After the intimate setting that Naruto and I shared before the weekend started I hadn't felt quite like myself. I suspected it to be a form of guilt. I felt as though I betrayed Sasuke by almost having sex with Naruto and couldn't get it out of my mind. That night, I began to think that I was falling in love with Sasuke. I just didn't know how I could have possibly begun to love him. I hadn't spent time with him in over two months and the only things that he did for me in that short time was tell me he loved me, made out with me, and defend me from Deidara. Out of the three things listed there the chivalry part seemed like the best answer.
On a bright Monday morning no teenage girl wanted to think about her complicated love life. I was confused. Is it really possible to be in love with two people? I certainly don't want to be. It's painful for me and for the both of the boys that also love me. Never in my life had I expected to be in such a situation.
Thinking this through while walking to school didn't really make things clearer. When I got to school I would have to see Naruto and when I see him, I'll think back to Friday when we almost had sex. Before, it was hard enough to even look at Naruto, now I doubt I can even stand to be in the same room as him. His voice, smile, and scent will be too much for me to bear. I love too many of Naruto's qualities to just ignore him.
It was easy to pick out what I loved about Naruto but what did I love about Sasuke? His hair, his face, his (admittedly) evil smirk? He was a very possessive person. At times, he could be kind, gentle, and compassionate. But when I first met him he was aggressive, compelling, and stubborn. Qualities that I wasn't too fond of. So what was it that I loved about him? I'm not sure. Unlike Naruto, Sasuke had many sides to him. He was an enigma of wonder.
As I brooded about my situation, an unexpected person ran up beside me. He greeted me with a "hello" in the most unpleasant way possible.
It was Deidara. The man who locked me in the janitor's closet with him and threatened to torture me if I didn't rat out Sasuke's name. During that time, I was afraid of him, now I was utterly annoyed. I really didn't want to deal with him before the school day started.
"Walk with me," he demanded.
"I don't know how you did things back in your time, but in this era, people usually ask nicely when they want someone to do something with them."
He raised his eyebrows. He was slightly impressed. Slightly. "Back talking to your elders, are we? Someone needs to teach you respect."
"I know how to respect people. You don't deserve it."
"Hey." He grabbed my shoulder and jerked me towards him so I was facing him. "You aren't in any position to talk to me like that, human. I can still do the same things to you that I did to Kana."
I flinched. He got a reaction that he wanted and I could see that he grew a little more confident. "Leave me alone. You got the information you wanted so now you don't have to associate with me."
Deidara tightened his hold which made me grimace. "I'll talk to you whenever I want!"
"Hey!" A new voice called. Following the sound, I saw that it was Naruto. An angry Naruto that was storming over to us.
When he reached us, he jerked Deidara's hand off of me with incredible strength. He stood in front of me and eyed the enemy with a glare stronger than the one he gave Sasuke.
They glared at each other for a while before Naruto decided to take my hand and head off towards Konoha High with me following close behind. His grip on my hand was firm and refused to let go until we reached school grounds.
I hadn't expected to see Naruto before school too. I wasn't ready. I was still embarrassed from Friday. He had to be too. Other than being angry, he wasn't looking at my face because he wasn't prepared to see me either, which meant that he was still embarrassed. I don't know why he even bothered to save me. I sent him home with a boner.
"Deidara's still bothering you? Why did you lie to me?" He tried to be calm about it but it really wasn't working.
"I… I didn't want you to get hurt!" I exclaimed. I took a step towards him. "He's dangerous."
"You didn't tell me the truth because you were afraid of me getting hurt?!"
People standing nearby turned to see what was going on.
"Yes!" I surprised him when I raised my voice. "It's my problem. I don't want you getting hurt because of me."
"Hinata…" he sighed. His anger diffused a little and he stood in front of me. "Don't worry about me. I can handle myself. My only concern is your safety."
I felt my face getting red. After what happened between us, he still said sweet words to me. He still bothered to speak to me and stand this close to me. If Deidara got his hands on Naruto, then I wouldn't be able to be this close to him again. I wouldn't be able to smell his Chanel Allure again or be able to wrap myself in his warm, strong embrace. I wanted to cry just thinking about losing him. I felt the burning sensation in my eyes and a familiar lump appear in my throat that always crept up on me when I was about to cry.
Naruto's ocean blue orbs widened when he saw me on the verge of tears. "I don't want to put you in danger," I repeated. That seemed to be my only excuse. "I'd rather be harassed by Deidara than have you fight for me."
Naruto caressed my face and then ran his fingers through my hair the same way he did the night at my apartment. "Hinata, I'd die for you." That caught me off guard. My teary eyes found his. He was serious. "You don't know how much I care about you. You have no idea how much I'd do for you. I would do anything for you."
