Chapter 5

Hinata stared up at the leader of the Akatsuki and his partner with wide lavender eyes. He chuckled, noticing her surprised and leaned forward, tilting her head up with his index finger. She felt her cheeks beginning to heat up and tried to take a step back. To her avail, her left foot moved back and then her right foot as she stepped about five steps back. He chuckled once more and outstretched his hand to Hinata, his steely gray black-ringed eyes holding secrets she wondered about. She caught herself before she was hypnotized by his mesmerizing eyes and took his hand shaking it.

"So… You're the wonderful Hyuuga that everyone has informed me about. It's a pleasure to meet you, Hinata-chan.," He charmingly replied, kissing her hand.

Hinata pushed down the urge to blush once more and smiled, nodding her head. "The p-pleasure is mine," Hinata murmured before taking the blue-haired girls hand and shaking it.

Tobi ran up to Hinata and hugged her happily, shouted something along the lines of, "I missed you so much, Hinata-chaaan! Tobi doesn't have much friends but Tobi does have Hinata-chaaan!"

Hinata giggled as Tobi's stupidy and patted his head, already sort of used to the hugging. Deidara growled and tried to pry Tobi off of Hinata while Tobi whined and clung to his… Urm… Hinyanya.

Pein rolled his eyes and clapped his hands together. "Let's sit down so the people can stop staring at us," Pein replied, pointing to the other customers staring.

They all agreed and sat themselves at about three tables that were the closest to each other. There were only four seats at each table and you all must know that the Akatsuki is a pretty big group. Pein, Konan, Zetsu, Sasori sat at the first table, Kisame, Hidan, Kakuzu, and Tobi sat at the second, and Hinata, Deidara, and Itachi sat at the last. Overall, Pein was able to get all of their attention with his deep charming voice.

"So it is true that we all would like little Hinata-chan to join the Akatsuki… right," Pein question with a raised eye brow.

"Haai!" –Tobi

"Hell Yeah!" –Hidan

"Omnomnom!" –Zetsu & Kisame

"Whatever." –Itachi

"Yeah, un!" –Deidara (Obviously. :P)

"As long as I can keep my money and my spider, Derek." –Kakuzu

"Sure." –Sasori

Hinata smiled happily, liking the feeling of being wanted and looked over to Pein curiously. He whispered to Konan for a few moments as the Akatsuki fell silent and strained to listen. Pein ended his whisper conversation with Konan and cleared his throat, smiling.

"Then Hinata I allowed to stay—"

"Yaaaay! HINYANYAGETSTO STAYWITHTOB AND —"

"—But," Pein continued since he was so rudely interrupted. The Akatsuki fell silent once more and stared up at Pein with questionable eyes.

"I must spend at least one day with Hinata-chan before she gets to join. To learn more about her and such; something like, a date."

Deidara, Hidan, and Sasori were about to protest but Pein silenced them with a steely glare.

"If any of you have any complaints then we will just drop the possibility of having her as a new member. Do I make myself clear?"

All members nodded except Itachi… He was staring off into space, bored. Hinata could feel the butterflies in her stomach increase with nervous-ness and took a deep breath. Pein smiled and stood with Konan, making his way to the door.

"You all enjoy the rest of your day. Konan and I have some business to attend to so… please do excuse our absence."

And with that, the polite Pein and quiet Konan made their way out the door and into the parking lot. Deidara was the first to speak.

"Why the hell does Pein get a date with Hinata? One of us would do a much better job at entertaining Hinata, un!"

"Heh, I bet I could do a better job at entertaining Hinata… with my tongue~"

Deidara glared at Hidan while Hidan simply smirked. Hinata blushed furiously and sighed, standing up. Everyone looked up to her curiously as she walked towards the door.

"Sorry you guys.. But I h-have to go home. My f-father wanted to tell me something important so… I-I have to go.."

"Awww… Please stay, Hina-hime, un."

"I really wish I-I could but.. I can't."

"Well at least give us your number," Hidan replied, taking out his cell.

"My father d-doesn't think I need a c-cell phone."

They all stared at her shocked except Itachi, who stood up and walked over to Hinata with a small smile.

"I'll take you home. I need to talk with Hiashi anyways…"

"Really, Onii-sama…? T-Thank you ^^"

Deidara was about to protest but Itachi silenced him with a cold glare. Deidara mumbled something and turned to Sasori, annoyed while Itachi smirked and walked out the door with petite Hinata beside him. Itachi lead the small girl to his car which was a pitch black Altima with a shiny smooth surface. Itachi opened the passenger's side of the car wide for little Hinata, allowing her to step inside. She sat down and looked up to Itachi who closed the door, walked around to the driver's side and stepped inside. She relaxed in the passenger's seat as Itachi started his car and quickly pulled out of the parking lot.

"Y-You remember where I live, r-right, Onii-sama?"

Itachi nodded, keeping his eyes on the road, making swift turns. Hinata stared out of the window and began to doze off. Itachi noticed this and smiled to himself as he continued to get closer and closer to Hinata's house. Once he arrived at the Hyuuga Household, he gently shook little Hinata awake.

"H-Huh? O-Oops, sorry Onii-sama ^^; M-Must've fallen asleep."

"Its fine, Hinata, Just wanted to tell you that we're here."

