This chapter is dedicated to Deidara-kunisMine and Echo Uchiha. Thanks for the support and I hope you're enjoying reading this story just as much as I am enjoying writing it ;)

Thunder spoke to her and lightning showed her its fury. One thing Tomoyo never enjoyed in her life was thunderstorms. Ever since a certain childhood incident, brontophobia (''Brontophobia: An abnormal and persistent fear of thunder that causes undue anxiety even though sufferers realize that thunder itself poses no threat to them'') had brought misery and fear to her.

Once, her father tried to erase her fear of thunderstorms by locking her outside during one; but it only ended with endless cries that out beat even the loudest of thunders. She was taught numerous amounts of games and tips that would try to distract her from the storm, but it all failed; her fear was just too strong.

"—four . . . five . . . six . . . sev—" as thunder boomed, Tomoyo quickly covered her ears with her hands and sobbed to the floor. She recounted, but was stopped by another sound of thunder at the count of only two.

After running away from the unforeseen action by Huni, Tomoyo found herself coiled up at the far end of the school's eastern halls. Every time thunder would roar, she would cry. Half tears and sweats now ran down her face. She didn't know what time it was, her phone had died, and she didn't know how much time had passed since she ran away. She wanted to know, but was too scared to move elsewhere in order to find out.

The storm had not died one bit, if anything it had only become stronger with each passing minute. The water pelted the schools roof like gold balls, the winds howled like angry wolves, and the lights that flashed due to lightning created shadow figures that seemed alive.

Tomoyo forced herself to stare down a hallway. She saw flickers of light from the lightning and pure blackness the next second. When lightning flashed again, a shadowy figure started to emerge from the floor. It reached up into the sky with stick-like arms, cracking where the joints would be. It crawled its way in a horrific method and made croaking sounds that clicked every second.

"One . . . two . . . three . . . four . . ." Tomoyo tried to ward her attention away from her imaginative creature of terror, but failed to do so. It walked closer, and all she could do was watch. She was rooted to the ground by fear; her body, immobile. "It's not real . . . it's not real . . . it's not real!", she cried in her head.

When thunder boomed once more, she crawled to her knees and up to her feet and started sprinting down the hallway. She ran away, away from the creature she saw; it was false in reality, but as real and pure in fear.

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"Fucking idiot!" Huni called himself. "What the hell was I thinking?", he said while he swung his right fist at a nearby locker, but the sound of the collision was erased by the sound of thunder. A sharp pain erupted and he quickly remembered that his right hand was, pretty much, fucked up because of his earlier punch. His gaze landed on his right fist. It was now purple and more skin was missing from the knuckles as they bled non-stop.

Huni pulled his hair and cursed to himself, "This fucking school is freaking me out. I can barely tell where I am!."

Where he sat, there were two hallways in view, one in each opposite side of him. There were no windows in the hallways, so he didn't worry about any glass breaking and getting extra cuts; the only thing he came close to fearing was the darkness of the halls.

Sighing, Huni forced himself to relax against the lockers and closed his light green eyes.

"It's over," he said. "Nothing much I can do about it now…maybe apologize, but I doubt that she'll ever get near me again."

He had just reacted out of fear and annoyance. Even though he wasn't much of her friend ever since the fourth grade, he would have never wanted to hurt her physically. It wasn't in his blood. It wasn't the type of person he wanted to be.

''Well, if it had been someone like that Rock Lee guy I wouldn't have changed the fists direction at the last second…That guy can get as bad as Kinomoto.", he tried to laugh at what he said, but failed miserable. He shifted back into an upright position against the lockers and sighed. "God damnit, I'm sorry!"

As minutes that seemed like hours past, a distant voice entered his ears. As the voice started to become louder, Huni instantly recognized the voice; it was Tomoyo. Though he heard her screams, he wasn't sure if she was just screaming out of fear, or screaming for him; or both.

He got up and followed her voice down several hallways. Once he got near a staircase he stopped and searched down; her screams were still echoing through the hallway, it was hard for him to pick out where her voice was coming from and the sound of thunder didn't help one bit.