He kissed me on the lips without warning. A warm, pleasant heat raced through my body that had me wanting more kisses from him. It was almost as if the kiss was showing me what I was missing when I stopped us from proceeding Friday night. But even though I liked the kiss had I known he'd do that, I would've detested immediately.
"I'll protect you, Hinata."
That was the last thing he said to me. He didn't want to discuss things any further. We both knew I'd argue with him until I got my way. Normally, I would never argue with anyone, but this case was a special one. I would do anything for Naruto, even things that I despise. He read me well enough. He knows how much I'd do for him and he wants to put me out of harm's way because I just might go as far as doing something stupid for his sake. Naruto and I are very similar in this way. We'd sacrifice ourselves for someone we love.
Deidara didn't bother talking to me in class but every now and then he'd pass me smiles. He was planning something, but what? Why is he still pestering me? I gave him everything he wanted. Does he find it fun to harass me? Is it because I look like Kana that he enjoys doing it? Is this all because of some grudge?
The fact that this might be because of a grudge infuriated me. We look alike. That's all. We aren't the same person. Just assuming that that might be the case made me dislike Deidara more.
After school I went to my locker to retrieve my book bag, a few textbooks, and a notebook. Homework never seemed to cease no matter how far into the year we got. We were three months from summer vacation and my teachers seemed to think that more work would help us to not forget what we learned over break. I say the more work, the more there is to remember and the more that there is to remember, the more likely we'll forget everything.
Closing my locker, I jumped seeing Deidara standing beside me. He leaned against the locker next to mine with his arms crossed over his chest. He looked down at me and this time he wasn't smiling.
"Are you dating Naruto Uzumaki?" he asked.
"None of your business." I slung my bag over my shoulders and turned to walk away.
He appeared in front of me. I took a quick glance around to see if anyone noticed him do that. No one did.
"It is my business," he argued.
"How? I'm not Kana. I'm Hinata. You don't know who I am and I don't know who you are. Let her go and leave me alone."
He shrugged. "Since you look like her, it's an exception."
"Just because you were never loved by Kana doesn't mean you have to pick on me! I can see why she never loved you."
I snapped and it was probably the worst thing I could do to him. He shot me a look I never thought he could make. It looked so sinister. He didn't like what I said at all.
Just then, I saw a red, thin line come out of Deidara's eyes and come towards me. At first, I felt nothing but then moments later, excruciating pain shot throughout my head. I lost my balance and fell to the floor clutching my head. I refused to cry out in front of all of these people, so I grit my teeth. Unfortunately, it still caused a scene, a big scene. The students around us were looking in our direction and some huddled around in concern and others gathered as if a fight was going to break out. If there was a fight, everyone knew who'd win.
"Don't ever say that again, little girl," he warned.
"Get away from her!" Naruto growled. He came running through the crowd and stood in front of me. He punched Deidara's jaw and the enemy staggered back with a cut a lip. He looked a little shocked and I was, too. Naruto just hit a vampire and easily gave him an injury.
"If you ever touch Hinata again, I'll kill you!" Naruto growled.
Deidara overcame his shock and returned to his original haughty personality. "You'll regret ever doing that."
Naruto ignored the threat. "Why did you attack Hinata?! What kind of man hits a girl?!" He turned towards the crowd. "And why are you all still here?! Get lost!"
The people gathered around were scared and they slowly took their leave. The Naruto they knew was cool and collected so this was new to them (and to me). I wasn't scared of him but he certainly caught me off guard for the second time today. He was so sweet so Naruto having a side this like never occurred to me.
The enemy simply shrugged his shoulders like it was the simplest answer in the world. "Because she made me mad."
"You should never attack a girl even if she has done something to you! That's just low and twisted!"
"Why do you care?!" He was starting to get angry again. I flinched and prepared to throw myself in front of Naruto if he tried anything.
"Because I love Hinata!" My heart stopped for a second. Naruto loves me? "And you might not care, but I'd do anything for Hinata! And if that means taking you out, so be it."
Deidara lost his entire smug demeanor and his eyes widened at Naruto's words. It appeared to me that he came to realization with something. Was it the way he was acting? How stupid it was to hold a grudge against Kana for over 300 years? Whatever the answer was, he relaxed and stepped back.
Naruto took that as his cue to lower his guard.
"I'll be taking my leave now," Deidara said.
When he was out of sight, Naruto came to my side on the floor. He asked "Are you okay?"
"Yeah. I'm fine. Thank you, Naruto."
"How's your head?" He rested a hand on my forehead. I frantically moved his hand off of me as I felt myself beginning to blush.
