . 23 . . . 24 . . . 25 . . .

Cover up, cover up
Don't question anything you do
You have always kept it quite
But your conscience haunts you every time you choose
Has anyone ever reached out to you
Has anyone ever seen your real face
Does anyone know what you've been doing
As the one we used to know fades away...

knock knock

"Hey? I'm coming in." It was Kankuro.

Gaara sat up and wiped the sweat from his brow. "What," he panted. "is it?"

"I need to talk to you." Kankura's worried expression didn't go unnoticed. "It's about – he stopped when Gaara's phone went off. "Who could be calling you?"

Gaara shrugged and reached for his phone. "Hello?"

". . ."

"Hello?" he repeated. Kankuro raised an eyebrow.

"G-Gaara?"

He recognized the voice immediately. "Hinata, is that you?"

"Gaara . . . I . . . I need you."

He froze, was she in some kind of trouble? "Tell me, where you are."

"I . . . I'm near the park, c-close to the m-movie theater." Gaara could hear the distraught tone in her breaking voice. "I'm s-sorry I didn't know w-who else to call . . . "

"Hinata, listen to me and stay there, I'll be there in a minute." Gaara shut his phone and shoved it in his pocket.

"What is it? Did something happen?"

Gaara nodded as he slipped a shirt over his chest. "I have to go get her."

"Wait brother," Kankuro grabbed his arm. "Keep your guard up. Something's not been right."

Gaara hesitated, wanting to know more, but knew he needed to go to Hinata first. "Tell me everything when I get back."

"Sure..." He watched Gaara leave. "Just be careful."

"Temari, I need your car." His sister was lying on the couch watching television.

She tossed him the keys. "Is something wrong?"

Her question went unanswered as Gaara slipped through the door, slamming it hard behind him.

Disregarding the speed limit, He raced to the park. He didn't like the thought of Hinata being alone at night. What was she even doing there, wasn't she suppose to be at the movies? Gaara pressed the gas harder as the street lamps faded past, he was almost there. . .

As soon as Gaara pulled up to the park, his headlights washed over Hinata's small body. Gaara sighed, she was sitting on a park bench, and aside from being alone, she seemed fine.

He left the car running as he slid out. "Hinata. . . " He approached her slowly to keep from alarming her. "Hinata," he repeated. "Are you alight?"

"Gaara. . . ?" She looked up at him with a tear streaked face.

"What happened? I thought you were supposed to be at the movies?" Cautiously, he sat down beside her.

"Something. . . " Hinata took a deep breath. "C-Came up." Fresh tears spilled from her eyes.

Before he could inquire further, Hinata's phone rang. Gaara waited for her to answer, but she let it go straight to voicemail. Seconds passed when the phone once again filled the air with ringing. "Don't you want to answer it?"

Hinata shook her head. The phone, yet again, stopped ringing and started back up. Gently, Gaara took it from her hands. "It's your cousin."

When Hinata didn't react, he decided to answer, if only just to stop the ringing. "Hello?"

"Gaara . . . Is that you? Why are you answering Hinata's phone?"

"Hinata called, asked me to come get her. Do you know what's going on?"

"Yes, where is she?"

"We're at the park."

Gaara heard Neji curse."I'll be there in a minute, watch over her till I get there."

The red head agreed and hung up. "Neji is on his way."

"I d-don't want to see him."

"Do you want to tell me what happened?"

Gaara waited patiently. If Hinata didn't want to talk to him he would respect that, but seeing her in this state, out alone like this, it angered him greatly.

Hinata took another breath. "It's N-Naruto. He. . . " She choked back a sob.

"Calm down." Gaara whispered softly. "You don't have to talk about it if you're not up to it."

Hinata wiped fresh tears away from her bloodshot eyes and nodded.

Gaara was unsure what to do. He didn't know how to comfort her so the two teens continued to wait in silence until Neji finally arrived.

"Hinata!" Neji ran up to her. "Why were you ignoring my calls, do you have any idea how worried I was!?" He grabbed her shoulders roughly. "You shouldn't have run away like that!

"Easy," Gaara firmly put his hand on Neji's arm until he released his grip on his cousin.

Neji tried to relax. "Anything could have happened to you."

"Did you know t-that Naruto was cheating on me?" Hinata took a step back to avoid future physical contact.

He was silent for a moment, taken aback by her forwardness. "I had my suspicions, yes."

"W-Why didn't you say anything to m-me?" Hinata wiped the remaining tears from her red face. "H-How long have y-you known?"

Neji sighed and closed his eyes. "A while now."

Gaara glanced at Hinata, she bit her bottom lip and wrapped her arms around herself. So she finally found out the truth. "Where is Naruto now?" he asked.

"I left him at the movies. Someone is picking him up to take him to the hospital."

Gaara forced back a smirk from his emotionless face. Hinata didn't need to know how much he enjoyed hearing about Naruto's misfortune.

