Lying in bed that night Hinata's thoughts were jumbled. She thought about Naruto, Ino, and finally love. Why did everything have to be so darn complicated? Wasn't her life already enough of a mess already? She had to work for every little bit of progress that she made, and then there was her family; they didn't care about her in the least bit. The tears came back, and this time there would have been no stopping them even if she wanted to. Hinata cried herself to sleep.

The next morning Hinata woke to find a messenger bird sitting calmly on her window sill. It was from Kurenai, no group practice today, she had had to leave on an urgent mission. Oh well Hinata thought to herself, Now I'll have some time to volunteer at the medical center

She had been helping out at Konoha's medical facility for quite some time now. The young Hyuga girl had decided that battle just wasn't her calling and decided to try her gentle hand at medicine. So far she had been afraid to ask one of the medical ninja to consider tutoring her, so she just volunteered a little here and there. At the pace she was going she had only to pick up a few minor healing jutsu. Buy slow and steady wins the race, and slow was just fine with Hinata.

Finally reaching her destination the young girl opened up the glass double doors and stepped into the bright light. Walking up to the front desk Hinata received warm smiles all around. The receptionist greeted her with a friendly gleam in her eyes, "Hello Hinata-chan, I've missed you and all the work you do, I'm sure all the staff has. You must've been pretty tied up not to come in for so long," Hinata nodded, "Hm, well are you here to do some volunteer work?" Hinata nodded again. The woman's grew bigger and she reached under the desk. Pulling out a clipboard she handed it to Hinata, giving her the job she was to do. "All you need to do is to take these patients their lunches." Hinata scanned the names, spotting one in particular.

"What is Uchiha Sasuke here for this time?" Hinata asked. Sasuke was constantly in and out of the hospital, this time for extreme chakra exhaustion, apparently one chidori too many.

To Hinata this sort of volunteer work came natural; she had done it so many times. Sasuke was next to last on her list, and it took her some time to get to his room, number 381.

As she approached the room she felt a strong chakra other than the one she felt coming from emitting from Sasuke. On an instinct Hinata activated her byakugan. Through the thin wall she saw Kakashi looking for once like he was about to lose his cool.

"If it is so important to you then why are you willing to kill yourself before that goal is even accomplished?" asked Kakashi in a stern voice. Sasuke answered by giving him a cold hard stare and speaking in a dangerous tone.

"You wouldn't understand, I lived my life in the shadow of my older brother waiting to be noticed by my father, trying to be as strong as Itachi. Then finally my father appeared to notice me, and then my whole world was destroyed be the man that I called brother."

Kakashi looked taken aback that Sasuke had talked about that inner piece of himself to anybody, least of all him. But even is it was unexpected he had to reply in some form or fashion.

"Trust your sensei, revenge is always bittersweet." Poof, then he was gone. Hinata was bewildered and amazed that Sasuke had said all that to Kakashi, he had always seemed closed to everybody. Then she had a thought that caused her to blush, she probably shouldn't have overheard this private conversation.

Hinata entered the room with Sasuke's lunch tray in hand. As she set it down on the table next to his bed the Uchiha gave her a death glare. Does he know that I overheard? Hinata asked herself. Embarrassed she hurried out of the room to deliver the last lunch tray.

Walking home that night the Hyuga kept thinking about what Sasuke had said. A thought kept occurring to her, but though she kept pushing it away it was hard to ignore. He is somewhat similar to me.

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Ho hum, next chapter's up. Short again.

Hope to see everyone next update:

UchihaHyugaGlow