"Hinata! Hey, Hinata! You're coming to prom tonight, right?" Ino beamed as she and Tenten ran up to her in school the next day.

"Ah, well..." Hinata thought it over quickly in her mind, "I'll be fine. You girls have fun, though."

"Aw come on, don't be such a wet blanket." Tenten rolled her eyes, "even Sakura's going! You gotta love that, huh?"

"Yeah, it's a rare occasion." Hinata shrugged, "but did you hear about--"

"Hidan? Yeah, that's pretty sad, but it feels like a weight's been lifted, right?" Ino chuckled.

"No, no." Hinata shook her head, "I mean about Naruto."

"What?" Tenten tilted her head, "what happened?"

"He's... Out of town."

"Oh, so you don't know who to go with. That's fine, we can all just go as a group!" Ino cheered.

"Yeah, uh." Hinata smiled, then yawned, "I'm actually feeling pretty tired."

"Huh? Tired already? It's just the middle of the day."

The two sent her weird looks, but she just waved it off, "it's okay, just... Didn't get enough sleep last night. That's all."

"Oh, okay." Tenten grinned, then turned to Ino, "so did you hear? Sasuke broke up with Karin."

"Seriously?!" Ino beamed, "should I swoop in and snatch the prey while he's open?!"

"I dunno." Tenten laughed, "turns out she's been seeing someone else. Funny thing, he was perfectly fine with it."

"Oh please, of course he'd be. She's so obnoxious and clingy, it's not even funny..." Ino rolled her eyes, "I should go find him and talk to him! He'll give me another chance!"

"Geez, you're so optimistic, aren't you?" Tenten sighed as she followed Ino, but Hinata paused.

She watched as Tenten and Ino walked off before turning to see one of the classrooms, currently preoccupied by Hidan's friends. She opened the door as silently as she possibly could and listened in.

"So how was the funeral?"

"Heh. It was okay, I guess. Kinda hard to do anything with your leg broken, hm." She recognized Deidara and Kakuzu's voices.

"Come on, why don't we just sit this one out... Before the rest of us start breaking bones, too." Konan sighed.

"She's right. Hidan's gone. We're not really attached to anyone anymore." Yahiko agreed, "shouldn't we--"

"Uh-uh." Sasori interrupted, "you see, we should now be leaping at the chance to take revenge on our beloved leader."

"Oh? But the Uchiha's in Germany." Yahiko spoke up, "what are you going to do? Fly to Germany, break into prison, find Itachi, kill him, and stay there for murder? Yeah, tell me how that goes."

Sasori stepped up to Yahiko and grabbed the front of his shirt with his unbroken arm, "look, you dickhead... You and your girlfriend can leave, you know."

"Fine." Yahiko shoved Sasori to the side, "let's go, Konan. There go two of your assets."

"Assets? More like asses..." Sasori spit as the two left the classroom, slamming the door behind them and completely missing Hinata, who hid just behind them. She stepped back out and listened again.

"So what now?" Deidara questioned, "now there's only three of us. Obito's clearly out of the question."

"Yes, well." Sasori grinned, "Yahiko's right. We can't go to Germany. But you know... I heard Sakura's got a new boyfriend."

Kakuzu scoffed, "jealous, much?"

"Nah, just wanna get revenge on both Hidan's murderer and my ex-girlfriend. Now that, my friends, is what I call killing one bird with two stones."

"Uh..." Deidara coughed, "you may have that one backwards..."

"No, I mean what I said. Think of it this way." Sasori picked up two pencils, "Hidan was definitely a huge asset to us as our group's leader. Not only of this pathetic clique of a cover, but our gang in the city." He set the two pencils together, "never before have I seen two forces come together so strongly like this, it almost makes me sick. You see?" He tried to pull the two ends, but failed, "Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha, the two of them together, they're strong and won't break. However... Our goal... Our main bird... Is to avenge Hidan, correct? Well, the stronger our goal..." Suddenly, just with the simple swipe of his hands, the pencils easily snapped in half, "kill them both, and we kill the bird."

"Hm, not bad." Deidara chuckled.

"Not only would killing these two make Itachi and Sakura go nuts, Hinata will probably eventually kill herself as a result." Sasori smirked, "imagine that. The world toppling to its knees, all from one domino that, unfortunately, had to be the death of our leader, now that could potentially pose a problem..."

"No..." Hinata whispered.

"Hey."

She gasped when Mr. Hatake stood behind her. She immediately held a finger over her mouth, indicating for him to be quiet.

