"Hey, not to be rude or anything, but this spot's saved." Kiba frowned as a slim figure sat down next to him, binders cradled protectively in their arms, and placed their purse on the floor between them.

"I know." They murmured quietly and began opening a textbook and peering almost nervously around at the library.

"Then—" His voice dried and stopped altogether as he took in the view beside him. Very long, very dark, curly hair. Meticulously done eyeliner. Pristine white ballet flats. Well fitting navy blue shirt that showed...showed some cleavage?

"Hinata!" He yelped in a strangled voice and grasped both sides of her face to turn her and face him. "Hinata? What are you...what..."

"Hinata?" Shino hissed and raised his eyebrows over the tops of his glasses.

"It...it looks bad?" she murmured with an almost terrified face and glanced down at her hands that were wringing together nervously. "I mean...people...people have been talking all day...and I don't know if that's good...or bad."

"But...you...you're wearing makeup. You're showing your boobs." Kiba looked as if he weren't even paying attention to what was coming out of his mouth as he continued to stare, horrified, at her. The stern librarian glared at him over her round, thick glasses and pursed her thin lips in displeasure. "Hinata, you're not supposed to...to...I mean, you're just cute ole' Hinata!"

A well aimed smack to the back of Kiba's head from Shino's massive calculus textbook earned a startled wail from Kiba as he dropped the hands at Hinata's face to clutch the back of his own head. "Hinata. Whatever this inarticulate idiot is trying to say...just don't listen to him. You look really...nice." Shino finished awkwardly and looked away. Not being one for big words of compliments on such things, Hinata merely smiled shyly and glanced down at her textbook for a moment to jot down a note into her binder.

"Fuck, Shino!" Kiba glared and turned back to Hinata despairingly. "But...but you're my beautiful baby girl!" He wrapped an arm around her neck to whine into her hair and draw her close. "You're not supposed to be attractive to males! You're...you're my baby girl! You're supposed to be cute, and harmless, and I forbid you from showing anymore cleavage."

With another louder and more painful smack to the head with this time what looked to be a psychology textbook, Shino looked to Hinata with a raised eyebrow. "Please. For everyone's sake. Just do some form of bodily damage to him?" If she didn't, Hinata was sure the librarian would for sure do so...

Hinata giggled and carefully manoeuvred herself out of Kiba's desperate grasp. This was good. This was much better than she had expected. It however had not been easy.

After a much failed first attempt to apply the makeup by herself and ending up looking much like David Bowie in his music video Life on Mars, she had bawled and phoned Tenten in desperation. It took a few tries of getting out before Tenten got the gist of what was going on and delightedly offered to drive over to help her out for what she hoped would turn into a permanent makeover. Hinata had however declined vehemently and informed her that it was both a) too late and b) too far. Especially when Tenten had a paper due the next morning in which she hadn't even finished.

Finally Tenten agreed by sending over YouTube videos she thought would be helpful and forty five minutes after Hinata finally managed to get a hang of it and scrubbed it all off she threw herself onto her entirely too comforting bed and fell asleep without even taking off her shoes. Five and a half hours later she woke up to shower, blow dry her hair, dig out a curling iron she hadn't used or even seen since she had used it for a wedding three years ago, and begin the tedious process of giving her straight hair natural looking curls and waves. She was lucky to find this shirt, which had been thrown at the back of the closet and given as a gift to her by Tenten the previous year and the flats which were her sister's and were kindly borrowed to her.

It had been an exhausting twelve hours to say the least.

"Sorry, Hinata." Kiba finally apologized as he continued rubbing the bump at the back of his head. "You really do look pretty." Unable to help it, he added in a grumble. "I hope this wasn't for Sasuke. I heard about you two in the janitor's closet...and you know he's not worth it, right?"

With a frown, Hinata flicked an eraser bit at him and pouted. "I think that...it's none of your business, Kiba."

Gaping in both surprise and indignation, he managed to say nothing more after receiving a particularly sharp kick to the shin from Shino.

An action which earned Shino a grateful smile.

--

"Okay, well, guys. This lab shouldn't be particularly hard...though I really am apprehensive about letting you guys play with fire... I do require a formal lab write up." The young and altogether too pretty looking physics teacher looked around at the class. The boys were dead set upon staring at her ample cleavage as she explained and nodded almost robotically after she was done. "Good." She smiled. "Now partner up. No more than three to a group."

