Neji'sTrueLover: In order to keep this short I'll get straight to the point: This fanfic is rated T for a reason. Even though I personally don't swear much, I felt that it was needed to add effect to how they were feeling. Also, I do not own any Naruto characters in this story. Possibly in the future, but not now.
Chapters 10 But her dreams give her wings and she flies to a place where she's loved…
Concrete Angel
Sasuke's P.O.V.
I watch as Hinata runs away from me. When she is out of sight, my senses come back. I look at my discarded bag on the floor, pick it up, and run after her. Since she didn't get the bandages I am sure she needed, I'm going to give her mine. I can always get more later.
Even though she had a head start, I quickly find her. She is running to the place that was at the edge of the forest.
The opposite side of mine, I realize.
When I snap out of my daze, Hinata freezes. Then, someone comes out from the doorway with an expressionless face. She nears Hinata, yet she doesn't move. She is just frozen to her spot with a cross expression of fear and acceptance.
When the woman comes closer to her, Hinata said the one word that makes me rethink everything that I know about families.
"Mother."
My eyes widen as I see that her mother was raising her hand into the air. The next sound that I hear had me almost run straight for that woman and knock her out.
Slap!
How can anyone do that to their own kid?
Slowly, the pieces start coming together. Why she didn't want me to touch her arm. Why she ran away from me. Why blood is all over her clothes. Hinata has been hurt all this time and no one ever noticed.
Why…why hasn't she told anyone about this?
I come out of my shook when I hear the door slam. I quickly run toward the nearest window and look through. I can clearly see Hinata and her mother behind it, yet I am surprised that I can. Empty beer bottles, cigarettes, and tons of glass are littering the floor.
Even though I am outside, I can clearly hear yelling come from inside the house, and I see that Hinata is backed up against the wall and is trapped by her mother. The older woman holds her daughter by the wrist and is spitting in her face. Hinata doesn't do anything, she just stays there. Not yelling back, not struggling to get free, not even a single tear escapes her eyes. The only thing I see is emptiness. The same emptiness that I feel at home.
Hinata gives a quick glance to the window and her eyes widen. I see terror and fear run though her pale orbs, yet she covers it up almost immediately. Though, even with the quick eyes change, her mother sees the difference in her expression, and turns her head to look at me. I duck under the window before she can see me.
Even though I can't see what she is doing, I have the sick feeling that she might open the window and find me. But before I can go any further into my self-worry, I hear glass brake.
Momentarily forgetting why I hid in the first place, I look back though the window to see Hinata lying on the floor, bleeding badly. Her mother then leaves through the door.
From where I stand, I can hear a car start up and drive away.
Swiftly, I open the door and run to Hinata's side. She's barely conscious when I reach her, but she tries to talk anyway.
"Sasuke, w…what are you doing here?"
After a minute's pause, she continues with,
"You are s…so de…" She didn't get to finish her sentence as she fainted in my arms.
Even though this is probably the worst time to think about it, I can't help but notice how she fits perfectly into my arms.
And she is so cute too!
I mentally slap myself as I pick her up. Seeing no possible room that could be her's, I run up the stairs and soon find an open door. I peek in and let out a sigh when I see a semi-clean room with barely anything in it.
Just like mine.
I place Hinata on the bed and go into what I hope is the bathroom to find some supplies to help her with. I open the cabinet and smack myself right in the middle of my forehead.
That's why she was at the store earlier, she needed to get medicine! I yell at myself.
In my head, a light bulb goes off and I run back downstairs. Easily finding the window I was spying from before, I reach out, grab the bag I dropped, close the window, and run back upstairs.
I run up to Hinata's side as I take out the medical supplies that she needs.
Finally, a thought hits me as hard as a ton of bricks. Her outfit is drenched in blood, and there is no way I can bandage her up without taking off her clothes. I audibly gulp as I reach for her shirt, but before I can get any closer, Hinata's hand shoots out and grabs mine. I yelp in surprise and fall back.
I look up to see Hinata's scowling face, but looking into her eyes, I clearly see laughter running through them. Finally, she can't hold it in anymore, and she bursts out into a huge laughing fit.
