Chapter 6

In all fairness, Hinata loved her father but she also loved when he wasn't home. When he wasn't home there didn't have to be any of those painful meetings after school where he was always watching her for mistakes. That was one of the reasons she was happy that evening, her father was out on business. The others were that her projects were almost done and she was certain she passed her test that morning with flying colours. She was happy and walking out to the parking lot to meet Neji until it happened. Ino stepped around the corner. It was like déjà vu. Hinata froze as Ino approached with a predatory smile across her face.

"Oh look! It's a hobbit!" she exclaimed raising a hand to her mouth. "Oh my bad it's only Hinata, the little nerd at the back of the class. If you want to be a hobbit so bad you should just grow some more hair or you can borrow some from the hair factory."

Hinata could feel the irritation of Ino's purposeful attacks seeping in quickly. She knew Ino went out of her way to do this. Ino could be on the feel taking in the sights of the football team practicing or standing by the locker rooms to great her boyfriend when he came out. She didn't have to be anywhere near Hinata. Ino, however, thrived on destroying other people's self-esteem with well-placed psychological jabs hidden behind petty school bullying. Personally, she had nothing against Hinata but when you saw a chance you seize it. You didn't stay the top girl in the school by being nice. You stayed there by being vicious. Being pretty was just another thing to be manipulated but Ino also prided herself in it.

"But then, even hobbits wouldn't want you." Ino prodded stopping before Hinata then proceeding to examine her as she walked slowly around the girl. "I mean," she leaned into Hinata's ear, "Naruto didn't."

Hinata went rigid. Why? Why couldn't Ino just leave her alone? 'Why can't she leave Naruto out of this?'

"To be truthful, I doubt anyone wants you." Ino continued moving to stand before Hinata again. "I bet Neji only cares because your dad says so."

Hinata knew it wasn't true. It might have been before but that was years ago.

"You're just so socially stunted its funny." Ino laughed gently tipping Hinata's folder out of her arms. It fell to the ground with a dull slap and Hinata looked down at it. She could always pick it up but she wouldn't give Ino the satisfaction of watching her do it or even the leverage it would give her to grab her hair or anything else. Bending was the equivalent of turning your back or running away. Instead she raised her head and stared over Ino's shoulder. Showing her true anger would only satisfy Ino as well.

"You're such a sad case. It's like charity for those two 'friends' of yours. You are the rich one but you're receiving the charity of friendship from those two. Temari could be the princess of her entire grade with Ten-ten as her second."

'When will she leave?' Hinata mentally screamed. Temari didn't want to be anything like Ino and neither did Ten-ten.

"But they're stuck trying to be friends with you." Ino said pushing Hinata in the shoulder. Hinata glared at her in return. "Such a waste."

Hinata continued to glare as Ino spun on her heels and she just barely avoided the fan of glossy blond hair out to slap her in the face. Damn that hair! Ino then proceeded to model her way down the hall.

XX

"No ideas about tomorrow yet?" Sasuke asked Neji as the team walked through the school to the parking lot.

"No. If I don't find something by tomorrow morning be ready to go with either Naruto's or Chouji's idea." Neji answered. It was Friday and every two Saturdays the team went out together. This Saturday was Neji's turn to pick the place.

"Neither of those ideas is good. We'll either be stuck eating ramen and paying for Naruto's extras or eating barbecue and paying for Chouji's extras." Sasuke commented with a frown. Neji shrugged.

"I was studying so I forgot to think of somewhere." he said watching as a paper plane flew over his head to hit the back of Gaara's head. The red head spun around with a glare just as Naruto zipped past them to throw an arm around him happily distracting from vengeance. "I'll text you the place if I find one"

"Sure." Sasuke sighed. If Neji didn't find a place Sasuke could imagine the horror of tomorrow.

They were walking past one of the halls when something caught Sasuke's eyes. He looked over to see Ino shove Hinata and walk away.

'Again?' he thought and inwardly sighed. Even from behind, Hinata seemed livid. Luckily, he was the only one that even noticed anyone even being there. There group continued on their way merrily unaware.