Hinata groaned quietly and sheltered her head between her arms that were crossed on top of her table. She hated partner labs in physics. She had not particularly close friends in this class and almost always ended up being partners with the school's most dumbass and impolite student, Suigetsu. He did next to no work and the most he had ever done for her was weigh a brick on a sensitive scale, in turn not only breaking it, but earning the both of them a failing grade.

"Partners?"

Startled out of her spiteful thoughts, Hinata looked up in terror and shock at Sasuke who was leaning comfortably against her desk. "Wh-what?" She asked quietly.

"I asked if you'd like to be partners for this." Sasuke shrugged nonchalantly and sat down on a chair opposite from her table.

"But...but what about Naruto?" Those two were always partners when it came down to an assignment, project, whatever. No questions asked. Turning around, she glanced over at the blond boy who was currently avoiding the lit match that Suigetsu was waving tauntingly in at him and looked ready to kick the strangely sharp toothed boy in the face.

"He partnered with Suigetsu for this." Sasuke shrugged again and glanced down at the sheet which contained their list of materials and procedure. "I'll get the meter stick, the candle, and the lens. We can just borrow a lighter from Naruto, I guess." He jerked his head in the direction where Naruto had planned to fight fire with fire as he waved his own lit lighter in Suigetsu's suddenly not so amused face.

"Um...alright." She sank deeper into her seat and watched the glow of the candles in the room as a student wisely turned off the lights. She wasn't sure what to do. Act normal? Pretend yesterday's closet escapade had never happened? Confront him? Oh, hell no.

Shortly, the dark haired boy reappeared with the promised supplies and began setting up their lab. Quietly, Hinata watched as his long fingers expertly placed the candle on the clamp and flicked the lighter effortlessly. In the glow of candlelight, Hinata felt she was intruding on something personal as she stared at Sasuke in an almost...romantic setting.

"I hope you don't expect me to do all the work." Sasuke looked up from his work and glared at her as he pocketed the lighter.

Indignity and embarrassment washed over Hinata as she drew her eyebrows deeply together and cried, "I p-planned to do no such thing!"

A small quirk of his lips graced Sasuke's face as he turned back to fiddle with the distance from the flame to the lens. "I know. I was kidding." He glanced at her briefly. "But seriously. Draw out the ray diagram while we're at it." He adjusted it one more time before pursing his lips. "Focal length is two, I think."

"O...okay." Hinata began carefully drawing the lines as they fell into a silence that was almost out of the realm of uncomfortable.

"You know," Sasuke murmured as he wrote down the thin lens equation and began scribbling in the correct numbers for the formula, breaking the almost steady silence. "I wasn't kidding when I said you were pretty usually. Because you are. And you don't need to go the extra mile in order to make yourself look better."

Hinata turned an ashamed bright red and pressed hard enough on her pencil for the lead to break sharply on the paper. Of course. He, just like the rest of their student population, was here to inform her that she was trying way too hard and it was just not working for her. Tears blurred her vision as she continued to sit erect against her chair, none of her muscles even twitching.

"...But I like it." Sasuke muttered and embarrassedly swiped his nose with the back of his hand. "You look really...really nice right now."

Hinata still didn't know what to say half an hour later as they both handed in the completed lab together.

(Though she did feel that the pathetic squeak she managed to make as their fingers brushed as they lay their lab sheets on the desk was entirely appropriate for the moment.)

--

Hinata slammed her purse onto the wet bathroom counter, hardly caring enough about the effects of water on suede to remove it. The entire day had been...interesting to say the least, and not at all what she had been expecting.

Alright, so she figured that the stares would be a given. Somewhat. And she was still surprisingly pleased when a few girls came up to her telling her they genuinely liked her shirt or hair, but those seemed to be few and far in between. The majority of them would perhaps give a compliment before diving head first in for the real questions.

"Why'd you decide to get all dolled up now?"

"It was for Sasuke, wasn't it?"

"Is sex with him really as good as they say it is? Even in a janitor's closet?"

One girl even had the gall to sympathetically pat her back and murmur, "Really now, Hanati, you don't have to try so hard. Especially not for a boy."

She glared at her reflection, at the slowly unfurling curls of her hair that were beginning to lay limply against her shoulders, at the red of her face even her makeup couldn't hide, and at the desperate look pouring out pathetically from her dull grey eyes. This wasn't her. She was trying too hard.