Neji exhaled, white mist escaped from his mouth into the cold night air. "I had no real proof. Like I said, it was just a suspicion. I know I complain a lot about Naruto, but I knew you were happy with him and I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt for your sake. You know how he gets, most of the time he means well, albeit sometimes he makes very poor choices. "

Hinata didn't speak. She tried hard to regain some composure.

" I knew about Naruto as well." Gaara admitted, hoping to redirect some of her anger. He understood why Neji did what he did, but he was shocked by the sudden tinge of pain he felt as Hinata faced him with even more hurt eyes.

"Y-You knew too?"

She felt betrayed, a feeling Gaara knew all too well. "Yes. That night at the club, Temari recognized Naruto with someone else."

"Sakura. . . " Hinata whispered faintly.

"I would presume. It was decided the best thing to do was to let you find out on your own." Gaara said as to not direct any main blame towards his sister.

"Naruto means a lot to you," Neji chimed in. "You would not have wanted to see the truth if you felt there was no proof to show. You have a kind heart Hinata. You support people even when no one else will. You give people a chance to prove they're not the kind of person that everyone says they are. You would have stuck beside Naruto till the end."

Hinata's face burned with shame. She didn't know what to do, she was so angry with herself for not accepting the signs, for not confronting him sooner. If she had confronted him and he told her the truth, maybe she wouldn't feel so hurt. And Naruto wouldn't have ended up in the hospital. Hinata shuddered as she recalled the sickening crack Naruto's head made when it collided against the theater's wall.

Gaara was about to speak when a new shadow forming against the back trees caught his attention.

"What's wrong?" Neji asked noticing the change of atmosphere.

"Hinata get in the car and lock the doors." Gaara said sternly.

"What?"

Neji's eyes narrowed. "Do as he says Cousin."

She hesitated for a moment before complying.

Gaara waited till Hinata was safely in the car before he spoke up. "Neji, you should go too."

"And miss whatever is about to happen?" Neji smirked. "I believe I'll stay."

"Take Hinata and go home now." Gaara hissed.

Neji crossed his arms. "What's wrong Gaara? Is your past catching up to you?"

Gaara's eyes darkened menacingly. "What do you know about my past?"

"Not much," Neji stated. "But I do know you're hiding from something, or rather someone. I meant it when I said I would figure your story out. I've been putting the pieces together."

Gaara stepped closer to Neji grabbing the collar of his shirt."You have no idea the amount of danger you are about to put yourself in if you don't stay the fuck out of my business."

Neji pulled back from Gaara's grip and calmly fixed his shirt. "I doubt that. However for Hinata's safety I will leave. We'll save this conversation for another time."

Meddling bastard. Gaara thought while he watched Neji drive away.

"Well, well, well. Wasn't that interesting."

Gaara whipped around. He knew that voice all too well. "Still lurking in the shadows I see."

A low laugh drifted out from behind the moon lit trees. "It's very unlike the monster, Gaara, to be associating with others. Especially with such a cute. . . innocent . . . looking girl."

Gaara was careful to keep his anger in check. "What are you doing here. . . Sasuke Uchiha?"

There was another dark chuckle as the figure finally came into view. "Now is that anyway to greet an old friend?"

Gaara spat. "Don't fuck with me Uchiha. Now. . . I asked you a question."

Sasuke grinned. "Did you honestly think you could hide from us? From Orochimaru?"

"Make no mistake, the first chance I get, I will kill him. I don't hide from anyone."

"Settle down. Orochimaru doesn't know where you are." Sasuke's eyes narrowed gleefully. "Yet."

Gaara swiftly pulled a knife from his pocket. "If that's the case I'll just have to kill you to make sure he never finds out."

Sasuke sighed, "Must we really resort to violence? Your whereabouts are safe with me."

Gaara sneered, "Why?"

"I have my own agenda to fill, Orochimaru's desires will have to temporarily take a back seat to mine. But it's getting late. I'll see you around Gaara. It was nice catching up with you." Just as quickly as Sasuke appeared he disappeared before Gaara could react.

"Dammit." Gaara lingered. Unaffected by the frosting ground and icy air he tried to plan his next move. There wasn't much he could do right now. Should he send his siblings away while he finished this? Or there was always the other option. He could leave. . . Orochimaru only wanted him after all.

Gaara's parents flashed in his mind. Would leaving really keep Temari and Kankuro safe? It didn't keep their parents safe. What could he do?

Hinata and Neji sat in silence on the drive home. She tried getting Neji to tell her what was wrong with Gaara, but he refused, only saying that it wasn't anyone's business. Now not only was Hinata upset by Naruto but she was worried for Gaara too.

"Are you feeling alright?" Neji asked as he unlocked their front door.

"I d-don't know," Hinata admitted honestly. "T-This whole week it's j-just been. . . " She couldn't find the words to express how bad she felt. She was numb and far too exhausted for further conversation. The need for sleep weighed heavy on her body.

"You should get some rest," Neji urged. "We can talk tomorrow if you're up to it."

Hinata agreed with a weary nod and quietly retired to her room.