"I'm fine. I'm more worried about you. You shouldn't have interfered." That was a lie. I was grateful that he did and I wasn't sure where I'd be without his help. My head was also killing me. It probably was killing me literally if that was Deidara's intention.
He frowned. "You're my first priority. I'll put you first."
I really wished he'd stop saying those things to me. It added onto my confusion and guilt. Normally, words like that would make me choose Naruto over anyone but the more that I thought about it; the more I realized that Sasuke wasn't just anyone.
Sasuke. Suddenly thinking of him seemed like the right thing to do. Something was telling me to go to him in order to solve this pain that I was going through, so, swallowing hard, I turned to Naruto and asked "Naruto, can you take me to Sasuke?" Admittedly, not only did it occur to me that seeing Sasuke might clear things up for me, but I hadn't seen him in a while anyway and I missed him.
"Why?" His entire mood changed as soon as I said his name. "He's the last person you should be seeing right now.
Naruto was right. I should be going to the nurse or home but if I did either of those, I'd end up going to find Sasuke before I even recovered anyway. "I just need to see him."
He didn't question me any further and helped me stand up. As soon as I stood, I was overwhelmed with a dizzy spell. If Naruto wasn't there to support me, I would've fell and probably wouldn't be able to get back up without help.
Somewhere along our journey to the church Naruto decided to carry me. He claimed that I was walking too slow for him and this solution would be faster. It was embarrassing but I hid my discomfort from him, fearing that he'd become angrier with me than he already was.
When we entered the doors of the church Sasuke rushed over to us. He asked "What happened?"
"Deidara," I responded.
Naruto put me down and assisted me over to the loveseat in the lobby and Sasuke sat beside me. He placed his cold hands on my head as if he knew that's where the problem was. His hands glowed white and his hands went from cold to warm and my body was overcome with a pleasant sensation that convinced my body to relax. All of the pain in my head disappeared and the wonderful warmth faded soon after the pain was gone.
"What did you do?" Naruto asked. His eyes were wide with disbelief.
"You healed me?" I said feeling somewhat uncertain about what happened.
"What the hell are you?" Naruto asked Sasuke.
Sasuke calmly got up from the couch and approached Naruto.
"A vampire," Sasuke said.
His hands glowed yellow and he placed them on Naruto's head. In seconds, the yellow light faded and Naruto collapsed.
"What did you do?" I went to Naruto's side. He was unconscious.
"Don't worry. I just erased his memory. He'll forget everything he saw here." He picked up Naruto and put him over his shoulder. "I'll take him upstairs for now. Wait here."
I watched Sasuke carry Naruto upstairs to one of the guest bedrooms with no effort at all. The entire time Sasuke had Naruto, he wore an expression that I couldn't identify. It troubled me but I let it go. I assumed it was because I walked through the door with Naruto, but when the vampire returned to me, he addressed what was really weighing on his mind.
"Is Deidara giving you too many problems?" Sasuke asked.
"No. I think it's taken care of. Naruto stood up to him today," I answered. "Naruto punched him and knocked some sense into him."
I smiled at him but he didn't smile back. Looking closer at Sasuke, he actually looked miserable. He lost the usual radiance that he carried when he saw me. Now, he doesn't look at me the same. The love he has for me still exists but he hesitated to show any affection. He also refused to come near me. As he spoke to me, he stood near the staircase with his arms crossed over his chest. I sat on the opposite side of the room on the couch.
"You hang out with that boy a lot," he said, looking upward indicating that he was talking about Naruto.
"He's… He's my friend."
Sasuke remained in his spot. I could tell he wanted to come to me but he resisted the urge. I wanted to be near him too but I feared that if I went to him, he'd move away. Is he mad at me?
"Where have you been?" he asked.
"I…" I didn't have an answer for that question yet. I avoided the church before because this is where Kurenai died but I've long since gotten over that.
"Do you…" Sasuke bit his lip and asked the next question with effort. "Do you hate me? Are you afraid of what I am?"
"No! No, of course not!"
"Then why are you avoiding me?"
I became a little irritated as he persisted with the same question. "Because when you look at me, I think all you see is Kana!" I covered my mouth. The words spilled out before I got the chance to stop them.
His dark orbs widened and his mouth dropped slightly from surprise. I also surprised myself. I wasn't even thinking of those words when I said them. But when I said them, my heart felt lighter. Is that the reason why I haven't been around?
"I would never… Hinata, all I see is you. Kana's gone." It still pained him to say her name. He may have accepted her death but it seemed like he was still grieving.
"Why don't you ever talk about her?"
"Don't," he warned. "I can't talk about her right now."