"Huni-Kun!" he heard. ''She's calling for me?'' he asked himself.

Huni clamped his hands onto the guarding rails and searched around the bottom level of the school's main corridor. "T-To…Tomoyo-San!" he yelled. After he heard another horrendous yell from her, he confirmed it all in his head, she was indeed calling for him…''but why?'', he asked.

"Oi, over here!" he yelled, hoping she would hear his voice.

When he finally found her in view, Huni hastily made his way down the staircase and waved to get her attention. "I'm here!"

Tomoyo saw Huni with his hands above his head. She stared back at the dark hallway that she had come from and sprinted her way towards the stairs. She met Huni at the bottom of the steps and quickly wrapped both her arms tightly around his neck, her head resting on his shoulder.

"I'm scared…" she cried. "Huni-Kun, I'm scared…"

Huni didn't know how to react; it was all too sudden for him. All he could think about was what he had almost done to her. He felt something inside him urging him to do the exact same thing again, but her cries were now in his chest, soaked as her tears ran down on his white dress shirt as if rain had leaked through the school roof.

Slowly, not knowing what else to do, and realizing that she was just another human being trapped in this god damn school like him; Huni slowly set his arms around the back of her neck. He wondered if he should feel pity for her for running back to him, then he rethought it and declined to do so.

"Flat-chest", he said. "Stop getting yourself into trouble."

/

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When Tomoyo opened her eyes, she perceived the room that she was in; it was her detention room.

She sat in a corner, arms wrapped around her knees, which were settled close to her chin. Her stomach growled, demanding food. She wondered what time it was. She reached for her phone, but when she saw the black screen she remembered that it had already died. The last thing she could remember was embracing Huni and being embraced back. When she realized what she had done, she quickly shook her head and felt a streak of blush run across her nose.

''I didn't hug him did I? No…It was an embrace …yeah! But…isn't that the same thing?'' she asked herself

When thunder struck once more, Tomoyo jumped in her corner. "Hu-", she turned to her side and found Huni half asleep on the wall next to her. His head bobbed continuously as if his conscious wanted to keep him awake but his eyes and mind were just too tired.

As she slowly lifted her hand to touch his arm in order to wake him up she realized all too late that her hand was moving up, towards his face. She felt another streak of blush, this time all over her cheeks. When she was almost touching his face, he woke with a flinch. She quickly placed her hand on the ground. Their eyes met for 1 second but both quickly turned their gaze towards a different direction. Huni got up to his feet and hunched over a desk.

"Y-you're awake." murmured Tomoyo.

"Are you okay?", Huni replied back.

Tomoyo paused to give herself a moment to thing, "From what?"

Huni sighed and took a seat on a desk, then said, "You were screaming in the hallways before running up to me."

"Oh…" she hesitated. "Was I?"

Huni cocked his head to the side. "What do you mean, was I? What happened to you?"

"Not like you would care anyways" she said while getting up and walking away from him.

Almost growling, Huni wanted to give up trying to talk to her and to just ignore every aspect of her presence, but for a reason he didn't even know, he continued. "Oi, when you fainted in my arms, I could've just left you there, but no, I brought you back up to this room…so the least you could do is tell me why on earth you were screaming."

Tomoyo raised her head and turned back towards him. ''He carried me?'', she asked in her head.

When she thought about it, she couldn't actually remember what had happened ever since running into his arms through fear. She remembered that moment and the moment when she woke up, minutes ago. ''He really carried me up to this room?''.

"Y-you carried me?" she mumbled.

Huni nodded and said, "You got quite heavy towards the end…even for someone with a chest as flat as yours."

As the words entered Tomoyo's ears, she wanted to shout back, to defend herself from his cruel words, but she couldn't find the energy to do so; her mind was still wavering about how he had carried her halfway trough the school just to put her in a room. It wasn't necessary, but it was something she wouldn't expect Huni to do.

"S-something was coming after me", she answered.

Huni raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"I know it sounds stupid, but something… like, a monster… it came out of the floor and attacked me. I just ran…I was really scared."