Hinata sat up and stared up to her house with tired eyes. She sighed sadly, wishing that the ride could've lasted longer and stepped out of the car with her book bag around her shoulder. Itachi stepped out aswell and walked with tiny Hinata up to the front door. In the process they traveled through the wonderful rose garden holding wonderful colored flowers. Hinata timidly opened the front door and walked inside after slipping off her shoes. Itachi did the same aswell and followed Hinata to the livingroom. Since the Uchiha's were mainly the same as the Hyuuga's, taking off the shoes and being courteous was already a custom to him. Hinata saw her father, Hiashi, sitting on the tannish couch reading his paper.

"U-Uhm… I-I'm home, Otou-sama.."

Hiashi looked up from his paper, slipping off his reading glasses and rubbing his eyes tiredly. Age could be seen in the older Hyuuga's eyes as he darted from his young daughter to the heir of the Uchiha's throne, Itachi.

"Hmm..? Itachi Uchiha… Haven't seen you in awhile. What brings you here with my daughter?" Hiashi questioned, sending Hinata a glance that told her to sit down.

"Just a request that I have for you, Hyuuga-sama," Itachi spoke, his voice respectful. While the two spoke, Hinata sat across from her father and kept to herself, appearing to be in deep thought.

"Hmm? So you wish for my daughter to stay with the Uchiha's for a bit?" Hiashi questioned, already disliking the idea of Hinata sharing the same roof with that despicable brat, Sasuke. Hiashi had a soft spot for the trustable Itachi but Sasuke just annoyed him to the very end.

"Yes. I know it sounds very unreasonable to be asking out-of-the-blue for your daughter to stay with us but… She's been falling behind in her studies and I'd rather have her as close as possible to be able to tutor her."

Hinata's eyes widened as she looked up to Itachi with disbelief. It was one thing to ask for her to stay with the Uchiha's but now he accused her of falling behind? Hinata was at the very top and this little accusation would make her father disapprove of her even more. Hiashi turned to Hinata with an angry look but turned back to Itachi when he began to speak once more.

"But it isn't her fault… You see, Hinata has been helping me with a bit of my groups work and she has probably been distracted with all the work I have been putting her up for. That is why I have taken it up to my responsibility to bring Hinata back up. Don't get me wrong, your daughter has been doing an excellent job in school and I just happened to bother her with my work. I do apologize for the slipping grades of Hinata but if she stays with me in the Uchiha household, I'll be sure to give her as much time as I can to get her caught up. I will take her to school every day and be sure that she is getting the nourishment that she originally gets here."

With that, Itachi ended his long speech and gave both Hinata and Hiashi relief. For Hiashi, he didn't have to worry about having a rebellious daughter. As for Hinata, she didn't have to worry about a lecture she would've gotten if Itachi didn't make an excuse. Hiashi rubbed his temples and looked over to Hinata, then Itachi.

"Hmmm… If you promise to keep my daughter away from that cocky little brother of yours, then I do not mind if Hinata stays with you for a couple weeks…"

Itachi had a satisfied smile on his face and bowed respectfully to Hiashi. "Thank you, Hyuuga-sama… I'll be sure to pick Hinata up tomorrow morning. (Note: Tomorrow is a Saturday for them ^^) Please be sure to have everything packed up, Hinata-sama," Itachi spoke, looking over to Hinata.

Hinata nodded, a bit shocked that her father would allow her to stay at the Uchiha's. Sure, she didn't mind the Uchiha's but she did mind one certain Uchiha. She supposed that being able to catch up with Itachi would make up for having to be in the presence of the arrogant Sasuke Uchiha.

"Well, it is getting late and I should probably go home. I have a lot of work to do so I will surely see you in the morning, Hinata-sama."

Hinata smiled sweetly to Itachi and watched him bid his farewells to Hiashi and leave. Once Hiashi heard Itachi's car leave from the Hyuuga's property, he turned his attention to Hinata.

"I didn't request for you to talk to me to lecture you, Hinata. I simply wanted to tell you that your elder cousin, Neji, will be living with us. He was actually gonna be moving in tomorrow but I suppose you won't be able to see him since you are leaving for the Uchiha's tomorrow morning…"

Hinata's heart practically fell when she heard that Neji, the cousin that hated her guts, would be living in the same house as her. She didn't hate her cousin or anything but… Who would really want to live with someone who hates them? There's always an up and down to life since life itself is a rollercoaster. Her up was that she'd be spending time with Itachi starting tomorrow and her down was that she'd come home to a person who absolutely hates her. But little Hinata is in for a surprising surprise~

Dear readers,

I know, I know… I haven't updated this story in the longest time but… I've made a decision. I'm going to complete this story whether I get bored of writing (Hopefully not) or not. I will update for all the people who like this story ^^ Though, I do not understand why I have fans for this story :P (I has horrible self-esteem ^^;)

Anyways… I put up a forum that is asking all of you which pairing you prefer :3

Hinata and Gaara or Naruto and Hinata?

Check under my forums and tell me why Naruto and Hinata is a good paring because I absolutely hate that pairing and needs someone to explain!

The Gaara and Hinata explanation is for my friend who dislikes Hinata and Gaara as a couple. I personally adore this pairing and for all who agree with me, review under the forum and prove my friend wrong xD

Whichever pairing gets the most positive reviews with an explanation will be rewarded with me giving them a fanfic ^^ Reviews shall be counted up on.. September 25th! So everyone, please review and prove either me or my friend wrong!

Well that's enough for now… See you all later!

-Aku-chama~