Author's Notes: I still do not own Naruto or its characters. I am simply using them for my own enjoyment. And once again I would also like to thank everyone for reading and for the wonderful reviews. They are greatly appreciated and are encouraging to keep on writing and get the next chapter out asap which once again it is. I thought I might as well give you a fair warning that I probably won't always have time for the daily updates like I have recently. I have just had a lot of down time lately and I have been enjoying writing this story. I am sure that once I don't have as much time and lose some of my motivation the updates won't be quite as often though I will try. Honestly though the reviews and story being on alert and favorite lists does help. Knowing that people are reading and enjoying this story makes it easier to write. Anyway as promised here is chapter four where Hina finally gets to meet Sasuke. Hope you enjoy.
She had first come to know him as Neji's friend, a guy who came over the house occasionally to meet up with Neji. Later she knew him as one of the most popular guys at the school, and the crush of probably most of the girls in her school other than herself. First she had liked Naruto and now no one at all. Later still she had come to know him as an arrogant jerk, or at least that was how Naruto had described him. And finally she had come to know him as a fellow street racer, her competition. She liked this last description of him the best, it seemed to suit him somehow. She had actually been surprised to learn that he was a street racer as well but when she had been here last week with Naruto, they had seen him race and crush his competition. He was a force to be reckoned with when it came to racing.
She had met him once before. At her house, he had come by to talk to Neji and she had opened the door. But she was relatively sure he didn't know that she existed. Or at least she was pretty sure he didn't know Hinata existed. From the looks of it he seemed like he might know a bit about Violet. Then again a lot of guys knew about Violet if they had anything to do with the local street racing that went on. She was pretty sure Neji even knew about her which did give her a smug sense of satisfaction. She had this one thing on him. Part of her almost wished he raced. Then she could race him and beat him. That would be something she could hold on to each day when she had to deal with him as Hinata, his quiet younger cousin who might as well not even exist.
But right now she wouldn't focus on Neji, she was going to focus on the good looking Uchiha in front of her. Yes he was good looking, she didn't necessarily like the guy but there was no denying that he was one of the best looking guys at school and probably one of the better looking racers as well. He was the tall, dark, and handsome type. Then again everyone was tall to her. He had those piercing dark eyes and black as sin hair with just enough of it falling in front of his eyes to make him look rather hot and mysterious. Plus he had a nice body. There was no arguing that. It was obvious even under those loose dark blue jeans and the black t-shirt he wore. He didn't even have to try to look good. People like that were so lucky.
Hinata had to try to look good, or at least she thought she did. She really didn't need to make that much of an effort but she was sure it was more than Sasuke had to make. And he was still looking at her, and she was still looking at him. Their eyes met and held a moment, the only reason Hinata didn't look away was because of the confidence given to her by the mask. So she held his gaze and when he finally broke his stoic expression and smirked, she did too.
"I take it from the eyes you're Violet," he said his voice and whole persona radiating a cool and calm vibe. Of course Sasuke had probably seen her race before as she had seen him. And she was one of the only female racers who was any good so it wasn't that surprising that he knew who she was. The eyes were a bit of a giveaway though. She liked them, she had always had unique eyes, they suited her.
"Sasuke Uchiha," Hinata said easily her own smirk still present on her pale features.
"So you know who I am," he said with an all too smug look on his features.
"Don't flatter yourself. I always keep an eye on competition," Hinata said before turning back to the track, still leaning against the barrier she had been standing by. Sasuke came up and leaned on it beside her, his dark gaze still on her.
"And here I thought you might have actually been interested in me," he said that cool and, she would have to admit, gorgeous smirk of his working its way onto his handsome features once again.
"You would have thought wrong," Hinata said keeping her own voice cool and even. She actually was doing a pretty good job of that considering the way she was feeling, which was pretty jumpy under that gaze of his. She'd have to be careful not to lose herself in it. She was sure it could happen easily enough if she let it. It was almost tempting to as well, but she wasn't here to get lost in someone's eyes. The truth of the matter was that Violet didn't really exist, Hinata did. And nobody here would give Hinata the time of day. She was here to win races and enjoy the feeling of actual living that came with them. She would just keep her wits about her and focus on that. There would be no distractions for this determined little racer.