After a moment of silence, Huni said, "You mean… like… the monster by the door?"

Quickly, Tomoyo turned towards the door, and like he said, it was the exact monster she saw. But, this time it came through the opened door and turned its head. Its dark shadowy eyes glared at Tomoyo, filled with killing intent. Tomoyo, her heart filled once more with fear, moved back against the corner as much as she could.

''N-no…" she murmured. "Get away!!!", she screamed.

The creature quickly crawled up to her and raised an arm. Tomoyo closed her shining blue eyes and screamed just as the creatures arm lunged forward. "Hu—"

"Open your eyes!" shouted Huni. "Open them!!!"

When Tomoyo opened her eyes, she found Huni holding her shoulders with both of his hands. A sweat ran down from her temple as she looked beyond him to where the creature once was but it was now nowhere in sight. She looked around the room in order to confirm that the creature was indeed gone. When she reassured herself that it was clear, she set her eyes back on Huni.

"What was that thing-"

"Tomoyo-San, it wasn't real." said Huni. "It wasn't real..."

"Wasn't real?" Tomoyo protested. "But you saw it too!"

Huni shook his head. "No, I didn't."

"B-but you even told me where it was!"

"Listen, your mind if playing tricks on you… it's only a piece of your imagination okay?", he said with caution.

Tomoyo stared at him as if he had just said something abnormal. "It's the dark; if you're scared of it, it'll tend to play with your head…an illusion out of fear, created by yourself.", he said, trying to explain what was happening the best way he could.

"But didn't you see it too? You even-"

"No." stated Huni, breaking her in between words. "I could see that you're quite scared, so I thought that I'd see if my assumptions were right, and they were. The creature you were talking about was just something that your head created because you believed that it was real."

"How is that possible?"

"Well, let me see if I can-oh! Have you ever pretended to be sick just to skip school?"

Tomoyo thought for a moment and confessed, "Yes, I have."

"What usually happens later during the day?"

After a long pause, Tomoyo replied with, "Now that I think of it, I usually do end up being sick."

"The truth is, you're really not sick even though you feel it. I'm not sure what it's called, or if there's a name for it, but it's all in your head. If you force your brain to do something, such as seeing something or pretending to be sick, your brain's gonna think that way and therefore, making you think as if it's actually happening. It happens especially when something else you're scared of occurs."

"I…I do have brontophobia."

"There we go; a bonus of why you're seeing things!"

Tomoyo was amazed at what he had told her. Knowing him for most of her life, she still didn't expect Huni to be as wise as he was. "H-how do you know all this stuff?"

Huni chuckled and said with sarcasm. "One of us actually stays awake during class." As the conversation died, Huni's eyes landed on Tomoyo's face, where his fist had almost landed. He still felt a great deal of pain coming from his fist but he didn't' dare to look at it, afraid of being disgusted of its appearance by now.

His body started to feel numb, as if numbness was his punishment by the gods for almost physically abusing a girl. "I'm sorry…."

Tomoyo stared at him with half confused eyes. "Huh?"

"I'm sorry…."

It took a moment, but she finally realized that he was referring to what had happened before she ran away. "Oh…yeah you better be!"

"I don't know why I did it…I mean…I guess…it was all because I was . . . probably scared."

"Scared?"

"I-I don't know . . . I'm just sorry okay? I really don't know why I did it."

Tomoyo felt an urge to pout, but after a few seconds of thinking to herself, she silently accepted his apology, knowing that it wouldn't do her any better to be holding a grudge. "Thank you."

"You deserved my apology . . . I was acting stupid. No need to thank me for it." He said.

"Yes, I did deserve your apology, but that wasn't what I was thanking you for."

Huni widened his eyes. "What then?"

Tomoyo took a deep breath and turned away for a moment, feeling embarrassed for what she wanted to say. "For helping me when that rock flew and crashed into the window…I don't know how you saw it but thank you. I could've been hurt . . . a—and for carrying me back to this room…I didn't even realize that I fainted…and for calming me and telling me about how my fear can drag me into a different reality."