My right eye twitches as I pick myself up, and sit on the bed again. When her laughter ceases, she wipes the tears from her eyes and gives me a stern look again.
"What were you going to do?" she asks in a suspicious tone. I feel heat rise to my cheeks as I look away.
"N-nothing."
Great, now I'm starting to stutter.
Hinata raised a brow at me. "You were reaching for my shirt; you had to be doing something."
I feel an even warmer feeling rise up in my cheeks, as I continue to look anywhere but her eyes. Hinata finally looks down and realizes what I was going to do.
"Pervert!" she yells and tries to slap me with as much force as she can muster. Which isn't a lot.
Hinata jumps out of bed, but trips over a bit and I run to her side to catch her.
"I'm fine," she says as she pushes me away and runs to the bathroom.
"Damn!" I hear her yell.
Man, this girl can talk, I think as she runs out of the bathroom and starts looking everywhere for something. Curiosity gets the best of me as I ask what she is doing.
"Does it matter to the great Uchiha?" she replies with sarcasm in her voice.
I try not to laugh, but fail from keeping the smile off my face as she continues her run throughout her room.
At last, she reaches for her oversized jacket and tries to exit through the door. Instinct takes over as I reach out to stop her from leaving. Hinata tries to push me away, but soon collapses in my arms and I carry her back to the bed. She is breathing heavily and I see that her fresh wounds are re-opening; therefore sending out a new stream of blood: drenching her already blood-soaked attire.
"What are you doing here?" she asks weakly. I take out the bandages from the bag and lift up her arm.
"Well, right now I'm here to help with those injuries you have. I'll ask the rest later," I say, and she quickly grabs her arm back from me again.
"I can take care of myself, thanks," she mumbles and takes the wraps from me.
I raise a brow at her as she gets off the bed, grabs some random clothes, and locks herself into the bathroom. A few minutes later, she comes out again, wearing a tank top and shorts.
Now she's dressed for the weather.' I think, smirking.
But my smirk fades quickly as I take a closer look at her arms and legs. Countless scars ran up and down all over her exposed skin, and some were mildly fresh. No more than a couple of hours ago could she have gotten them.
"Ahem." Hinata coughs as I look up. She is wearing a small blush as she tucks a loose piece of her hair behind her ear and walks closer to me. She sits down and pats the spot next to her, and I quickly oblige to her silent command. Hinata hands me the bandages and asks in a small voice,
"C-can you p-put t-these on m-me? I-I can't d-do it my-myself right n-now."
I blink at the way she talked. I've never heard her stutter before, and it's kinda cute.
Hold on a second! Where did that come from?!
This girl is strange. One minute she's yelling out swears at the top of her lungs and the next, she stuttering in such a small voice that almost no one can hear.
When I look back, Hinata is staring at me and I feel myself blush. Quickly, I sit down next to her and remove the bandages from her hands. Hinata slowly lifts up her arm and places it in front of me. Oddly enough, this is way more awkward then when I was trying to take off her shirt.
I blush a darker shade of red and lower my face so that she can't see it. I take the bandages and carefully begin to wrap her arm. Then, I stop.
"Did you clean these up first?" I ask. She gives me a small smile and nods her head.
Hinata sure is brave to not have screamed while putting on that medicine. It hurts like Hell. Either that, or she must have trained herself to scream inside her head.
I resume my wrapping and soon finish with her arm. She then turns to give me the other. An awkward silence soon fills the room, so I make an attempt to break it.
"So…if you were going to let me wrap you up, why did you go into the bathroom?"
Damnit! What a stupid question to ask! She went to change you idiot.
But instead of saying the obvious out, Hinata gives a small, knowing smile and says,
"Besides the obvious, I had my own bandaging to do."
I give her a funny look and she takes the hint. Gently taking her half wrapped arm, she lifts up her shirt.
She doesn't even lift it up halfway and I need to turn around to stop myself from having a nose bleed.
Damn hormones!
"It's okay Sasuke," I hear Hinata say softly; "I'm not that type of girl."