"I guess I would of," he said seemingly undaunted by her put offs of him. If anything though they only intrigued him more about the mysterious girl at his side. And intrigued he was, long before they had this conversation even. For one Violet was gorgeous whether she was aware of it or not, though he figured she had to be. She had long dark hair, bangs that swept down in front of her eyes. He figured they weren't her natural color but somehow he couldn't see her with something like a brown, green, or blue. No typical eye color seemed to fit in the place of the brilliant violet eyes that she had. She was on the shorter side, but still he rather liked the way she only came up to his shoulder. And then she had this slender little figure that seemed to curve in all the right places with just the right amount. It was no wonder she was so popular in the racing community. Flawless pale features and a cool confident voice, she was a sight to see.
Plus it was nice to see a girl who wasn't flaunting it all. She wore jeans and jacket over a simple t-shirt. She had it all pretty much covered and still it was obvious she had quite a figure under it all. Violet definitely had his attention. Of course that was looks alone and they weren't the only reason he had decided to approach her. Usually he stayed away. In fact he should have stayed away but the temptation had been too much to resist. It would have been better for both of them if he had kept on walking by when he had seen her, but he had been drawn to her and his feet seemed to have a mind of their own as he had moved towards her.
He had seen her race before and he knew that she had an impressive record. All in all she was an impressive street racer, someone he would like the chance to race himself one of these days. So he respected her as an opponent because it would seem she would prove to be a worthy one. And on top of that now that he had met her in the flesh, he was quite impressed with the fact that she wasn't fawning over him like practically every other female at this rally tended to do. She maintained a cool indifference that instead of pushing him away, was having quite the opposite effect. Not only that but it was obvious the girl had her wits about her. A quick and sharp tongue like he had just heard told him she was smart and wouldn't fake some lack of intelligence like some girls did to make him feel better about himself.
Yet the real reason he had come over to talk to her, the reason that made all of these other ones seem so small in comparison was that mask of hers. No he didn't have some sort of mission to find out what she looked like beneath it, though he wouldn't lie and say he wasn't curios, and he didn't have some sort of bet with anyone about it. The reason the mask drew him to her was the fact that she was hiding something. She didn't want people to know who she was for whatever reason that may be. Or perhaps he was reading to much into it and she simply was doing it for show, but something told him that this girl standing beside him was keeping a secret, a secret she didn't want everyone to know. And that appealed to him simply because it was nice to be able to think there was someone else like him. It was nice to believe that perhaps he wasn't the only one here hiding something from everyone else. It was nice to know that he wasn't the only one wearing a mask though his was one that no one could see. It was his stoic features, his cool smirk and calm attitude. Because that's all any of it was, a mask to what was really going on, to what he was hiding from everyone else.
He didn't know the truth about her and she didn't know the truth about him. They were both hiding something and because of that he felt drawn to her almost as if she was in all of this with him. As if she knew exactly what he was going through. And he knew that there was no way she could, but perhaps it would be her who would understand it the best, understand him the best. Not that he could or would ever tell her but the thought was nice.
"Why do it, why race," Hinata asked, her voice soft and barely audible above the mix of voices that surrounded them. So quiet it was that he almost didn't catch it, almost didn't come back from his wandering thoughts to answer her. Why did he race? The answer was simple. He had no choice. But it wasn't the answer he was going to give her. And so he chose to respond in an answer that was the partial truth.
"I have to do something to pay the bills, and I might as well make the money doing something I enjoy," he said easily, his dark eyes back on her. "And why is it that you race?"
"It is always about the money isn't it," she said more to herself than him. "I race because of the way it makes me feel," Hinata turned to look at him and he could see the excitement in her eyes as she spoke. "It makes me feel alive. It makes me feel like I am free to be myself." And that was the truth for Hinata. She felt noticed and important in the racing world here and she felt as though she could be herself behind the mask of Violet. And when she combined that with the adrenaline rush and her love of racing and there was nothing that could beat it.
And Sasuke heard the honestly in her words and saw the truth of it all in her eyes, a girl who simply raced because of the way it made her feel. Certainly not something that one came across everyday. And it made him want to get to know her just a bit more. Why, he wasn't quite sure, but he was realizing that the more he talked to her, watched her, and was simply around her, the more his need grew. He would have figured the more he got to know the lesser it would become. Oh how wrong he had been. He opened his mouth to say something further but was cut off by the roaring sounds of engines and the cheering crowd as the cars came down the strip, a green Nissan Silvia taking the win by half a car length.