Sighing, she fiddled with an end of a lock of hair and peered up through her lashes at her reflection again. She tried reminding herself why she was putting herself through this again, why she didn't just go back to the simple and wonderful days in which no one knew her name and a sentence that held both Sasuke and her own name together was never ever found.

She didn't even like these people who she was dressing up to impress.

For a moment, Hinata stopped all trains of thought and let herself focus on that one statement. She didn't like these people. She didn't want to become one of them. Her previous delusions of wanting to become the party girl who could out-drink and outlast even the sturdiest Irish man were just that...delusions. She had never wanted to be that, but she didn't like the feeling of such hate and disgust she held for these people either. She figured...if they liked her, if she became one of them, perhaps she wouldn't have to hate them so much.

A strangled laugh left her throat and echoed through the empty bathroom stalls as Hinata considered the naivety of this notion. It was unbelievable just how foolish she could be sometimes. Shaking her head, Hinata pulled her hair up into a ponytail and gave it a quick tug to make sure it was tight.

She didn't need this.

She considered her reflection once more before wiping her lips of the sticky lip gloss with the back of her hand. She had been happy before this entire ridiculous and utterly childish whirlwind of drama. She had her lovely, spunky, and full of life baby sister who was such a substantial part of her world.

She had her proud, protective cousin who had been willing to give up his prestigious education in order to look after both of the girls.

She had her father back now. Her father who gave small smiles at the breakfast table now and even informed her that he was proud of the grade she received in history.

She had Shino, her rock in times of trouble who always was silently looking out for her, even when she didn't know it. She had Kiba who was always looking out for her also, giving his affection and friendship in almost overwhelming amounts sometimes.

She had been happy.

And now, she had the choice of including Sasuke in her life.

A startling bang as the door to the washroom slammed opened and against the wall jolted Hinata out of her thoughts and jerked her hand up, slamming it painfully against the counter as she reached to grab her purse. Hissing, she clamped her eyes shut and clutched the hand close to her chest.

"Oh, Hinata."

Hinata blinked and turned around to glance at Sakura who examined the counter before placing her purse on a dry spot on the counter. "H-hello, Sakura." Hinata greeted back quietly, only able to see the vision of Sakura's shirt nearly falling off as she leaned against Naruto, too drunk to stand when she looked at the pink haired girl.

"You okay?" Sakura asked with a small hint of an amused smile and pointed at the hand which was still clutched closely to her chest.

"Yes. Yes, I'm fine." Hinata reassured quickly and snatched her wet purse off the counter, ready to leave before pausing for a moment. Sakura had equally as many rumours spread about her having drunk sex with Naruto and having to go to the hospital to get her stomach pumped after the party...but still, she managed to hold her head high like the queen of the school she was and continue with her life as if she couldn't hear what these people were saying.

Before she could even stop herself, Hinata blurted out, "How do you do it?"

"What?" Sakura asked, confused, and peered down at the eyeliner pencil in her hand. "Honey, it's really not all that difficult—"

"I mean the gossip. How do you ignore it? You can't be deaf to it all." A hand slapped over her mouth as she stared horrified at Sakura, terrified that she had offended her.

To her relief and surprise, however, Sakura just laughed and placed the eyeliner back in her purse. "You really don't need to look so worried. I know it's an honest question if it's coming from you, and not one meant to...degrading or anything." She bit her lip and patted Hinata's shoulder awkwardly. "I know...I know it's been hard transitioning from your way of life before to your one now, so I'm just going to tell you what my mother told me." She straightened her back and produced a nasally voice to speak to Hinata. "What other people think of you is none of your business. Now go brush your hair, it looks awful."

Hinata giggled and raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

Sakura shrugged and slung the strap of her purse around her shoulder. "I know. It's cheesy, but there's merit to it. So far it's worked out pretty well for me. Well, I should actually go do what I told Hatake I needed to come into here to do." She walked towards a stall before stopping and turning to Hinata. "I really...I really hope it works out for you. You're a nice girl, and I like you even if Sasuke seems to have shown more interest in you in the past month or two you've known him than any interest he's shown in me in the three years I've known him."

Hinata gave an uneasy smile at this before hesitantly nodding and saying, "Well, I like you too Sakura. Even if you are now going out with Naruto."

Sakura froze at this, her back still turned to Hinata and her hand stiffly holding onto the door of the stall. Hinata took this time to step back towards the door to the bathrooms and murmur, "But you guys look...look good together. Congratulations."

Hinata was surprised to find that the happiness in her heart for these two was genuine.