I turn myself back around and all I can see is her stomach. Bandages, wrapped tightly around her small frame, is complete proof that she has been hurt in other places then just her arms and legs. A surge of anger runs through me as I reach out and touch them. A small flinch from Hinata brings me back from my state of shock, and I pull away.
"Sasuke, please don't tell anyone what you saw, alright?" she asks quietly as she pulls down her shirt.
"…"
My mind is a total blank, to say the least, as Hinata waves her hand in front of me.
"Sasuke, are you alright? Gasp Y-you aren't t-thinking of a way t-to tell someone are you?!" Hinata sounds frantic, so I break from my trance to try and calm her down.
"Hinata, calm down. Even though I don't know why, I won't tell anyone about this, kay?"I say as I start shaking her lightly.
"T-thank y-you Sasuke."
I can't help but smile when she used her cute stuttering voice. But, then a thought hit me.
"Hinata, why don't you want to tell anyone?"
She looks down while she said,
"I-if anyone f-found o-out about this, they would t-take away M-mother. N-not that I w-want her to stay, but t-they will take m-me away a-and p-put me into a f-foster home."
"What's so bad about that?"
"T-the only p-person t-that has e-ever b-been nice to me, b-besides y-you of course, is m-my cousin, N-Neji. I-if I get t-taken away, h-he will know t-that I n-never told h-him the t-truth; a-and that w-would h-hurt him. I-I don't w-want t-to make him s-sad a-after e-everything h-he has done for me." Hinata finished off with a small tear going down her cheek. I timidly lifted up my hand to her face, and when she doesn't flinch, I wipe away the stray tear.
"Hinata, look at me," I command gently.
She brings up her gaze to meet mine, and when she looks at me with her large, pupil-less eyes, I feel that damn blush stain my cheeks again.
No time to back down now!
"Hinata." I take a deep breath to try and rid my blush, "I promise I won't tell anyone. But you have to promise me that if anything goes too far, you'll come tell me. Or at least someone, okay?"
She gives me a small smile and nods. A smile appears on my face as I pick up her arm once again to bandage it.
A comfortable silence fills us as I finish bandaging her up. When I'm done, Hinata leans over and gives me a small hug. First, I am extremely stiff, since no one has ever given me a hug since I was little. Hell, no one has ever really touched me since then, but soon I unfreeze enough to return the gesture. She laughs as I pull her closer and looks up to give me a smile full of emotion. I find myself leaning in towards her while she leans up a little and close her eyes. My eyes were slowly dropping as I ready for the moment, but before our lips could touch, Hinata's eyes snap open and she jumps away from me.
I can tell that a hurt expression is on my face when she jumps off, but before I can even say anything, she runs to the window. The look of complete fear is her expression as she turns and runs toward me again.
"Sasuke, you have to leave!" she whispers urgently as she tugs at my hand.
"Why?" I ask with some annoyance in my voice.
"Mother has come back early today," she once again said in a hushed tone. Any trace of annoyance, anger, or hurt that was inside of me is quickly replaced with horror as I hear a car door slam.
"If Mother finds you here, she will really hurt you, Sasuke. Please, leave through the window now!"
Her tone becomes more urgent, so I jump off the bed and run to her window. Then, a thought comes to me.
"What about…" I try to ask, but Hinata cuts me off.
"No time," she said, but once she sees my fear filled expression, she continues with,
"Don't worry. I'll see you tomorrow."
Hinata comes over, gives me a quick hug, and then I jump out the window. I run home with as much speed as I can muster. All the while thinking, worrying, about Hinata.
A/N: Well this is the end to another chapter. I feel like things are going so fast…and if I feel it, others do as well. I'm so sorry!! I normally hate stories where the main characters fall in love in, like, the first few chapters, but if they don't get feelings for each other soon, then this story will never move forward. (I feel so disappointed that this is the best I can do –cries in a dark little corner-) Anyway, I want to make my readers feel special, so if there is any type of shout out you would like me to do for you, send me a review telling me what you want! So until next time Ja ne!