"What the..." Sasori peeked outside the window and only spotted Hinata, "shit! Kakuzu, Deidara! It's Hinata!"

"Well, whaddaya know!" Deidara chuckled.

"... Hm?" Mr. Hatake was still thoroughly confused as he watched Hinata run away, then the three boys chasing after her, "well... I think I should be concerned, shouldn't I?"

Eventually, Hinata was feeling so out of breath, she came to a halt and leaned on her knees, glaring as Sasori, Deidara, and Kakuzu ran up to her.

"You little bitch! She heard everything!" Deidara pointed accusingly at her.

"No, I didn't! I swear!" Hinata panted.

"You know, you're a really bad liar." Sasori laughed, "listen, Hinata, we know you never really liked Hidan and all, but what if we told you we can make it so that you two can be together again?"

"He's dead..."

"Exactly. Why don't you go join him?" Sasori smirked as he clenched his fist and swung.

Hinata's reaction time had gotten slower, but it was still enough. He got her hair, but his fist still collided with the brick wall she was in front of.

"Shit!" Sasori drew back as he clenched his fist which was now covered in blood, "fuck you, Hinata." He let it go and threw another punch at her, this time ready to hit her face spot on.

Hinata braced for impact as she squeezed her eyes shut, but the pain never came. She slowly opened her eyes, then gasped when she saw none other than Mr. Hatake holding Sasori's fist, just above her face.

"Now, Sasori. You know hitting girls is for wimps."

"Kakashi!" Sasori gritted his teeth, "let go!"

"You know, fighting on school campus is prohibited... If you want to get a suspension, you may continue. But you'll be having a word with me."

"Tch." Sasori yanked his hand back and stumbled to the side, "whatever..." Sasori glanced back at Hinata, then gestured to Kakuzu and Deidara to leave.

"You okay?"

"Uh-huh..." Hinata slowly got to her feet, "thank you."

"Don't mention it." Mr. Hatake grinned underneath the mysterious white mask he always wore, "those three shouldn't be doing that in the first place."

"I really am thankful." Hinata smiled.

"Okay. Just be careful." the teacher smiled as he patted her shoulder, then slipped his hands back into his pockets and started off.

________________

"So, prom?"

"Ah..." Hinata thought for a moment as she checked her watch. It was only in a couple of hours, "no thanks."

She heard an exasperated groan from Sakura on the other end of the line, "come on, Hinata, you have to come!"

"No, I'm okay." Hinata turned in her swivel chair and looked out the window, "I wonder what Naruto's doing right now..."

Sakura sighed, "Hinata, Naruto would want you to go."

"He told me not to, remember?" She traced her finger on the window and stared up at the clouds.

"Well..."

"So are you going with Ino and Tenten, like they said you would?" Hinata continued.

"Yeah, they asked me alright." Sakura chuckled, Hinata could practically hear the smile on her face, "but I politely declined."

"Really? Why?"

Sakura giggled, "well, I told them that I was asked by someone. I was intending on telling them who, but Ino insisted. So I told her, and now she's pissed. Apparently, she was going to leap at this 'open opportunity' to get Sasuke. Haha, I beat her to it."

"Wow, I'm happy for you, Sakura." Hinata grinned.

"Thanks! Look, it's alright if you can't come with us..."

"I'll be fine. I wouldn't want to be in your way, anyways."

Sakura chuckled, "okay. I'll talk to you later, then. Bye."

Hinata set her phone down and yawned as she walked over to her side table. She hadn't been thinking to take her meds, and lately she's been so tired. She had no idea what the problem was, but she didn't bother to think about it. She hasn't been getting a lot of sleep lately, so it wasn't a problem to her.

"Hey, Hinata." Neji knocked on her door, "are you busy?"

"Uh." Hinata quickly shut the drawer and turned to face him, "n-no, not at all. Why?"

"Oh, you're not going to prom?" Neji rose a brow with suspicion.

"No."

"Then let me take you somewhere. You know, just you and me." Neji grinned.

"Really?" Hinata asked incredulously, only getting suspicious.

"Yeah. You can't stay here all night doing nothing, can you?"

Hinata chuckled, "I guess not."

"Great! So why don't you put on a nice dress, and we'll have our own prom at a restaurant or something?"

"You know..." Hinata sighed as she walked over to her closet, "sometimes, I just don't understand where you get all this sudden kindness from."

"Yeah, well, it's prom, isn't it? Your last year, too."

"I guess you're right." Hinata shrugged as Neji shut the door and left to let her change.