Upon reaching the parking lot, Sasuke stuck around just long enough to say goodbye to Naruto, avoid the bubbly Ino that clung to Naruto, pass Neji and Ten-ten and see Hinata step out of the school building. Practise had stared later than usual so had ended later than usual and he had things to do. Seeing that Hinata seemed alright he left. If Ino sought to make this a constant thing he'd be angry. Did the girl not have anything to do with her free time? It spoke volumes of why her grades barely made it pass the 50 line.

When he got home, he was just about to head up stairs for a much needed bath when the Hyuga chauffeur driven car pulled up in the driveway. He was surprised she got there so quickly. Usually he had almost another hour. He was the one to open the door to let her in and unlike what he had thought earlier she was positively mad.

It had been already twenty minutes into their work and Hinata hadn't said anything yet. She just kept glaring at her work. Usually she at least tried to get him to say a word or two. Finally, Sasuke couldn't take it anymore. It wasn't like her.

"You." he said pulling her up with him and shocking her out of her thoughts. "You're coming with me."

"What? Where?" she asked confused as he pulled her along behind him out the door and down the stairs. "Why?"

"Your mopping is annoying the hell out of me. We're going out." he answered and brought her into the garage. He had grabbed her jacket while passing through the hall and now passed it to her. It didn't occur to him to let go of her hand until he stopped them both at their destination just along the wall of the door.

"Aren't we going to your car?" Hinata asked as she looked around at the large garage and put on her jacket. It was almost as big as the one at her home but that one was made to hold the chauffeur driven cars as well as family cars. The Uchiha's didn't use chauffeurs. Sasuke's car was two cars down and Itachi's huge, shiny black Hummer was just beside it. It was a beauty, even if she wasn't too much of a Hummer fan.

"No, we are going on this." Sasuke answered and Hinata turned to look at him. Her jaw dropped when she saw the blue Kawasaki Ninja. Sasuke thrust a helmet into her hands quickly before looking at her expectantly. "I'll give you the black one if it makes you feel any better."

"I-I can't go on that." she finally spoke. Sasuke rolled his eyes before stepping forward and putting the helmet on her head for her.

"Nothing is going to happen." he assured her as he worked at the helmet. He looked her in the eyes when he was finished. "You'll be fine."

Hinata didn't say anything; she was paralysed in fear, even as Sasuke led her over to the bike and got on. He held a hand to her to help her get on.

"Hinata get on. I'm holding the bike. It's not going to topple over." he prompted. She gave it one more doubtful look before taking his hand and climbing on behind him. She sat still while he put his own helmet on. She jerked and grabbed onto his shoulders the minute he shifted the bike and started it. Sasuke rolled his eyes slightly at the little squeak that left her. He took her hands pulling her closer to him and wrapping her arms around his waist.

"You need to hold on properly." he told her, throwing her a smirk over his shoulder. Her face instantly coloured red. He inwardly chuckled; it was like a cherry, or a tomato. He opened the garage door with the remote control on his keys. "Ready?"

"Y-y-yea." she mumbled and Sasuke almost sighed as he they moved forward at a safe speed. This trip was going to be a relatively slow one while got her used to the feel of being on a bike.

'Imagine if I wasn't wearing a helmet.' he thought dejectedly.

XXXXX

Hinata looked around at the oddly deserted diner. It was a Friday and there was barely anyone in the place that wasn't staff. She would admit that it was her first time being on this side of Konoha and frankly her impression of it was one of almost complete emptiness. It was to be expected though as it was on the outskirts of Konoha and not near one of the more popular roads either. The only reason she wasn't completely freaked by the desolateness of the area was because Sasuke was there pulling her along and ignoring everything around him as if it was natural. Why Sasuke even knew a place like this was a question in its own.

She allowed herself to be lead to a seat by Sasuke. She realised that he did that a lot, pulled her along. He seemed to do it whenever he wanted her somewhere. It was as if he did it to ensure she moved with him. To her it seemed that he just wasn't patient enough to let her follow at her own pace or he just like pulling her. But she knew that the last one was definitely not it because that would imply that he liked to touch her and in her head Sasuke Uchiha would not like to touch a recluse such as herself. It was one of those unspoken rules. Cool guys did not like uncool girls. It was almost a high school taboo, something that could only be achieved in movies or books and even then the 'uncool' girl turns out to be some princess or cool girl pretending to be uncool. In other words it was a fairy tale as far as Hinata was concerned. Just like her relationship with Naruto. It was great while it lasted. It was a sad reality.