I rose from the couch and made my way over to him. It relieved me when Sasuke didn't walk away. The hesitation he bore still remained though and I saw his body stiffen as I got near.
"What's wrong?" I asked. "You're acting strange."
"Don't worry about it." Now he sounded bitter.
I rested a hand gently on Sasuke's cold, pale face. His miserable eyes found mine. He was studying me. "I'm sorry that I haven't been coming to see you." I really meant it. "I'll come see you every day if you want."
"Don't force yourself to do things that you don't want to do." He removed my hand from his face but as he did so his eyes never left mine. He also never released my hand. "I know you don't love me."
"I'm not forcing myself to-"
"I can see it in your eyes, Hinata. Stop lying." He looked away from me but still held onto my hand.
He was hurt because I hadn't been around for so long and hurt because he believed that I was forcing myself to be here. He was so hurt that he refused to believe me no matter how hard I tried to assure him. I realized that words weren't going to get me anywhere. I had to prove to him that I meant what I said.
"Sasuke," I said softly. He hesitated to look at me but he did anyway. When we were looking at each other I kissed him. I felt him kiss me back and he released my hand.
The kiss was passionate and deep. When our lips touched, his cold mouth immediately turned warm and his hands found my hips. One of my hands rested behind the vampire's neck and the other clutched onto his jacket as I pulled him closer to me to deepen our kiss.
When I broke the kiss I said, "I'm sorry I hurt you. I really am. And I do mean it when I say that I'll visit you every day, so please don't be mad at me."
Sasuke looked like he wanted to say more but he dropped whatever he wanted to say and instead said, "Okay. I want to see you every day." He kissed me on the forehead and caressed my face. "You should go home. I'll take the boy home later."
I stared at him and this time I was studying him instead of him doing it to me. He was obviously still upset with me if he wanted to get rid of me this quick. But I didn't bother to protest. "Y-Yeah… Bye."
That night, I couldn't stop thinking about him. I screwed up. I felt so bad about not seeing him and I tried to repair it, but it wasn't good enough. I should've tried harder. I shouldn't have left when he told me to. I should've stayed to try to fix us. I just got rid of one problem and now I have another. I find this problem worse than the Deidara one.
I woke up the next morning feeling like I hadn't slept at all. I prepared myself for school, like usual, and was out of the door within minutes. Walking down the usual street that I took to get to Konoha High, I noticed Naruto at the end of the block waiting for me. He looked just as tired as I felt.
"Good morning," I greeted.
He greeted me as well and we walked towards the building together. We didn't talk much and the silence between us was awkward. It remained awkward until a voice called out my name and broke the uncomfortable air.
We both turned to see who called out to me. Naruto furrowed his eyebrows and stepped in front of me when we saw Deidara approaching us.
"I need to talk to Hinata," Deidara told Naruto. "Move."
"No way. Are you crazy?"
Deidara swatted Naruto out of the way like he was some kind of bug. Naruto staggered aside but bounced right back. He made his way over to Deidara to hit him but stopped in his tracks when he saw Deidara hold up his hand to shake mine. I stared at Deidara's hand like it was some kind of foreign contraption that I didn't know how to control. I didn't know whether his hand would kill me or actually cooperate with me.
"I'm sorry for everything I did and said. Let's start over." He put in a lot of effort to say those words.
"I… I don't…" Was this a truce?
"I'm not used to doing this. I know that everything I did to you was horrible and if you don't forgive me, I understand. I really want to be your friend though, so, um, can you forgive me?"
He appeared to be telling the truth and deep down, I believed Deidara was a good person. He lived a long life and lost sight of his morals. After losing the only person in the world that he cared about, I understood where his insanity came from. By becoming his friend, I could possibly give him some of his sanity back.
I took a chance and shook his hand and gave him my kindest smile. "Okay. I forgive you."
"H-Hinata?" Naruto was baffled. "How could you forgive him so easily?"
"What can I say?" Deidara said with a smirk. "We live to forget."
"I still don't trust you," Naruto said.
"I don't care about you. I just care about Hinata trusting me."
"Stop," I said. "If you're going to be my friend, you have to get along with all of my friends." I turned to Naruto. "In fact, I think that you will get along with Deidara better than you do with me."
"Hinata…" Naruto groaned.
"Quit whining," Deidara said. He slung an arm over my shoulder and pulled me closer to him. He pointed to me and said to Naruto, "You don't want to argue with this one. Girls always win."
Naruto pulled me away from him. "Just don't get too comfortable."
Deidara waved Naruto's words off. He was going to do whatever the hell he wanted and Naruto's face twitched when he realized this. I couldn't help but smile at them. I could already tell that the two of them were going to make this school year much more interesting.