Chapter 4: Who are you?

Previously: His eyes glided over more articles in the hours to come, all the while the sole earring was gently placed on his nightstand. Sasuke didn't know what to do, but he just knew he couldn't let this matter slide past him. She had confided in him.

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She was way too easy to find online. A quick search through his roommate's friends provided him with her social media accounts. None were private. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He further found out that Hinata was a damn Hyuuga, Hiashi's eldest daughter as well. How did she end up studying here, at a community college, and living in a public dorm and in a pretty modest one at that? It seemed that the deeper he looked, the more confused he got. If she hadn't mentioned that she knew her attacker, he couldn't have ruled out a stalker. Her daily routine was laid out before his eyes after little to no effort of searching. She was the eldest daughter of one of Japan's richest men. There was plenty of drama surrounding her family. Sasuke clicked on the first article dating from this early summer.

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'Nothing but perfection – Hyuuga Hiashi rids himself of eldest'

'Groundbreaking news in the business world – Hyuuga Hiashi, CEO of Byakugan, Japan's most lucrative coffee and tea chain, decides to pass on his business to his youngest. He presented Hyuuga Hanabi as his successor during their meeting with the press just this morning.'

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No reason has officially been put forward by the millionaire, although the media lost no time in speculating on Hinata's academic mediocrity and digging out anything damning they could find on her person. Sasuke scrunched his nose and skipped the 'juicy' parts. Despite public belief that Neji Hyuuga, one eminent young man with a passion for charity (if one were to believe the tabloids) would finally inherit the company, the Hyuuga patriarch put his youngest forward instead. It was quite the PR stunt and served for waves of shock throughout the country. Sasuke smirked. Hiashi was a smart man.

Of course the Uchiha happened to know Neji, he was the brightest student of his generation and one year Sasuke's senior. Sasuke was the best of his own year. Despite this not being one of the top universities, due to the minimal funding the institution received, exams were rough with the purpose of weeding out anyone less than excellent. Only a few managed to survive, let alone thrive. The university definitely didn't have the money to educate all enrolled students and by the end of the last study year, only a few would get their degree. Neji was currently Sasuke's tutor in the first semester's Calculus class and never stopped pushing him to think more thoroughly on every occasion. However, Sasuke knew what a jackass he could turn out to be first-hand. And the Hyuuga had quite the ego to match his superiority complex. Would he want to hurt Hinata in hopes of becoming Hiashi's successor himself? Did he want to mentally break her? It wouldn't be the first time someone hurt a family member for money. Maybe Hiashi had found out and named Hanabi as a successor instead. Or maybe Neji miscalculated.

Regardless of the particulars, the motive was there. He committed this possibility to his mind, determined to dive deeper into it. He had to know what his relationship with Hinata was currently. If somebody dropped from the line of succession, certainly the one who had the most benefits to reap was the main suspect. Maybe Hanabi was in on it too. Clicking his tongue, Sasuke decided to revisit the matter later.

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Going back to her social media, he could immediately notice that indeed she kept quiet for her standards in the previous half a year, being only tagged in different places by some young woman named Yamanaka Ino. Speaking of her, it seemed her lover was one of their drinking buddies, Sai, who also happened to have joined the military and been in active service before he was allegedly honourably discharged. Since he never found out the reason, he made a mental note to dig deeper. Sasuke wasn't even sure Sai was his true name and the guy did definitely have the means to force himself upon a woman and to intimidate her into silence. This had to be a person of interest. Good for him that Ino had chosen to literally disclose every glimpse of her life to the public.

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He skipped back to Hinata's activity before the incident. Here he should have no problem finding those friends of hers and listing them one by one. The most obvious activity was their clockwork visits to one café. lno, Sakura and Hinata did it nearly daily, always after the afternoon class. Their visits to an establishment known as Moon's Café apparently stopped after the incident. Sasuke's interest was piqued. He drew out a notebook and wrote down the company's name, along with Sai's, Neji's and Hanabi's. At this point, all the possibilities were getting too intricate to commit them only to a mental map. He needed to write down all the facts that he found so far.

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The last video Hinata posted was with his idiot roommate throwing a bucket of water on her. Another guy Sasuke recognized was one rather touchy brown-haired man with a feral grin. Inuzuka, he remembered, they hung around often in Naruto's room to drink weekly and hang out. Hovering with the cursor over the people tagged, he immediately found his first name: 'Kiba.' He was pulling Hinata into a close hug, to which the young woman seemed to try to resist. Upon further inspection, Inuzuka's eyes barely left her form during the entire video. Bingo, Sasuke thought, smirking. 'Inuzuka Kiba' joined the list.

Wait, this guy had a really close friend, Sasuke couldn't remember his name for the life of him. He was always hooded, had sunglasses on and could appear and disappear without anyone noticing, that weed dealer, what was his name again...? Yeah, this guy gave him the creeps, when stoned, he proceeded to talk to the roaches in Naruto's room, his name was joining the list solely based on that fact. Sasuke couldn't hold back the show of distaste remembering that. Photographic memory be damned! Hovering his cursor again over all tagged people, he found him: 'Aburame Shino.'