Glee lifted in Huni, but he didn't show it. The words that came out of her mouth were the simplest and nicest things he had ever heard since fourth grade. It felt as if the two had gone back in time to relive memories that were once theirs, but as thunder boomed, the memories faded and he was forced to think about their situation once more.

"You know," Tomoyo started. "I never knew you'd be-"

"Let's not talk about it." Huni interrupted. "You hate me, remember?"

Tomoyo seeped down to her feet. "Oh…right."

"But I'm human. Just because we have our differences and problems doesn't mean I like seeing you get hurt...physically, that is." he paused for a moment. His eyes still fixed on her face. ''She's actually… very pretty'', he said inside his mind. He felt his cheeks go hot but quickly calmed himself and they went back to normal.

Suddenly, Tomoyo's eyes shot back at him from wandering aimlessly around the room. ''Let me see your hand''.

''What?'' he replied back.

"Your right hand…can I see it?" she repeated, now walking towards him.

He slowly nodded and raised his hand towards her.

It was as if a monster had clawed his hand with every intent to separate it from his wrist. Tomoyo could see deep cuts on his knuckles that were probably made from the sharp mosaic on the wall. The mosaic had cracked along with the wall because of all the strength Huni had placed on the punch.

The cuts still bled, giving his hand a bloody smear. His knuckles, along with most of his hand, were purple because of all the bruises.

She reached out and touched a spot, but Huni jerked back once he felt her touch.

"It still stings…a lot…." he said.

Huni glowered. He sunk down until his forehead and the floor met; his hands stretched out in front of him as he was now in a bow. "I'm sorry."

"You already apolo-"

"I didn't know that she died." said Huni.

Tomoyo froze.

"Back then, I didn't know she died. You never told me, and ever since that day, I never got to interact with you the way I used to, so I didn't know that . . . your mother . . . died until a few weeks later when I figured it out myself. During those few weeks, I thought you were just ignoring me. I was young and dumb, so during those three weeks, I was an ass to you. I wanted to apologize after I heard the news, but I never found the courage to do so and our relationship never got better-"

"Please, let's not talk about tha-"

"No! I wanted to apologize earlier, truly I did. But you never allowed me to even look at you, nor did I want to show my face to you after doing stupid things during a horrible time. I never got the chance, so then as the years gradually passed, I completely forgot about it…I… forgot the reason why you became so mad at me and so I took that and started to become mad at you-no… I started to hate you!"

Huni took a moment to breathe before he continued. "I don't care if you don't forgive me for apologizing— I wouldn't forgive myself either for apologizing eight years later."

Tears fell from the back of Tomoyo's eyes. She didn't know if the tears were for her lost mother or for the fact that Huni apologized—this time for her mother's death.

''He didn't know? No one ever told him?'', she said in her mind.

Now that she thought about it, she wasn't mad at Huni—she couldn't be.

She was mad at herself because she could have told him herself but never did. ''No one told . . . you? You had to find out yourself?'', she repeated in her head.

Tomoyo wiped her tears away and crawled to Huni, pulling him up from his bow. "I-I'm kind of hungry", she said, trying to break away from the subject of her mother. But even though she wanted to get away from the subject, she now had questions rolling in her head, questions she wanted to ask him. "Come on, maybe we can break into the school kitchen and get something to eat."

She made her way to the door but stopped at the sound of thunder. The storm had not died one bit. She turned to Huni who was staring at her with depressed eyes.

For a minute, the two stared at each other, and then another minute later, Tomoyo walked out of the room. Huni following closely behind.

*End of Chapter 3*

Author's notes: YAY! One more chapter done! Just 3 more to go! I'll do my best to update the next one tomorrow since I already have the plot all done in my head! Hmmm…I should apologize since this fic only contains 1 or 2 interactions with the actual Naruto characters but I wanted to create a fic surrounding my two OC's… oh well, I'm loving writing this one so I'll keep doing it till its done. Just 3 more chapters and then I'll get back to my other fic! Be patient please!