AN: I remember in chapter 2 where I made Hinata's pen name her real name, and I just realized that it could prove an obstacle for Hinata. If she writes it will be in her real name and the people who know her will probably freak (especially Sasuke). So I knew the best thing to do would be to remove her name from there, but nooo, I've decided writing a whole chapter will be easier. So in this chapter I'm going to explain why I used Hinata's real name as her pen name.

Enjoy!

Chapter 7

…

I felt like I was being punished by some unmentioned power somewhere. In the school hallway, Sakura mistakenly pushed me. In Math class, Sakura's bad straps mistakenly slapped me. In the lunch room, Sakura's soda mistakenly poured on me.

I was currently standing in the girl's bathroom trying to get the pink liquid off my outfit.

"Hinata, don't let them get to you," Temari said. She had followed me to the bathroom and would not stop asking me questions.

"I'll miss you, Temari, but I don't think I'm going to make it to the end of the school year," I said as tears spilled down my face. Temari looked like she was about to burst into laughter. "It's not funny, Temari."

"You think this is bad?" Temari asked, wetting the towel with more water to get the stain off my dress. "I know you, Hinata. You are a strong person inside."

Yeah, inside, I can't even stand up for myself.

"I h-have to go home," I said, trying to stop the tears from rolling from my eyes.

I had tried to get in touch with Sasuke, but I later found out that he was not in school that day. Maybe he'll be here tomorrow.

.

.

The longest arrow of the clock moved to another second. I sighed. Four more minutes and I'll be out, I thought as I tapped the on my desk with my hands.

I'm not usually this eager to get out of a lesson, but ever since yesterday, Sakura had been using every chance she could to torture me.

I looked behind me again. There she was just talking to her friends. She hadn't picked on me for a whole day.

Maybe she's forgotten, I thought. But I was wrong.

The moment Sakura's eyes met mine, she gave me a smile. A smile that said: I'm not done with you yet.

"Hinata," Kiba waved his right hand in front of my face. "Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah."

No.

"You sure?" he asked, looking concerned.

"Yes."

The bell rang and I got up from my seat, walking to my next class, Biology.

.

.

"Okay, everyone, settle down," Kakashi Hatake said dryly, not looking up from his Ichi Ichi Paradise book. Sometimes I wondered what was in it.

Everyone scrambled around for their seats, and I sat at the back of the class and brought out my textbook.

"You're late," Kakashi said to the boy who was just then stumbling through the doorway, and I realized he was talking to Sasuke.

"Hn," Sasuke took the seat next to me, and my heart skipped a beat.

Sasuke looked like he had just rolled out of bed, which I admit made him look kind of…cool? No, hot.

"H-hi," I decided to start a conversation with Sasuke, if only I could stop stuttering. After what felt like an hour of silence, I sunk deeper into my seat and thought, Maybe he doesn't want to talk to me.

"Hey," he finally said, not turning his eyes from the biology book.

I sighed. Maybe he really didn't want to talk to me.

.

.

I walked to the fifth isle at a public library, where Megumi said we would meet. I had to decide on what to write about in the magazine. I took a seat next to Komic.

"Are you going to tell me about what happened at the club while I was away?" Megumi asked almost immediately.

After we left the place a few nights ago, Megumi would not stop asking me about it.

"N-nothing happened."

"Okay," she dropped the topic. "With the new dance coming up next Friday, we have to get some behind-the-scene look at what the theme will be, and some really hot juicy gossip on who Sasuke's taking to the dance." Megumi right now sounded like she was on the radio.

"O-okay," I jotted down her words, but my mind was elsewhere.

Who will Sasuke take to the dance? Ino or Sakura?

"Oh, and as an extra, Tsunade will write your pen name Hinata for next week's magazine," she said excitedly.

My eyes snapped open. Did she just say my real name will be used in the next issue?

Unlike any other school magazines, the names of the writers weren't shown on their articles, and people just used pen names because it was fun.

I knew it had been a bad idea, using my real name as my pen name, but I just wanted people to remember my name for once, even though they thought it wasn't my real name.

"S-she can't do that!" I said, standing up from my seat. I had to get to Tsunade before the school closed. Imagine the horror of that day when everyone saw my name written under my article.

"Where are you going, Hinata?" Megumi asked, running after me. I didn't bother explaining it to her, I just had to get to the office.

.

.

"Pull me in," Megumi said.