Noticing that Hinata wasn't with him, Sasuke ordered for both of them. While he did this, he ignored any attempt at flirting by the young waitress that was probably working to help pay her college fees. When the waitress was gone he watched Hinata stare out the window at nothing before shaking her back to the present.

"I'm sorry." she apologised for her small lapse in attention to ponder the wonders of high school romance.

"Want to tell me what Ino said that you just won't get over?" he asked looking directly at her. He looked away after seeing her shocked expression. "I saw both of you."

"It was mostly about me not being wanted." Hinata told him. The thought of what Ino said earlier brought back the anger she had felt with it. "That people like Neji, my friends and Naruto not wanting me. What is her problem? I mean, she has Naruto already what the hell does she want from me?"

"That is Ino's way of prospering." Sasuke told her not at all surprised at Ino's antics. "Frankly, I don't think their relationship will last."

"Why?" Hinata asked just as the waitress returned with their orders.

"It's doomed to fail." he answered ignoring the waitress's efforts before she left again.

"What do you mean?" Hinata asked, intrigued by the dark prediction of his best friend's relationship.

Sasuke was silent for a moment of thought as he picked around his sandwich, contemplating weather to tell her. "Naruto is... messed up. More like confused really."

Hinata rose a brow in confusion as she picked up her own sandwich but waited for him to continue.

"Naruto believes that he is in love with Sakura. He has for a very long time." Sasuke stated and now Hinata lowered her sandwich. "It happened a long time ago and the story behind it not important right now. The important part is that after some time he decided to stop trying."

"That doesn't explain why he's confused."

"Anyway, after he stopped trying he started dating out girls. The problem is he confuses like with love. For instance something happens, you do something he likes or thinks is appealing and suddenly he's in 'love'." Sasuke explained before taking a huge chunk out of his sandwich. "He easily relates attraction to love or some extreme like. Whoever it is the centre of his attention until it happens again with someone else. That's what happened with you. He probably got hooked by Ino's looks. That's why it's doomed to end, he doesn't really like her and they are not a compatible couple."

Hinata was silent as she took in Sasuke's explanation. It wasn't what she had expected but it would explain a few things like why he was suddenly interested in her and why he could just be with Ino so easily after breaking up with her. It broke her heart all over again.

"He never liked me to begin with." she mumbled

"He likes you, he just didn't LIKE you." Sasuke told her in an attempt to relieve some of the depression seeping in. If she started crying, like girls seemed to like doing, he didn't know what he would do. "He felt really bad after breaking up with you because you looked very pale and scary afterwards and he half expected you to attack him."

"I wouldn't do that." Hinata said with a frown. Did he really thing that? Sasuke shrugged.

"He claimed you looked scary." Sasuke told her and she merely shrugged as well and bit into her own sandwich. He was relieved she hadn't broken down and instead turned quiet. He quickly finished his sandwich and chose to watch outside rather than watch Hinata chew slowly.

"What about you and Sakura?" the girl asked suddenly. He raised a brow at her in surprise. "You were dating right? Why did you break up and she seems so... into you?"

"A series of things." Sasuke looked at her for a moment before turning his attention back out the window. Hinata had just come to the conclusion that it wasn't something he wanted to talk more about when he spoke. "She changed. She wasn't like she is now when we started dating. She was smart had her goal, a good head on her shoulders considerate and some other stuff that I liked about her. She was a little annoying sometimes but it was ok."

Hinata remained silent. This was probably the first time Sasuke told anyone this kind of stuff. She was probably witnessing history! It was at this point that Sasuke turned his gaze back onto her.

"In the second term she started getting a little snappy but it was over the Easter break that everything changed." he told her and Hinata bit into her sandwich intrigued. It was almost like a horror story being told to her. "She went on vacation with Ino for about a week and when she came back her clothes had shrunk and she was suddenly some princess. Her whole style had changed. Her attitude just kept getting bitchier every day. That was about the time she started using my name to get out of buying things like charging entire shopping sprees to the Uchiha account. It wasn't such a big deal at first but then she tried to purchase a car, in my name, for her boyfriend from some school on the other side of the country."

"She was cheating on you?" Hinata asked surprised even as she bit into her sandwich wide eyed. "Two-timing?"