"Yeah Lee! Way to go," Hinata yelled out. Not that he could actually here her but she was happy for him and his win. He deserved it. Now that his race was over though she really did need to go get her car and get ready for her own. So she turned back to Sasuke, who was looking at her curiously.
"Friend of yours," he asked looking at the driver with the bowl cut who had just climbed out of the Nissan.
"Teammate," Hinata said once again looking in Lee's direction and smiling. "And if you'll excuse me I have a race to get ready for. See you around Uchiha," she said moving away from the barrier and into the crowd though she didn't get far when his voice caused her to turn around.
"Hey Violet. You know from what I heard I expected you to be a bit taller," he said the laughter clear in his voice, a taunting smile on his features.
"Oh really? Well from what I heard I expected you to be good looking. It seems like we were both wrong," Hinata shot back, before turning on her boots and moving back off through the crowd leaving Sasuke still standing at the barrier, and amused expression on his face as he shook his head slightly and wondered just what kind of girl Violet was.
Around an hour later and Hinata had successfully pushed all of her thoughts regarding a certain street racer out of her mind and focused on the task ahead of her, which was of course to win this race. All thoughts she may have entertained about a particular black eyed boy were now in the back of her mind, forgotten else they may provide an unwanted distractions. And distractions lost races, and Hinata did not lose too many of them.
She was now lined up at the starting line. Anything other than the race ahead of her had left her mind, leaving her thoughts clear and her mind focused which was exactly how it needed to be. This is what she had been waiting for all night and finally it was here. It seemed rather silly, all those hours of excitement for a total of nine or ten minutes of the greatest sort of rush she had ever felt in her life. But for her this was what it was all about.
Her eyes were focused on the stretch of open road ahead of her, the crowd nothing more than a blur in her peripheral vision. They meant nothing to her, it was the race not the attention that she did this for. The fingers of her left hand firmly gripped the wheel of the car, the steady vibrations of the car's engine a familiar feel as it traveled through her fingers, into her hand, and up her arm, as if to make her part of the car. Her foot hovered over the gas pedal, her right hand over the gear shift. Her breathing was slow and steady, an eerie calm settling over her despite the excitement she had felt up until this very moment. She closed her eyes momentarily.
Off to her right an engine revved, she smiled. That was her competition letting her know that he was there. She didn't need to look to know that and had no intention of looking over there. She had gotten a good look at Kabuto when they had all brought their cars up to the starting line. He was older than her, though not by more than five years or so. Really it was rather hard to tell. The guy had gray hair a lot Kakashi. She supposed though some people simply just grayed at a younger age than most. Gai had once told her that Kakashi had always had gray hair. Maybe it was simply something a person was born with.
Kabuto had also been wearing classes that made him look quite out of place, but perhaps that was only a ploy to make others underestimate him. Perhaps he really had poor vision. Either way Hinata was not about to let her guard slip with this guy. Especially when she had seen him chatting with Orochimaru before the race began. The guy still gave her the creeps and the way she saw it anyone who raced for him had to be trouble. This guy probably wasn't much better than the man himself.
She forced Kabuto and Orochimaru into that place into the back of her mind where she put her distractions. Now was not the time for them. Now was the time for a race. She opened her eyes, once again focusing on the road in front of her, the power of the car she sat in, and the steady hum of the engine in her ears. Now all she had to do was wait, wait for the sound of the air horn, wait for the race to begin. The time dragged on, the seconds took hours, or at least they did for her. Why hadn't the race begun yet? How much longer would she have to sit here? Another breath in, another breath out, her body relaxed.
And then it pierced through the air, sending a shock through her system, every muscle in her body coming to life as the air horn, made its presence known above all the other noise. The race was finally on.
Okay so I know that I promised their meeting and the race in this chapter but once again this turned out longer than I expected so I decided to break it up. In order to make it up to you all I am going to try and get the next chapter, which is Hinata racing, out as well today. I am about halfway done it as of now so hopefully I will be able to finish it and get it up for you all. Sorry to keep you waiting.