We ended up climbing through the window because the school had already closed down. I pulled her inside; thankfully, she landed safely on Tsunade's desk.

"I think it's on her laptop," Megumi said.

"B-but we don't know her password."

"Wanna bet?" Megumi went over to the desktop and started typing on the keyboard, and in no time at all, she logged into Tsunade's laptop with ease.

"H-how did you do that?" I asked, astounded, and Megumi just smirked.

"You mean her password? That's easy, her favourite drink," she said like it was something so easy to do. I guess it was, everyone who worked here knew of Tsunade and her drinking habits.

We scanned through Tsunade's laptop as fast as we could.

"I can't believe it, the old hag doesn't even arrange her files in alphabetical order," Megumi said with an annoyed expression on her face.

And she was right: because of that, it was very hard to find mine.

"Found it," Megumi said almost immediately.

"N-now all we have to do is change my name," I said excitedly.

Megumi pressed the backspace button, and deleted my name. "Now, what should we change it to?" she asked.

I wondered if Tsunade would be angry once she found out we tampered with her laptop.

"Um…," I wasn't really good with names.

"What about Candy Girl, that's the way you looked at the club," Komic suggested.

I blushed, I didn't really think I looked like that. But, I agreed, "Y-yeah."

.

.

I thought I had finally given up on the search for Sasuke after a few days. He was just nowhere to be found, or he was simply ignoring me when I was with him.

But when I saw him getting his books out of his locker, I knew I had to talk to him before he left.

"S-Sasuke!" I called.

"Hn?" he looked at me. I had never really seen him look this tired before.

"I h-have to tell you something."

Here goes…

"I'm-"

Ring!

Sasuke answered his phone; it was a text. He looked at the screen for a short while, before putting it back in his pocket. "I have to go," he said, before turning and exiting the hall.

"O-okay," I muttered. Maybe I'll tell him later.

"You talked a lot with Sasuke today," Tenten said, suddenly appearing at my side.

"W-what?"

"You always disappear right after school."

I turned to face her fully. Does she know?

"And you seem so interested with Sasuke's fan girls," she continued.

Should I sneak away when she's not looking?

"I think you're the mystery writer for the gossip section," she said finally.

I gasped, "W-why would you think that?"

"I'm right, aren't I?"

I knew that I could just tell Tenten and make her promise she wouldn't tell anyone else, but I didn't know where we stood as friends.

"N-no," I started walking to my next class, but she followed behind.

"You know I don't care if you are or not, but promise me you wouldn't write about something you're going to regret later."

I stopped.

"Like if I write about you?" I asked.

"Y-yes."

"You don't have to worry about that. We're friends, aren't we?" An idea suddenly popped in my head. "It's not like you started hanging out with me because you wanted to get Neji's attention… No, you wouldn't do that."

Tenten flinched.

Bingo!

"I'll see you later," I walked to class, leaving Tenten standing in the hallway.

I wasn't going to write about Tenten, and I didn't care either whether she liked Neji or not, I just wanted to make sure she kept quiet. Not like she was going to say anything.

.

.

The next day at lunch I caught Sasuke outside the schoolyard. That brought back so many memories, the beginning of our complicated relationship; it probably is fate that it will end here.

"S-Sasuke," I sat beside him, informing him of my presence.

"Sorry about rushing off like that," he said as he turned to me. "I had an emergency at home."

I thought he said his parents were dead?

"W-was it something bad?" I asked.

"No, my brother just couldn't find his suit," he said it as if he was remembering something that annoyed him. "Itachi…," he shook his head.

"Oh," I almost laughed in relief.

"So, what did you want to tell me?" he asked, sitting up a bit.

That I have a crush on you…

"You see, it's very important that you know that I-"

"I know."

"You do?" I blinked. How did he know I wrote the article? "And you're not mad?"

"Why should I be?" he looked confused.

Without thinking about it, I leaned in and kissed him. The least I expected from Sasuke was to stop talking to me, probably scream at me a little, but instead, he kissed me back.

Then I heard a gasp.

I turned and saw that, gaping at us, was Sakura. She looked at me with this expression on her face, I couldn't tell what it was but I knew I was in a lot of trouble.

Why can't I just kiss him in peace?

.

.

I really hope that this chapter really explained everything. And I added Itachi! At first I didn't know what to do with his character. I guess I have to start writing authors notes now right?

Anyway I would like your reviews.