"Yes and no." Sasuke answered turned a dark glare onto his empty plate while his voice remained a deceitful calm. "She also had a college boyfriend that was banging her in the weekends."

Now Hinata nearly choked. "She was sexually active?"

"That's what banging implies." he answered in that same calm tone. Hinata stared at him wide eyed. This entire thing was bad.

"Do you have any proof?"

"Practise ended early one Friday, caught them both in his car in the school drive-way." he said in such a detached tone, as if it hadn't been him but Hinata could feel the loathing underneath. "She knows the reasons why I dumped her. Now you understand when I say she's delusional when you say she loves me."

It made sense as to why Sasuke seemed to hate being around Sakura now if the other day in Biology class was anything to go by. "How long were you dating?"

He shrugged. "A year in November."

"That's almost eleven months." Hinata commented in awe. Her relationship with Naruto hadn't lasted for half of that.

"Its minutes to 8. I should take you back now before they come to pick you up." Sasuke said after checking his watch. He called the waitress and quickly paid the bill before walking out with Hinata following behind him. If anything, Hinata had learned something about Sasuke... and Sakura and Naruto. That was the longest conversation she had ever had with him and he did most of the talking.

Hinata got onto the bike without much prompting and soon they were on the main road heading back to Sasuke's house. If Hinata was honest, the trip wasn't so bad. She didn't know whether it was because they weren't really going fast or that she had something, rather someone to hold onto. All was good until she spotted something that would likely bring her doom. Just on the other side of the intersection about to turn into the same direction at the stop light was a black Chrysler she immediately recognised as one of her family's cars. She pointed it out to Sasuke just as the car joined the lane ahead of them on the clear.

"We'll take the shortcut." he said slipping into the turn off lane.

"Shortcut?" was all Hinata could ask before they sped around and onto the other lane. They were soon speeding down the street and Hinata could only cling to Sasuke for dear life. She couldn't really tell where they were going since her eyes were closed and she had a feeling even if they were open it probably would have been somewhere she hadn't been before. When she finally got up the nerve to open her eyes they were flying. Her squeal was dulled by the rush of the wind but she could feel Sasuke pressed closer to her by her own grip. Her heart almost flew out of her mouth when they touched ground. They wove quickly through backstreets then finally into the driveway and into the garage. They were off the bike and pulling off their helmets as soon as it was parked. They could hear the car pull up in the driveway. Sasuke hurriedly combed his hands through her hair to get it to a neater state and they both ran into the house. They had just entered hall when Itachi came down the stairs with Hinata's.

"Her jacket." he pointed out as he pushed them into the living room just as the doorbell rang. He was off to answer it immediately. Sasuke quickly zipped and adjusted Hinata's jacket before throwing his own off and into a corner. Who wears jackets in their own home?

"You're fine now." Sasuke stated and Hinata nodded. She walked out of the living room into the hall hoping the driver really wouldn't realise anything but she froze completely when she saw the man standing by the door.

"Father?" was all she could manage to say and indeed her father was standing there.

"Hinata, you don't mind staying a bit longer. I have things to discuss with their father." he stated. Hinata nodded getting over her initial shock. She watched as Itachi lead her father down the hall to Fugaku's office.

"We should probably do some work." Sasuke suggested from his place beside her. He wore a blank look but inwardly he was wondering if Hinata looked like her mother because she didn't resemble her father much. He decided not to ask though since she seemed to be in shock from seeing the very person she didn't want to know of her disappearing right before her. Besides, he knew through Neji that her mother had died some time ago. Nobody liked bringing up dead mothers. It was like the sore topic of the century.

They retreated to the living room and went over their work there for the next half hour until Itachi called for Hinata.

"Um, Sasuke." Hinata said pulling his attention from packing up his books from the centre table. "Thanks for earlier. It really helped me feel better even though we ended up talking about our exes. I'm glad you told me about Naruto and even opened up enough to tell me about Sakura and-"

She was cut off by Sasuke kissing her lightly on the cheek before pulling back. He took in her wide eyed red face for a second before speaking.

"Goodnight Hinata. I'll see you on Sunday." he said picking up his books and leaving the room. Hinata stared at the wall where Sasuke's head had just been her eyes getting steadily wider by the second as her capability to think finally came back to her.

'Holy crap! Was that just a goodnight kiss?'