However, whilst searching among all the people tagged, he noticed someone else. 'Otsutsuki Toneri' – his profile stated he worked at, you guessed it, Moon's Café. Even more interesting was his previous engagement to Hinata. This guy was covered in red flags. Maybe Hinata had been disinherited because of the failed engagement. So maybe it wasn't just gossip after all. When Sasuke didn't think he could find anyone of more interest, he just did.

He went back to the articles detailing Hinata's 'romantic' life. He learned their engagement was announced by Hinata's father to make the merging of the two family companies possible. The Otsutsuki's owned the biggest rival coffee chain in Japan; if merged, they would lack much competition. However, only one month into their engagement, Toneri called it off, refusing to publicly comment on the matter. Thanks to the prom-outfit pictures posted by Ino, Sasuke knew this was just three days before prom. Would Toneri seek out revenge? Did something personal happen between the two which broke the arrangement off? Must have been nasty in order to have such a deal cancelled. Sasuke's head started aching. He got up and grabbed a tomato juice carton out of his mini-fridge. Gulping it down hungrily, he crumpled the container in his left hand and proceeded his search.

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'Shikamaru Nara' and 'Akimichi Choji' were also tagged in the same water-fighting post. Sasuke knew both, they used to join the Aburame, Inuzuka and Sai for their weekly drinks. Well, the Akimichi family owned one of the most popular restaurants with the Nara's supplying them with meat of utmost quality. Maybe some business rivalry? That Shikamaru guy was always slimy and too bright for Sasuke's liking. Choji, well, Sasuke didn't think the guy had a bad bone in his body, but provided that Nara manipulated him to his own liking, who knows what they would be able to do? It's worth digging deeper.

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Lastly, he came across the Sabaku brothers. They were often tagged in together at parties. The younger sibling, Gaara, had a history of aggression, being committed to juvenile institutions multiple times in the past for aggressive behaviour. The Uchiha had met him through Naruto as well and to say the redhead was eccentric would be an understatement. He had a kanji tattoo on his forehead, brightly dyed red hair and some seriously overdone tattooed eyeliner. He even wore bright aquamarine contact lenses over his naturally black eyes. Sasuke sighed. Why couldn't at least one of these guys not seem to be a fucking creep? Tired of all the work in the past hours, he lazily added both Gaara and Kankuro to his increasingly long notes, noting "more information required" next to their names. How was he going to get to the bottom of this?

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As the first rays of sunshine made themselves noticeable through his window, his list contained many places and people of interest. Then, with a heavy chest, he added one last name: 'Uzumaki Naruto.' Sasuke closed his eyes. The knucklehead had said he had slept with her, once, her first time. All the information the Uzumaki had provided him checked out with Hinata's story. Judging by her reaction to his actions tonight, she hadn't been able to do that since the incident. Meaning, her one time with Naruto was before that day.

Either that or Naruto was lying. But Naruto didn't know Sasuke had found out about the incident, heck, he probably knew nothing of it. He was surprised that Sakura and Hinata left their friend's circle after all. Their stories aligned. Unlikely he is lying. Sasuke needed someone to feed him information on the group and that was Naruto. He had to trust him with this.

Everybody on this damned list could have done it based on the information he had found tonight. Who did it? What would he do now? Start an investigation? For what? He had just stalked somebody for hours online and went to such an extent as to write down the places she frequented and the people she used to hang around – ten full pages to be exact. He was the true creep here. He had nothing to do with this woman. If somebody were to look through his things, he would be the main suspect after what he just did. He groaned.

He didn't want to consider this case, Naruto was his best friend, he knew him ever since they were kids. No, it was unlikely, and he refused to think of what would happen if that were true. Would he simply go on being friends? No, he can't let himself even consider this scenario in the first place. Sasuke felt guilty for even thinking about that. The paranoia had gotten the best of him. If he could trust somebody, that would be Naruto. No way in hell he'd let one sleepless night and some spiralling thoughts undermine the trust they share. Sasuke was certain the Uzumaki couldn't have been involved. He crossed out his name with one smooth stroke.

Sasuke caught a glimpse of the tiny moonstone being kissed by the morning's sun rays and he felt his head spin. He found it hard to breathe under the weight of his conflicting feelings. He took the small jewellery and closed his hand around it tightly. The muscles of his jaw tensed and just as he took his fist behind his back, elbow rising in what a sculptor would consider a perfect reference pose for a throwing motion – he stopped. He wanted to throw that earring away, forget about those eyes and this complicated woman. He couldn't. One of those guys did something to her and who knows possibly to whom else. And Sasuke was likely meeting this person weekly for drinks, patting his back in a friendly manner all the while that woman was still followed by her inner demons wherever she went.

He carefully got the notebook and placed it under his mattress with care. He would get to the bottom of things somehow. Resolve glimmered in his eyes as he turned to his left side cuddling his blanket – and then he smelled her, that fresh hint of flower dew. He somehow got entangled in this whole affair. Like it or not, he was part of it now.

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To be continued…

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A/N: Thank you for reading and please let me know what your guess is regarding the identity of the perpetrator. In the next one we will learn who it was and get some much needed insight into Hinata's pov. See you next week! ;D

Special thanks go out, as per usual, to my wonderfully patient beta – Sommernacht.